Damselfly Nymph

[Ch4rlie]

I saw, with great delight, my first baby shrimp in my tank! Whoo!
 
BUT, at the same time in corner of my tank I saw a creature like this..............

 
This is taken from another website, what I saw was similar to this but bigger, about an inch, and much more whiter, forked tail not so pronounced but there nonetheless!
 
He was looking directly at the baby shrimp, I quickly got my long handled tweezers and almost caught the little critter.
 
Really, really annoyed at myself for missing catching this at that opportune moment.
 
I took out the largest bogwood in corner of my tank and had a look for him, but has since long disapeared. Groan!
 
Does anyone know of any way or method to catch these, a bait food of some sort they cannot resist, like a veg or something? and catch him with a net or something.
 
Am being extremely strong willed not to take everything out of my tank, move my fish to another tank and catch him but resisting this as know would stress out all my fish and shrimps.
 
Now constantly looking at that area of tank where saw him and hoping to get another chance to get him before my RCS are eaten!
 
Any advise or suggestions more than welcome!!!!

 

[Lillefishy]

If you don't get it out it will kill your shrimp & any small fish you have, so you would be best moving anything you can out & doing a gravel vac as well in the hope you'll suck it up

 

[Ch4rlie]

I know it will go after my shrimps. 

 
I have threadfin rainbowfish so am hoping they are too big for the critter to catch and eat even though they are still juveniles. 
 
Was hoping someone would have a different method other than removing everything from the tank barring the fish and shrimps and catching the evil thing.
 
This will stress my fish and shrimps no end if I go that route.

 

[214jay]

Hmmmm, familiar!  I have had 2 of these (possibly 1 could have been stonefly larvae...) and 2 dragonfly larvae (which are awful - shoot there mouth out at anything moving like the film aliens!!!)
 
They are really difficult to spot but tend to hang around on plants and often match the colour, they will move quick when disturbed. You shouldn’t need to take everything out, just have a couple of pairs of eyes and a good light. 
 
What I did was get a small piece of UPVC tube and tape it to a hosepipe (homemade water syphon + gravel cleaner). Suck water through into a big bucket, avoiding a mouthful of tank water.  Hold the end of the hose. When you see the invader, very slowly move the pipe next to him and release your thumb, he will be sucked up and into your bucket as the water is pulled through at quite a rate.
 
I had no deaths from these invaders and they were in the tank a long while.  I guess shrimp have tough skins and are damn quick, I think fry are the most vulnerable.

Following the above post, had to share this picture...

 

 

[Ch4rlie]

And heres this evening's news.......shuffles paper.........today's headlines.........
 

 
Followed by............

 
Thanks 214jay for your comments, good to know that am not alone in this happening!
 
I took out all my bogwood, anubias cave, quite a few plants, left a few plants for the shrimps and fish to hide behind.
 
Syphoned out the areas where the bogwood and plants were, boy that was mucky, these areas I don't syphon due to the plants and wood. So that was something anyway.
 
And shook the plants and bogwood in the old tank water, making sure nothing on these before putting in another bucket, then examined the old tank water in bucket, thought there was not anything, just water and muck, then saw this wriggling movement and there he was, the evil nymph looking for somewhere to hide. 
 
There was a bit of plant in the water, he attached himself to that and almost completely disappeared in plain view. Stayed absolutely still and looks a bit like a plant root. Very crafty and extremely difficult to see if you don't know what you looking for!
 
In the glass bowl, he is about half an inch to 3 quarters of an inch, more green than thought, originally thought he was white but realise this may be down to the tank lighting.
 
An interesting but evil critter.
 
A few facts according to google searches - 
 
Can live up to two years in the water and are predacious, eating shrimps and fish.
Normally lies in wait for prey to get in range the grabs them with a modified lower jaw.
Damselfly nymph will get to about 25mm long/1 inch when ready to hatch into an adult although this does vary depending on species.
Younger nymphs are lighter in colour, varies around tones of green to yellow-green, some can be a bright blue-green.
Adults, males usually bright blue, females more of a slate colour.
 
Normally most people only get one perhaps two of these nymphs in their tank that have hitch hiked via live plants.
 
Sure learned a few things tonight!
 
Will certainly make sure to thoroughly wash any new plants before adding to tank.
 
But anyway, sure will be able to sleep better tonight, knowing I caught him and shrimps are safe.

There would be no way I would be able to sleep if left that critter in the tank, otherwise would be dreaming about him eating my baby shrimps...*shudders* 

 
Think am getting soft as 3 months ago I would not have believed I would be like this around my fish and shrimps.
Bit like a protective daddy.....

