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Pictures pls. i also have holes on my glosso leaves but i haven't seen any caterpillars round
hi,
i've recently set up a new 2.5' planted tank for 2 weeks already. for the 1st week i've notice some of my plants have holes in their leaves. so i thought it was the snails. however i've recently found out that it's actually caterpillars/worms that's eating up my plants. and these guys are very smart too. to disguise themselves from fishes they would wrap leaves around them, sort of like a mini house.
i've already caught a few of them and have quarantined 3 of it in a plastic container. just worried there might be more of them.
any of you guys have encountered it before? thanks.
Pictures pls. i also have holes on my glosso leaves but i haven't seen any caterpillars round
just as expected there's more of these creepy crawlies in my tank. i will get a picture loaded up soon. really baffling. they look just like the caterpillars you find in trees.
just googled 'underwater caterpillar' and got this result at http://www-staff.it.uts.edu.au/~don/...am/nitens.html
looks like its called 'Hygraula nitens' a kind of caterpillar that lives underwater and uses bits of plants as cover. just like mine.
Last edited by Spawnster; 2nd Sep 2006 at 23:06.
Swell. What we get here usually are the larvae of dragonflies/nymphs/whatever. I only got it once, it was really alien looking.
i guess you just have to remove them manually. so far so good. got about 10 of them so far.
just bought a bag of shrimps from a LFS...
to my horror... there was a aquatic caterpillar inside
did not notice it till i got home, 'cus the caterpillar actually use some leaves to make a "home"
only when it wiggles out then i realise what it was
There are actually many species of aquatic caterpillars. Hygraula nitens is one of the species. Most, if not all will develop into moths. If you ever collect aquatic plants from our streams locally, you may end up with some of them. They are quite a pest and have to be remove manually as most fish will not eat them since they are usually protected with a leafy cocoon. Bad thing is that they chomp on plants (will not eat algae unlike snails). Good thing is that they are harmless to the fishes and shrimps unlike the nymphs of dragon flies and damsel flies.
/John
glad to say after manually removing them, there's no more in my aquarium. but some damage has been done already. my tiger leaf plant is at a very lousy state with all the holes.
Will it become a butterfly? it is a caterpillar u know
nah they are moth caterpillars.
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