What the hell is this 🤢

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

I was about to do a water change on my tank and found this what is this alien and is it bad? will there be more? someone tell me! I took it out and killed it.

[gatorlaz]

Dragonfly larva?  I know they like to lay eggs in floating plants

Edited May 14, 2022 by gatorlaz

[Minanora]

looks like a dragonfly nymph.

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

On 5/14/2022 at 3:23 PM, gatorlaz said:

Dragonfly larva?  I know they like to lay eggs in floating plants

But I don’t know how it got in my tank there’s no dragon fly’s where I live and the tanks indoors, plus the floating plants where from tissue culture. Will the dragon fly larva kill my fish/shrimp or eat plants?

[Guppysnail]

It is a voracious predator. Small Shrimp and snails are preferred but if it is hungry it will eat any fry.  
do you have damselfly where you live. They look remarkably similar behave the same. 

Edited May 14, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

On 5/14/2022 at 3:48 PM, Guppysnail said:

It is a voracious predator. Small Shrimp and snails are preferred but if it is hungry it will eat any fry.  
do you have damselfly where you live. They look remarkably similar behave the same. 

Yeah we have those here but I never see them. I took the larva out will there be more or is it usually just one. I was also kinda scared putting my hands in the tank after seeing that!

[Guppysnail]

On 5/14/2022 at 4:07 PM, Jacob Hill said:

Yeah we have those here but I never see them. I took the larva out will there be more or is it usually just one. I was also kinda scared putting my hands in the tank after seeing that!they lay on plant stems by making a tiny slit. Depending on the species is how many eggs per stem they lay 6-20-50 -????  Try and identify the species. They burrow into substrate. A thorough vacuum will remove many. Shine a flashlight in at dark. The eyes will shine bright. 

I have no idea why my reply did not show here it is again

 

Dependingon the species is how many eggs per stem they lay 6-20-50 -????  Try and identify the species. They burrow into substrate. A thorough vacuum will remove many. Shine a flashlight in at dark. The eyes will shine bright. 

[Torrey]

On 5/14/2022 at 1:18 PM, Jacob Hill said:

I was about to do a water change on my tank and found this what is this alien and is it bad? will there be more? someone tell me! I took it out and killed it.

Did it have only one tail, as it appears in the picture?

Or 3 tails, as shown in the links?

If you enlarge this image, you can see a damselfly nymph in the upper middle. It is lighter colored than the background. Unless you find a damselfly nymph in a newly started shrimp colony, or a very expensive breeding program, the small number of losses in livestock are far outweighed by the positive impact on the environment of keeping mosquitoes and other insects under control. 

I allow all the damselfly nymphs I find in my tanks to live, if they can escape predation by my fish. I am rewarded 3 months later with the best garden maintenance crew, that keep a wide variety of insect pests out of my orchids and food crops that I grow indoors.

Damselfly larvae get a really bad rap in the aquarium industry, because people focus on one aspect of development (the nymph) and ignore the larvae stage (an important food source for fish getting ready to breed)

And the adult stage that is greatly beneficial to humans and food crops.

Just something to think about. 

 

If your little aquatic guest only had a single tail, it was a dragonfly nymph.

Again, they can be a threat to a smaller shrimp colony and a really expensive breeding project that is small.

Outdoor tubs host entire egg casings of nymphs (both damselfly and dragonfly) yet manage to outproduce indoor aquariums without us humans removing the nymphs.

 

 

 

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

It had 3 tails so I think it’s a damselfly larvae and do you know how to kill them and get them out of my tank if there is more?

[Guppysnail]

On 5/14/2022 at 5:52 PM, Jacob Hill said:

It had 3 tails so I think it’s a damselfly larvae and do you know how to kill them and get them out of my tank if there is more?

Manual removal. They are tough. Anything that will kill them will indeed kill everything in your tank. 

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

On 5/14/2022 at 5:55 PM, Guppysnail said:

Manual removal. They are tough. Anything that will kill them will indeed kill everything in your tank. 

So should I just remove them if I see more until there all gone?

[Torrey]

On 5/14/2022 at 4:33 PM, Jacob Hill said:

So should I just remove them if I see more until there all gone?

Remove them if you see them, and try putting them in an outside water container to complete their life cycle. 

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

On 5/14/2022 at 7:47 PM, Torrey said:

Remove them if you see them, and try putting them in an outside water container to complete their life cycle. 

Yeah that’s probably better than when I killed it because I didn’t know what it was 😕

Edited May 15, 2022 by Jacob Hill

[Atomicfish]

In my opinion I think this bug is kinda cute.

 

[Torrey]

On 5/14/2022 at 9:19 PM, Atomicfish said:

In my opinion I think this bug is kinda cute.

 

We name ours, lol!

The one in the picture was named Sidhe