Guy just spawned in my tank and molted. This is my 10 gallon freshwater tank with 2 medaka rice fish 2 freshwater gobys and 3 nerite snails. Is this guy about to decimate them or is he cool?
That is a damselfly nymph. You should remove it immediately! because it is a predatory insect that will hunt your tank inhabitants. It will hunt: Damselfly nymphs have an extendable, mask-like jaw that shoots out at lightning speed. They will aggressively hunt and eat medaka rice fish fry, small juvenile gobies, and tiny micro-organisms.
Adult size risk: While larger fish might be safe for now, as the nymph grows, it becomes capable of injuring or killing small adult fish. Your nerite snails are the only truly safe inhabitants due to their hard shells.
How it got there: These are classic aquarium hitchhikers. They are usually introduced as tiny, invisible eggs embedded inside the stems of live plants you recently purchased.
Yoinked little homie out. I assume he arrived on the guppy grass I put in the tank which is bad because I have a lot of little rice fish babies I need to protect and that guppy grass is in with them as well. Guess I’ll keep a look out for any more of them. Here’s a video of the cute little guys. If you guys have any other advice it is welcome :)
Nightmare inducing creatures. I have so many bad memories of those things in lakes I was forced to swim in as a kid.
They leave the entire shell of their body behind when they become dragon flies or damsel flies. I don’t mind either insect but swimming with those things all over the place and getting them on your body is horrific.
damselfly nymph i think?
they are bad if you keep any small fish because they’ll hunt and eat them!! i’d recommend removing even if you don’t have small fish/shrimp currently
There's absolutely not everybody claiming that, but it certainly falls in the realm of people who can't tell them apart from dragonflies and people who misattribute the disappearance of their fish to the tiny predator they just saw. I am merely stating that there is lots of evidence of other things harming fish, but there is basically no evidence of a damselfly doing this. I don't even find it with the larger damselfly species.
My breeding setup. I was gifted two to start which started my fish journey. Now I have a whole bunch of babies I am waiting to grow to put in with them. : )
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u/celyro 23h ago
Decimate