Re: NANFA-- My house is full of Damselflies

Bob Culler (rangerbob_at_optidynamic.com)
Thu, 26 Jun 2003 16:17:53 -0400

<x-flowed>
At 02:15 PM 6/25/03 -0700, Mysteryman wrote:
>I'm not sure just what these guys have been eating. I can only conclude
>that damsel larvae eat different things than dragonfly larvae ( fish ).
>Anyway, I rounded them up and set them free outside, where they'll no
>doubt start hanging around my pools.
>Have any of you had any similar experiences?

Yeah. I had a tank at work that I threw a bunch of stuff in (water-lily
leaves, dead tree leaves, lake water, etc.) just to see what would happen.
Had a pretty good bloom of cyclops, then noticed their numbers start to
decline. When I got to looking, I found about a dozen or so small damselfly
nymphs. I was able to raise several of them up to adulthood.

After some research I would guess the damselflies came in with the
water-lily leaves. Turns out many lay their eggs in the stems of emergent
vegetation.

As far as food, both dragonflies and damselflies eat mostly other aquatic
insects, worms, and other inverts., but larger dragonflies are more than
willing to take small fish as the opportunity arises. I have been keeping
one particular dragonfly nymph since last fall. He has been eating other
dragonfly nymphs and blackworms the whole time. Pretty cool to watch him
stalking the worms! :)

Ranger Bob
rangerbob_at_optidynamic.com
Kingsport, TN
"The power of humans to degrade the natural world is awesome; the
capability to reconstitute it later is mythical."
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association"
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association
/ nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
/ nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead.
/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org
</x-flowed>