Intruder

[Egmel]

Anyone know what this is, I've seen a couple in the tank but this was the only one I was able to catch, about 1cm long and it appears to be a predator of some kind, the way it moves suggests it hunts smaller organisms.
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Birds eye view

Just want to know the usual...
Will it harm - me, my fish, my shrimp, my snails, my plants!
Will it multiply at a speedy rate if I don't get rid of it now.

 

[Colin_T]

dragon fly larvae in two different stages of their aquatic life.

 

[Egmel]

dragon fly larvae in two different stages of their aquatic life.

Cheers for that colin, they're actually the same bug but different lighting and one is taken in water the other out.

Looking on the net suggests that I need to get rid of them as they may attack my shrimp (if they haven't already) plus I don't really want dragonfly's hatching out in my tank!

Any way of telling if they're native UK ones? If so I'll drop them in at a lake near me, otherwise they'll have to meet an untimely death.

 

[Colin_T]

they are really good predators and will eat anything they can catch. They will take fish the same size as them and shrimp won't be any different.
The only way you can tell what species they are is to get an entomologist to identify them and even then they would be hard pressed without seeing the adults.
They usually come in on plants or with live food from outdoor ponds.
They spend about 6-8 months in their larval stage before turning into adults and leaving the water.

 

[Egmel]

they are really good predators and will eat anything they can catch. They will take fish the same size as them and shrimp won't be any different.
The only way you can tell what species they are is to get an entomologist to identify them and even then they would be hard pressed without seeing the adults.
They usually come in on plants or with live food from outdoor ponds.
They spend about 6-8 months in their larval stage before turning into adults and leaving the water.

Right well I need to do some serious pruning tonight anyway so I'll see if I can track down the other one I saw, they're too small to be going after my guppies and penguin tetras at the moment but I think my shrimp may have had it