Alien bug thing again

Ok...
Just found this one in a different tank
Managed to get some better photos...
What is it and how to get rid of them...
There must be a way of killing these things other than waiting until I see them. Without having to tear down all my tanks to do it...






I have got to be honest... This has had me in tears
This is freaking me out so much im considering tearing down all my tanks and passing on my fish.
I have never known anything like this before ever. And having asked my parents (who have kept fish all their lives) and they have never seen or heard of anything like this before.
Im at my witts end

The long pointed tail and the six legs has the look of a water scorpian but the head seems to big.

These insects your finding are not the sort that are going to fly in your house and lay eggs in your tank, so they are being introduced.

Try and work out where they are coming from, do you buy your plants from the same supplier Do you ever buy the bags of live daphnia from L.F.S these often contain little nasties. Do you use rainwater Try and find a common denominator between the two tanks.

As for killing them anything powerfull enough to kill an insect that size could also be toxic to fish.

I dont use live food so thats not the problem...
I do have live plants in both tanks but they have been there for many months...
I use tap water for the water changes with TapSafe
I feed cucumber, lettice and carrot but its all washed first
Trouble is, the tank I found this last one in has some molly and platty fry in it and Im really worried they will get eaten, but have nowhere else to put them
Also worried about my bn's eggs now... while I havent seen anything in the tank that the cave, eggs and dad are, its an open top tank and would be devastated if anything happened because I couldnt get rid of these things...
I know I sound hysterical but these things have really upset me...

I would think they have come in as eggs on the plants, it's probably taken months and several malts for them to grow the size they are.

There is an article HERE about disinfecting plants before planting.

Platy and Molly fry are probably to big for these creatures, I'd be more concerned about cichlid fry.

would it be an idea to take out all the plants and soak them now or is it too late?
Also most of my plants are on wood and rock. Wouldnt the bleach etc soak into the wood and then leach out into the tank?
Would the eSHa Gastropex stuff do the job??? I read somewhere that you can use this stuff as a bath for plants etc before you put them into your tank?
Sorry for all the questions...

Ok, everyone relax!!!!!!

Its a damselfly larvae...and it turns into one of these


Curby's picture of an adult.

I study these things, its my job and they are fine. One this size would be eating things like small worms, small snails, left over flake food etc. In your tank it would be totally harmless. once they get fully grown (not much bigger than that). they may take on a fry or two but not on the scale that a dragonfly larvae will, and they will have to work hard to get one.

It would have come from either a egg on a plant when you bought it or even a damselfly may have snuck in an open window and laid in the tank. Either way it still wont harm the tank, in fact i used to keep them in my tanks as they are kinda cool.

If you are worries about it then grab your plants out and wash them in a solution of 3 parts bleach, 7 parts water for 5 seconds. It will kill any algae, eggs or bacteria living on them without harming the plant.

Thank you Doug...
I know you kinda do this stuff for a living so have seen it all before but it came as a shock to me
I have read all the scary stories about dragonfly larvae and was convinced they were gonna eat all my fish
I think your right that they must have come in on the plants...
With the plants etc, (and/or new ones I get), I normally get ones on wood or rock/stone. Would it be safe to soak/wash these with bleach or would the eSHa stuff do the trick???

I use the bleach mix on everything (wood, plant, rock, gravel, pipework...everything) and have never had an issue. Make sure your rince it off though.

Dragonfly larvae are in a different class to these fellas. THey are much larger and go after larger prey, damselflies are harmless 99.9% of the time.

I thought it might be a damselfly because i had one but mine didnt look exactly like yours as mine had like 3 tails so i didnt reply, sorry tiki i could have helped you with this from the start but as you can see from the one i had it's not a perfect match and i spent about 2 hours on the net searching for yours though.

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Thanks Steve...
your right they dont look the same...
Thats why I was getting so stressy about it all because I couldnt find one that looked like mine, just a bit of all of them!
Havent seen any since but am still keeping a very close eye just in case

they should look the same. all damselflies have three gills but they are very fragile and often fall off. It is not uncommon to fine one with no gills at all because it has be harrased by a little fish or something. sometimes the arangement of the gillls changes, some hold them flat, other vertically while others have fat ones. but they all have three

oh, and they are an indicator of a healthy aquatic ecosystem so having one in your tank is not such a bad thing

First of all an apology, i called you tiki when your name is tilki , second don't tear your tanks down even the experts are still learning, when i had my damselfly i was gutted because i thought i was doing everything right but sometimes no matter what you do these little buggers will find a way in

Not a problem Steve
I was just gutted because I have tried to do everything right and keep everything nice and clean and the fish well fed and happy and then, all of a sudden, there was this ALIEN
Now I know exactly what is was and how it got there I do feel a bit better...
I thought I had done something really drastically wrong and all my fish were gonna die! VERY paronoid
Like I said though, feel a bit better about it now!
Nikki

hope things get better soon, but if it comes from the future and starts looking for John Conner then you
may need a terminator, on the other hand, Doug is the man to bust most insects around here....

You see all we really do have the experts here...

Great job Doug...