Something Freaky In My Fry Growout Tank

[ibbledibble]

spotted it today while i was taking photo's of my betta fry its under the water, clinging to the heater cable. i'm concerned it may be a dragonfly nymph, which may be why i only seem to have 4 surviving fry at this stage! not sure what to do about it, and feeling squeamish about touching it.

 

[debbie888]

Hi Ibble

I too had one of these critters in my fry tank....I removed it as I was told they will eat anything and everything....yep it is a dragonfly, or so I was told when I posted pics on here....I will try and find the link to it.

Here is the link and pic of the critter I had, looks very much the same as the pic of yours http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/23...-What-This-Is-/

Debbie

 

[helterskelter]

yep it's a dragonfly nymph and yes they eat fry.

 

[ibbledibble]

ok, will go about trying to get rid of it, but does this mean there are likely to be more in the tank too?

 

[debbie888]

There could be...although I had only one in mine, looks a fair size, so will be easy to spot if there is anymore.

Debbie

 

[helterskelter]

depends how it got in, usually with live foods or plants so get it out and watch what you do.

 

[ibbledibble]

well there are plenty of live plants in the tank, but they were all in other tanks before going into the fry tank, and they have been fed on liquifry, waterworms vinegar eels and bbs, and the parent were fed on live daphnia sometimes, but i have a daphnia tank on the windowsill which i grow my daphnia on in, and no sign of anything other than normal daphnia in there. i do tend to leave the back door open lots, especially in good weather, so no i'm worried, something flew in and laid the eggs in the tank, which could mean more. will keep an eye out, but the tank is fairly heavily stocked with plants.

having caught it in a net, looks like it was a damselfly nymph, as it had a 3 pronged tail. its gone into a bucket of water in the garden, with some water lillies and lots of midge/mossie larvae which it can eat.

 

[helterskelter]

is the top open then, but they to tend to prefer ponds.

 

[ibbledibble]

the top is partially open. it was covered completely for quite a while, while the fry were younger, but before the spawning actually took place it was totally uncovered.

 

[Ficious]

thats freaky