# What is this in my tank?!



## jcheung5150 (Nov 6, 2006)

Sorry for the blurry iPhone pic, but i found this green "bug"in my tank. It has six legs, black eyes, is about an inch long, has a weird fan tail and a head similar to a pray mantis? Does anyone know what this is or if its dangerous? i caught and removed it from the tank.


----------



## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Looks like either a damslfly larvae or dragonfly larvae. They are predatory and eat smaller creatures, even baby fish.

Damselfly larvae









or

Dragonfly larvae


----------



## alexopolus (Jan 18, 2010)

Dragonfly early stage (nymph?)? Libellula!!? Hard to see... They are good insects predators, but how did it get in to your tank? Is it a outside tank?


----------



## jcheung5150 (Nov 6, 2006)

thanks for the replies. yes it appears to be a damselfly larvae. 

its not an outdoor tank, i tore it down a couple of months ago and added plants. Just recently added some rasboras and RCS shrimp. This thing must have tagged along somewhere along the way.


----------



## aquaman555 (Mar 22, 2011)

That's oddly interesting, did you remove it?


----------



## Planted Tanks (Dec 10, 2011)

I too have seen a similar bug in my 55g tank. It sayed on the bottom of my tank on one of my stones. Thing is my tank is and alwys has been inny basement? What will happen when this larvae gets to adult stage? Will u allow it to stay? This is interesting


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## jcheung5150 (Nov 6, 2006)

I got rid of it since it apparantly is predatory. Didn't want to keep it to see what it would turn into....


----------



## Planted Tanks (Dec 10, 2011)

Got cha. I cant find the critter in my tank anymore. It was pretty interested tho. One time i had a snail appear in one of my tanks that had been bone dry about a year and was only wet when i washed it (outside hose) and filled with water (also outside hose) possible invader that way? Not sure but hopefully u dont get anymore f those guys


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

It would have turned into something like this:










I hear they only live for a day or so in adult form since they have no mouth and can't eat anything as an adult. Their adult form exists simply to mate and then they die.


----------



## Planted Tanks (Dec 10, 2011)

Wow really? So the most inportant part of their lives is the larvae? Interesting. So ehen we see tem i the wild n what not they are in the mission to breed and perish?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I think so. Although I'm not totally sure now I might have them confused with mayflies which are similar. I am not sure how long the adult damsel fly lives for it might be longer then a day.


----------



## Planted Tanks (Dec 10, 2011)

I have no knowledge either. Maybe a simple google search could help us haha


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Planted Tanks (Dec 10, 2011)

So I found 2 dragon fly adults in my basement :/. One was dead the other flying around... I did not like seeing this! Any way to prevent this or even killing them without harming my shrimp and crayfish?


----------



## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

That is kind of amazing! They went through their life cycle in one of your tanks then? Or were the ones you found from outside?

I don't think there is any way to keep them out. Maybe you could buy a fish that would eat them, but you'd lose shrimp that way too. I don't think its very common so you probably won't have to worry about it happening again. Even if you grew plants outside in tubs and brought them in to your tank I doubt you'd get them again. 

Can you post pictures of the adults? I'd like to see how the adult matches up with the larvae picture.


----------



## Planted Tanks (Dec 10, 2011)

I can't find them! They where in two of my planted tanks. I found one dead (fed it to my Flowerhorn lol) the other I tried to catch but escaped. They went through the cycle in my tanks. I only know this because I found a cacoon type of casing that looked like dragon fly left on my power cord of my heater. I agree it is amazing but I did not like lol


----------

