# Dragonfly larvae - what to do?



## Psybuster (Jul 21, 2005)

unfortunately i don't know much about dragonfly larvae, but i can tell you that the larvae takes about a year or longer before it will fly away, so your shrimp will be in danger if the larvae remain in the tank. Curious if you could temporarily house a fish that will eat the larvae (some of your cherry fry and juvies maybe a causality of war).


----------



## radcore (Mar 19, 2012)

Wow, I didn't realize it would take that long. That sucks.

I have a smaller tank that I could put the shrimp in, but it has a lot of light, ferts and co2 to grow the hairgrass carpet faster, so probably wouldn't be great for the shrimp as it is. I could just back it all off a bit, then move all the shrimp over and just restart the dragonfly tank. It would be a shame to pull all the plants out though.

The fish thing might work, but I kinda think the shrimp are an easier target than the dragonfly larvae. I would love to hear if anyone has had experience with or knows of a fish that would prefer the larvae


----------



## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

It might be a good idea to at least split your shrimp colony between two tanks until you figure out how many Dragon fly larva are really in your tank.


----------



## jmowbray (Dec 20, 2009)

Just pull them as you see them. Hopefully theres not too many. Dragonfly larve are carnivors and will eat anything alive they can get their claws on (mainly living but they do eat dead things too).


----------



## keithy (Jun 8, 2010)

one method I accidentaly founnd out was to set the temp in your tank to 80 degree F constant for a few days. I had similar prob when I first setup my tank, I brought in stones from the river and larvae came with it. During winter I accidentaly set temp to 83 on my heater thinking it was 73. The next couple of days I found 5 larvae dead on the substrate. 

In your case, you may want to remove livestock before giving this a try.


----------



## Zefrik (Oct 23, 2011)

Ew. I don't like dragon flies. They look creepy. Are they a common coinsurance? If I where you I would go and buy a 10 gallon or maybe 2 ten gallons, set them up with clean plants or plastic for temp. purpose for your fish and shrimp. Then in the tank with the dragon fly larvae, empty the tank put a bowl of water on the substrate and then put some dry ice in it. Cover the tank with saran wrap or a glass lid and gas those bugs.


----------



## NWA-Planted (Aug 27, 2011)

What about salt? think it might kill the larvae? Would it harm shrimp?

From my desk where I am supposed to be working


----------



## radcore (Mar 19, 2012)

Thanks for the ideas. I could try the temperature or salt fairly easily. The dry ice sounds like the coolest way (pun intended haha) but I have never bought dry ice before. Is it something that any one can walk in off the street and buy? No harm in trying I guess. 

It should be fine to move the berried females to a different tank as long as the water parameters are similar right? Or is the risk of losing the baby ones high? I guess the risk of them being eaten when they are born if I leave them where they are is pretty high anyway.


----------



## NWA-Planted (Aug 27, 2011)

radcore said:


> Thanks for the ideas. I could try the temperature or salt fairly easily. The dry ice sounds like the coolest way (pun intended haha) but I have never bought dry ice before. Is it something that any one can walk in off the street and buy? No harm in trying I guess.
> 
> It should be fine to move the berried females to a different tank as long as the water parameters are similar right? Or is the risk of losing the baby ones high? I guess the risk of them being eaten when they are born if I leave them where they are is pretty high anyway.


they can always make more babies, unless they are dead! harps carries dry ice

From my desk where I am supposed to be working


----------



## jeremyTR (Mar 21, 2012)

keithy said:


> one method I accidentaly founnd out was to set the temp in your tank to 80 degree F constant for a few days. I had similar prob when I first setup my tank, I brought in stones from the river and larvae came with it. During winter I accidentaly set temp to 83 on my heater thinking it was 73. The next couple of days I found 5 larvae dead on the substrate.
> 
> In your case, you may want to remove livestock before giving this a try.



I don't think he'd have to worry about removing his fish. My tank is at 86-87 to get rid of Ick but my fish have been fine and even my japanesese algae eating shrimp has been fine along with my pleco.


----------



## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

They are naiads, not larvae.

Just remove them when you see them. If you apply those other treatments to kill them you will also kill your shrimp. They can't reproduce without first turning into adult dragonflies.


----------



## Assassynation (Dec 23, 2011)

I like dragon flies, they eat mosquitoes. I would let them be for a while but I would also move my fish/shrimp colony.


----------

