Mysterious creature found when cleaning tank. Any clues?

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Ian Davis

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Can anybody identify this? I was cleaning my tropical fish tank earlier and it emerged when I was changing the water.

Itā€™s around 2cm in length, I have attached a photo (video wasnā€™t possible).
 

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It's a damselfly nymph. Either kill it or take it to a pond. There may well be more in the tank that you haven't found yet.
These nymphs are carnivorous and will eat small fish.

They get into a tank on live plants or in live food.
 
Thanks for responding Essjay. The little **** is now going in the pond - I hope itā€™s the only one!! It may explain why a couple of Endlers have disappeared over the last week...
 
Thanks for responding Essjay. The little **** is now going in the pond - I hope itā€™s the only one!! It may explain why a couple of Endlers have disappeared over the last week...
maybe there is only one or two, because it probably came on some plants. plant express takes them to the endler restaurant. hope they dont come in my tank lol
 
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maybe there is only one or two, because it probably came on some plants. plant express takes them to the endler restaurant. hope they dont come in my tank
maybe there is only one or two, because it probably came on some plants. plant express takes them to the endler restaurant. hope they dont come in my tank lol
Haha I hope you donā€™t get any either!! Iā€™m gonna be looking out any more of those
 
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i dont know if my quote is working anyway @Ian Davis yeah i hope i dont, i have a lot of baby fish(guppies) i think ill check the plants next time i get them from lfs...
 
i dont know if my quote is working anyway @Ian Davis yeah i hope i dont, i have a lot of baby fish(guppies) i think ill check the plants next time i get them from lfs...
You should be alright, surely (hopefully) it canā€™t happen too often.
 
Sadly, where there's one, there's usually two or three! The adult damselfly lays a cluster of eggs on the plant leaf, which then go into your tank and some hatch out. They will definitely take out fry, shrimp, perhaps a slow or weaker adult, so worth spending a lot of time sitting by the tank hunting for them and whipping them out ASAP!

This is one of my worst nightmares, sorry you're experiencing it! I've caught them in my pond before, and let them go back in since they're part of the ecosystem in the wild, and the adults are beautiful. But in my aquarium? Heck no! They kinda look like evil little monsters too, don't they? Same deal for dragonfly nymphs.
 
Here is something @TylerFerretLord wrote on them:

ā€œDamselfly nymphs
TH5HAH4H3H0LWZXLBZML1Z5LYHGLWZWHBZ7.jpg


Suborder Zygoptera
Danger: May consume fry.
How it gets in your tank: Plants, Live food, damselflies laying eggs in your tank(unlikely if indoors).
Size: Often ā‰¤ 2inch
Larval stage of damselfly life cycle, are [acronym="Insects (Class Insecta) are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles. With over a million described speciesā€”more than half of all known living organismsā€”with estimates of undescribed species as high as 30 million, thus potentially representing over 90% of the differing life forms on the planet. Insects may be found in nearly all environments on the planet, although only a small number of species occur in the oceans, a habitat dominated by another arthropod group, the crustaceans."]insects[/acronym]. Have extendable jaws. Live underwater for several years before turning into adults. Have a three pronged 'tail'. Link, Identification Help.ā€

(https://www.fishforums.net/threads/hitchhikers-in-freshwater-tanks-ponds.277805/)
 

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