Be Carefull What You Wish For...

[keenonfish]

ok So I have seen lots of threads where people have get Damsel / Dragon larvae and I always thought how lucky they were and wanted this to happen in my tank...

Well, today I received some nice Cherry's from a member here and went through the normal acclimatising process of counting / living checks and then slowly introducing them to new water..

A few hours later me and the daughter decide to check and see how the shrimp were doing. Very little in the way of shrimp activity but there are so many places to hide it was to be expected really.

I am sure you can guess what we did find though

Yep a Damsel larvae about 1 1/2 cm long!

Now how bloody ironic is that! Something I wanted in my tank for ages until I get shrimp and I realise this is something I DON'T want in my tank

What I don't understand is what the heck has this thing been feeding off? I have 7 young platy, but they were all born last October no fry since as I have no males they must have been pregnant when I got them. Never seen water fleas and damsels this size would surely need something larger than these so I would have noticed any other critters...? Only other things are if my Cardinals have been multiplying or if this thing is eating baby snails but damsels aren't a patch on dragons for eating prey and I would have thought snail shells just far too tough for this fella..

I don't know it's a bit of a mystery to me but quite funny all the same. Just have to decide what to do with it now as I know it can't stay here unless I want to say sianara to my shrimp however I would love to know what it hatches into

Having said that it isn't going to be the easiest thing to catch in a heavily planted tank either

 

[keenonfish]

A quick update for anyone interested I finally caught it and put it in the betta tank. If he survives the higher temp, ph difference and ick meds then I will hopefully see the damsel to maturity

I think he might have got a shrimp last night as there was a dark patch in his body. This would confirm that these things are obviously capable of being raised on micro life and / or algae and will generally leave fry alone but will enjoy a small shrimp if allowed

 

[weejen]

i found one in my tank a while back but had no idea what it was when i caught in in the net by accident. had a compleat freak out bout the monster i had just found in my tank and proceeded to throw it and the net out the window and leave it there for a couple of weeks. it looked like something out of ailen the movie lol

 

[Honeythorn]

I'd have set up a 2-3 gallon and kept it in there to grow and hatch.

 

[keenonfish]

I'd have set up a 2-3 gallon and kept it in there to grow and hatch.

I had considered that but thing is something like this needs a mature tank really as much as a sensitive fish. I just didn't have enough spare plants and moss etc.. Also my only spare will soon be a quarantine tank so unfortunately it wouldn't have been possible anyway.

I really hope something comes of it but if not at least I can say I have given it a fighting chance!

 

[keenonfish]

i found one in my tank a while back but had no idea what it was when i caught in in the net by accident. had a compleat freak out bout the monster i had just found in my tank and proceeded to throw it and the net out the window and leave it there for a couple of weeks. it looked like something out of ailen the movie lol

Yeah they can look quite intimidating especially if you have seen the 'mask' - Imagine if your jaw was attached to an arm that could extend forward and grab anything about a quarter of your body length away This is what makes them sooo good at hunting.
But, the upshot of this is that however ugly they appear to be in the water, they are the complete opposite when they finally take to the air

 

[drewry]

yeah tell me about it keenonfish
had the same problem about 2-3 months ago i bought some new amozon sword plants from my local lfs
and put em in my cory fry tank till my daughter went home then when she went home i9 trancefaired them to the tank i wanted them in
it had a dragon fly larva on it and within 24 hours it ate 400 black cory fry wich was 3 days old
so as you can amadgine i wasnt to happy