Help Identify this bug in my tank

[AJ-Master]

My tropical tank was setup about 2 months ago. Nothing has been added in last 4 weeks.

It is planted tank with 3 cherry shrimps and some babies (YAY!!). 3 bumble bee snails. 4 endlers and 2 mollies.

Today spotted this white insect. What is it? is it dangerous to my tank family?

 

[AJ-Master]

on further research, it seems like damsel fly nymph. Now i am scaredfor my RCS and babies.

 

[LyraGuppi]

I agree. I've heard those guys are a pain to get rid of. Pull them out as you find them, but other than that, I'm not sure what is done to get rid of them, sorry. :c

 

[Ch4rlie]

I can confirm that does indeed look like a Damselfly Nymph.

A very interesting but predatory insect that has an scary way of catching and eating their prey.
Usually comes into the home aquarium via plants thats been sitting outside the LFS perhaps for some time and the damselflies (as well as drangonflies) will lay their eggs on the plants below the water surface and the eggs hatch into these nymphs or larvae where they will stay under water until they reach adulthood and form their wings. An intriguing transition thats worth reading and researching about imho.

Anyhow, about your damselfly nymph, I'd advise you to take this out of your tank asap. It will predate on the shrimps first most likely then move onto the smaller of the fish, though it will only happen over a period of time, a few months, so you won't suddenly see an empty tank one morning, so do not panic.

The best method I found, rather than using a net, is to use a syphon or hose. Simply get the hose ready to syphon (by filling with water as normal like for water changes), put thumb over the end of hose to stop water coming out of hose, then slowly as not to scare the nymph from its position hover the other end of hose to about half an inch to an inch above the nymph and use the syphon / water suction gravity to get this nymph into a bucket. May take a bit of practice to get right but its by far, the easiest method I found as using nets tends to catch on plants or decor thus enabling the nymph to escape with their wiggly swimming method.

There may be more than one, so do keep an eye out for that just in case, but most folks who have these tend to only have one of those damselfy nymphs in their tank.

 

[AJ-Master]

Thank you Both.

I did try to catch it using big tongs, but it escaped.

Since then can't see him. I created too many hiding places for my tank mates. I will keep looking.

So far nothing is a miss. Fingers crossed, I will find him.

 

[Ch4rlie]

You would have to be so precise and fast if you use tongs.

A hose / syphon does really work best, I have had several of these damselfly nymphs in one tank and would personally use that as first choice then a smallish net as second choice.

These damsel fly nymphs are excellent at hiding in plain sight, they really are.

Look specifically at your plants, along leaves and stems as they like to camouflage against these, staying perfectly still and they being green or brown in colour makes this very a effective method of catching their prey.

Just need to look out for that tiny bit of leave or plant structure that's just, just, out of place, hard to spot but once you get your eye in, you'll become expert at spotting these, just like I did.

I have a thread somewhere about the nymphs I had a few years back. I'll try finding it just as reading info for you.

 

[AJ-Master]

You would have to be so precise and fast if you use tongs.

A hose / syphon does really work best, I have had several of these damselfly nymphs in one tank and would personally use that as first choice then a smallish net as second choice.

These damsel fly nymphs are excellent at hiding in plain sight, they really are.

Look specifically at your plants, along leaves and stems as they like to camouflage against these, staying perfectly still and they being green or brown in colour makes this very a effective method of catching their prey.

Just need to look out for that tiny bit of leave or plant structure that's just, just, out of place, hard to spot but once you get your eye in, you'll become expert at spotting these, just like I did.

I have a thread somewhere about the nymphs I had a few years back. I'll try finding it just as reading info for you.

Many thanks.

 

[AJ-Master]

Just to update. after almost 4 weeks, I finally caught the bug and got rid of it. Luckily, as far as i can see, nothing else has gone missing.

Many thanks.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Good

How did you manage to finally catch this nymph out of curiousity?

 

[AJ-Master]

i got Lucky, it was just sitting on top of my filter cover. A simple net did the trick.