more than wigglers

I got into my little planter pond today to see if there were any mosquito wigglers. Lifted out the water lettuce and duckweed into one bin of water, the hornwort into a soup container. The hornwort is doing really well- it seems to appreciate the shade from those water lettuce, and isn't lacking for nutrients, sure. I wonder if the 'lettuce plants introduced some other life forms? I didn't find any wigglers.

I removed the ceramic pot cave and larger stones to look closer. Found what I thought was a worm- but it hitches itself along. Some kind of leech. Not very big- smaller than the red composting worms I've fed to Perry. I offered him the leech. It balled itself up. He bit and spit it out over and over- did it taste bad? or make itself difficult to swallow somehow. It fell to the tank floor. I got my long-handled aquarium tweezers to remove it, but when I turned back to the tank, can't see it anywhere. Did Perry manage to eat it after all? He looks fat and super excited to see me, wiggles all over when I approach the tank. I've only fed him peas and a few fruit flies this morning, so I would guess the excitement is if he did eat the leech and is hoping for more. But if it's still in there- ahhhh no.

Also found in the container pond what I'm pretty sure was a dragonfly larva. It was pale- I could see the legs, and the little eyes gleaming at me from the gloom at the bottom of container. I tried to catch it. Not to give to the fish- I wanted to take a photo. I like dragonflies. I'm glad it's in there if it is eating the mosquitos! But after two swipes with the shrimp net, I couldn't find it again. It moves fast. And hid- or climbed out? There was nothing in the pot now but a very thin layer of gravel- less than two grains of substrate thick- a bit of subwassertang, and mulm. Algae like green hair growing growing on the interior curved sides. Did it bury itself. I raked the substrate to spread it out, and siphoned out piles of mulm with a straw- this larva won't fit up the straw- I tried. But I couldn't find it again. I even left for ten minutes to sort the wigglers I got from my regular puddle (cories get the smallest, Perry the biggest and tumblers, serpae tetras all the ones in between sizes) and then came back, to see if it had ventured out from hiding. Nope. Can it change its skin color, and blend in? Oh well.

Also found two things that look like snail eggs, but it's flat and kind of a fat oval shape with pointed ends. Gleams a bit irridescent. I can see round shapes inside- organelles? eggs? They seem to move- in a straight line, smooth like propelled by cillia. I don't know what they are so haven't offered them to the fish.

I want to do things with the fish today- but the window tank isn't quite ready. Snails have begun crawling back down to substrate level- I counted thirty eight large ones on the glass last night- there is still a hint of ammonia and nitrites are spiking right now... Cories got a water change on their bucket this morning.