It's Samplin' Time!

After a few stormy days, I found myself unable to go out sampling for insects due to high waters. This was kind of frustrating since I finally got the tank up and running. So, I decided to go sample something else...substrate for my tank! I needed what most scientists would call boulders (based on their size exceeding that of cobble), but most other people would simply call rocks. Specifically, I was looking for porous rocks that already had algae or a macrophyte (aquatic plant) growing on it. So I went a samplin' and found that the waters were so high that the type of rocks I was looking for were in far too deep of water for me to reach comfortably (I wasn't about to dive into chocolate-milk colored river water). Feeling defeated, I returned to the shore and was surprised to find something laying on the bank. A shed snake skin! I am unsure exactly what species it is from (I mean come on, it's only a skin), but I collected it and brought it home to measure since it appeared to be rather large.

A little over 3ft of snake skin.

Perhaps a Herper can help me ID this?

A couple days later I tried sampling again, this time at a location I had not been to before. My intent was to collect both rocks and insects, but I knew that the water was still far too high to get anything I was searching for.

I was in luck this time, though, because the water was just shallow enough for me to collect a few rocks. While I was inspecting a few for collection, I found insects attached. Most of them were quite small and I was unsure that they would survive time out of flowing water, but I collected them anyway.
After about a half hour out, I notices a chirping sound coming from the bank behind me. I looked over my shoulder and found an agitated fox squirrel eyeing me. It kept barking and chirping and would begin to approach me then scurry back to a branch. I decided that perhaps it was time for me to return home with my bounty, rather than risk whatever the squirrel had intended for me if I did not leave.

After returning home, I placed the rocks in my tank and then faced a minor dilemma. How would I put the insects into the tank? I didn't want to stress them any more by picking them up with tweezers (since I do not own forceps but will acquire them soon) then drop them into a turbulent tank (the filter was running). I also did not want to dump them and possibly crush them under the weight of the falling water. So I chose the middle ground and gently placed the container into the tank and let the water slowly rush in and sweep the insects out. I knew instantly that my mayfly larvae would not make it since it was promptly sucked into the filter (a problem I must correct for next time), but my caddisfly larvae appeared to survive, burrowing into the substrate for cover. After staring into the tank, much like Mojo did at the goldfish, I found a small egg case with a vermiform (wormy looking) larvae crawling out. I was surprised by this, but assume that it was previously attached to the rocks I collected and during introduction to the tank, was swept off. Assuming my caddisfly, which is in the family Hydropsychidae, was a scraper (algae eater), I threw in an algae flake and hoped for the best.

My tiny caddisfly larvae.

So, I now know that introductions will be done with the filter OFF, in order to prevent casualties, and that I seriously need forceps and a magnifying glass in order to see things more clearly.

Next time I plan on collecting some more rocks, and some larger, more active insects. Hopefully the river will go down enough for me to get out there!