• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Need advice what to do, dreaded bugs

Scorchiolee666

Seedling
Joined
4 Mar 2021
Messages
11
Location
Faversham, Kent
Hello, hope someone can help, so got small 30 litre tank, done cycle and got small fish, snails and few shrimp in a planted tank, stupidly I did not quarantine plants and they had egss on them, got both dragonfly and damselfly nymphs in tank, caught about 6-7 so far and even saved shrimp from being eaten! Only thing us I have no idea his many more in tank as it seems they bury themselves or hide very well, as I only spot them at front if tank and some have been pretty large, anyway I'm thinking iof taking out all shrimp/fish, (keep them in change bucket i use and snails got too many and will catch up a lot of them) then clearing out tank and pouring hot water all over substrate to kill anything still living in it, to finally get rid of any of those nasty critters still in tank, only concern is that will probably kill remaining snails and cause an ammonia spike once I put fish/shrimp back in after doing this? Any way round this or any other options I have to get rid of the nymphs that could still be in tank ?
 
don't pour hot water in your tank, you'll kills your beneficial bacteria as well as risking cracking the tank . If it was me, I'd take out the livestock and any hardscape, then just gently sift through the plants and substrate, neither of them actively bury themselves, though some dragonflies don't have a problem with mud, it's more likely they're hiding amongst plants or hardscape because they have the small issue of breathing through their bum and eating at the other end. while you've got eyes on, you can get rid of excess snails as well
 
just be careful to check the water parameters before you put your livestock back in, I'd keep them in the tank water as much as possible and don't disturb the substrate too much so it doesn't turn into a muddy puddle , keep your filter media in tank water as well until you put it back - you might not find any more nymphs if you're lucky so don't break your tank biome for something that might not be there
 
Back
Top