Intruder

[Egmel]

I've posted this on TFF but seeing as I think he came in on my last greenline order I thought I might have more luck here...

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.

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.

Profile

Birds eye view

 

[JamesC]

Dragonfly larvae. I'd get them out asap as they can eat small fish. I have heard reports that they can catch fish about twice their own size and also can bite your finger and draw blood.

James

 

[Egmel]

Cheers for that, will get rid of them before they get any bigger then. Hope they haven't killed my cherry shrimp, I had some slightly smaller ones.

 

[LondonDragon]

Wow that is some crazy stuff, looks amazing though 🙂

 

[Egmel]

Wow that is some crazy stuff, looks amazing though 🙂

Hence why I was a little hesitant to kill it.

If I could guarantee they were UK ones then I'd keep them in some water outside, as it is I'm worried that if they're not UK ones I may be introducing some pest to the local area that I really don't want to. I'm afraid I will kill on sight in future.

Had they been harmless I would have kept them in the tank, always nice to have interesting things.

 

[LondonDragon]

If you don't get rid of them, they look like pretty much permanent residents:

After the egg hatches, the free-crawling aquatic larva molts once and then starts hunting voraciously. As the larva grows, it will molt numerous times. Most dragonfly larvae mature to adulthood in one to three years. There are exceptions. The migratory Wandering Glider will take as few as four weeks to complete its development from egg to adult, whereas there are Asian species that take as long as 8 years to mature to adulthood. Some species known from the far North take longer to mature than the same species in more southerly environs. Water temperature and the length of the growing season are variables that help determine the length of maturation.

And also:

Contrary to what one may hear, odonatas DO NOT sting. They cannot hurt humans in any way.

And last:

The immature stages feed off of other aquatic insects and occasionally very small fish.

 

[Egmel]

The immature stages feed off of other aquatic insects and occasionally very small fish.

That's the worrying bit, as I say I think they may have had some of my cherry shrimps already 🙁