# Murderous dragonfly and maybe caddisfly nymph help



## Rossfett (May 15, 2011)

I bought daphnia off ebay to feed to my Scarlet Badis a few weeks ago. I came home the other night to my female being chomped by 3/4 inch or larger dragonfly nymph. It got away, and I cannot find it, I noticed that another of my dario is hurt pretty badly and is on his way out. I tore apart my heavily planted tank but I cannot find the dragonfly nymph anywhere, but I did pull out about 4 caddisfly, (I think) eating another Dario. I checked my buckets of daphnia and there was over a dozen of these suckers in there. My shrimp have all disappeared. HELP! How do I get them out? I'm down 2 females which took me forever to find and losing one male. In general, I'm really pissed.


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## henningc (Apr 17, 2013)

Your best bet is to set up a temporary tank for the remaining fish and go through and trash the works salvaging what you can of plants, ect..... I'd also set up new daphnia buckets and use a net to grab just a few adults to seed the new colony.

I would also lodge a complaint with ebay and the seller. They might as well have sold you chlorine for all the damage it has done. Badis are really neat little fish and as you stated females are at a premium if you can find them at all. 

In the future, I'd keep a lid on the daphnia buckets just cutting some holes and cover with screen to keep the bad guys out. You may want to get a colony of scuds going as well. You can just put the bucket (s) inside as they don't need light ot green water. Scuds and live brine shrimp should keep the fish well fed.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Seems like frozen foods may be the safer bet?


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## vreugy (May 1, 2013)

Appreciate this post. I was thinking about live daphina too, but now, I think I will stick with frozen.

have a blessed day


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## Rossfett (May 15, 2011)

Thank you everyone for your replies. 
henningc, I live in an NYC apartment, so further infestation shouldn't be a problem.
I did manage to get what I hope is all of the nymphs and the buyer was very gracious and apologetic. 
I little chunk of very heavily washed meat, turn the lights out, come back an hour later and sucked the nymphs out. After the 3rd go, no more appeared. I've managed to start two new colonies of daphnia, and I dropped a flagfish into the infested colony for two days. Those suckers will eat anything.
vreugy, my Dario will only eat live food unfortunately. Keeping daphnia has been a challenge, but the rewards have been worth it. If you are able I will give it a go.


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## vreugy (May 1, 2013)

After your experience, I think I will stick with frozen. That's what they are used to. Since I live in the deep country. I would be afraid I would get dragonfly's laying their eggs in them. I may try mosquito larva though. I found some last summer and strained them into a coffee filter. When the water was gone, I put the filter with larva in the freezer. It was easy to scrape them off to feed. Thanks for your offer just the same.

Have a blessed day


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