Unlike last year, there aren’t really any new surprises or discoveries with the dragonfly nymphs this time, so it feels a bit like we’re just keeping them out of habit. Still, if you look closely, there are some individuals that could start emerging into dragonflies any day now.
As they get close to emergence, nymphs stop eating, and the areas on their backs that will become wings begin to swell. Their faces start to look more like adult dragonflies, and they often perch on branches or poke their heads out of the water. That’s how you know it’s almost time.
In our case, the nymphs’ bodies are showing these changes, but none have yet started poking their heads out of the water, so it’s probably just a few more days. I do worry a little about competition for perching spots in such a crowded environment, but for now, I’ll just observe and see how it goes.
The medaka, however, are thriving. Aside from one individual that didn’t survive the transition when we first bought them, none have died. When we feed them leftover bloodworms with tweezers, they swarm over and nibble at them so eagerly—it’s quite adorable. The tank is small, so water changes are easy. Eventually, I plan to have the kids take care of the medaka, though they’re not yet skilled enough with tweezers to feed the nymphs, so we’ve had to leave that to the adults.
Of course, posts like this really need photos to be fully engaging… without them, it’s a bit lacking.