 
Now, for the last headline, what am I going to do with this nymph thats in my glass bowl in the kitchen............

 

[214jay]

Nice work, glad you caught it, not good thinking they are in your tank!!  I put a small bucket of water in a flower bed and just threw mine in there, not sure if they have survived.  If you have a water butt could always go in there?

 

[Shelster]

Great news you caught it!

 

[Ch4rlie]

Thanks, yeah am glad i got him too, gives me the creeps knowing what would have happened if left in tank unnoticed.
Sure hope there's no more in the tank.

Now thinking might go to local pond and put the nymph in there. Don't have a garden or anything like that as live in a flat!

Would that be ok to do?

 

[Ch4rlie]

Guess what?
 
Just seen another damselfly nymph in my main tank!
 
Not been my week, first had a damselfly which had captured as in earlier post.
 
One of my threadfins died yesterday and now another damselfly.
 
Tried to get him but missed, why do miss at the most opportune moments, really, really frustrating!
 
Don't want to go through removing plants and bogwoods and stressing shrimps and fish again. Took the shrimps a couple of days to come out of hiding when caught the other damselfly. Groans!
 
I have a bucket and siphon hose at the ready if he makes an appearance again, and will try to suck him up through the siphon hose into the bucket. That seems the best way, patience required here!l
 
Last resort will be to remove the plants and decor.
 
They say these things comes in threes. Really hope this is the last drama thats gonna happen in my tank (for a long while at least anyway!)
 
*sighs* 

 

[Shelster]

Ugh totally frustrating!!!

Good luck

 

[214jay]

Thats rubbish!! Hope you find him, they are usually on display just such a similar colour to plants!! Good excuse to stare at the tank for a while!
 
Good luck finding it!!

 

[Ch4rlie]

214jay - yeah, been staring at my tank every 5 mins in the hope to see the culprit.
 
And yes, they are extremely crafty in the way they disguise themselves on plat stems, leaves or roots. Once they are latched to the plant, they stay absolutely still and does look very much like part of the plant.
 
Makes them very difficult to spot this way. Easiest way to see them is when they are on the hunt for prey.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Update time.
 
As you have gathered from my previous post that I say yet another damselfly nymph and was determined to catch the little booger.
 
Today is my normal day to do water changes on my main tank so, with that in mind, I took out 2 of my bogwoods with plants attched and a couple of eludea plants as well and put that into a bucket with some tank water I siphoned from earlier.
 
Straightaway I saw 2 little shrimplets and immediately netted them and put back into the tank. Hope these guys will be ok. 

 
Then in the bucket, I saw this...........

 

 
A larger male Damselfly Nymph!
 
Did not even know he was in the tank!

So glad I caught him, that was a bit of luck! 
Proper creepy, moves slowly and deliberately and very much a predatory creature if I ever saw one!
 
That meant the one I saw last night was still in the tank, oh krap!
 
But as luck would have it, I saw her straightaway on one of the vallis plants!
Must have spooked her when I moved the bogwood earlier.
 
Slowly I picked up my syphon hose and bucket, lowered hose into tank, sucked up some water to fill hose, thumb over the end to stop flow, hovered the other end over the nymph, so far so good, took thumb off hose and sucked up the little devil straight into the bucket.
 
YYYEEEAAAHHH

 
Really did yell out loudly. lol 

 
So here is, not one, not two but three bleedin' Damselfly Nymphs, am especially glad got that larger male one!
 

 
As you can see from the photo, the male is almost twice the length of one of the females and much darker in colouration.
This makes him incredibly difficult to see if he is on bogwood or driftwood as would blend in perfectly!
 
I googled this to confirm if that was a male or not, and yes, believe it is and the other two lighter ones are females.
But they would have not bred in the water anyway, they have to be adults which takes between 2 to 3 years and be winged damselflies before they can breed. So thats something at least anyway.
 
Have learned a few things from this experience.
 
So for you folks reading this, make sure you wash your plants and driftwood, bogwood absolutely thoroughly if you do not want this to happen to you. 
 
Believe me, you do NOT want these creatures in your tank. 

 

[Shelster]

Wow Ch4rlie you really are having a stressful time of it with your tank, but thankfully you caught the blighters!!!!

I can't believe you had that many in there!

Well done

 

[214jay]

Crikey!! Good work for spotting and getting them all!   You were certainly right that things come in threes!  Hopefully that should be the end of your problems with them.  Have you worked out what you are going to do with them yet?