Dragonfly pets?

I think you'd need a very large conservatory, sunroom or greenhouse to keep a captive adult dragonfly happy...something akin to a butterfly house, but equipped with a water feature. A batch of freshly caught adult houseflies, bluebottles, etc. released on occasion would do for food, I suppose, but still...

My living room fills one end of my house and is very bright--large windows facing south and west and sliding French doors opening directly onto an attached deck to the east. I have the deck heavily planted up and there's a pool, etc, which attracts a lot of small wildlife, including dragon and damselflies. Sometimes, when the weather's nice and the French doors are wide open, a dragonfly will come into the livingroom, take a quick cruise along the windows as though inspecting the houseplants, then exit again. It's always a thrill to watch them, and from these brief experiences alone, I can't even imagine containing such lively, fast flyers in a smaller room, let alone a cage. Something smaller and more fluttery, like a blue darner, might learn to live in a livingroom-sized space, but on the whole, I think these insects, at least once adult, are best enjoyed as wild garden pets, the same way you enjoy visiting hummingbirds.

The nymphs, on the other hand, aren't too hard to keep and make very interesting temporary aquarium pets. A lot of children's books about keeping insect pets will have info on this--they're kid favourites.

The cage would need to be *very* large as these insects need plenty of flying room, for some species measured in manymany acres, as well as plenty of prey...and some live only a short time anyway. Not ideal pet material.

If I can't "lecture you on water and plants," then what else can I comment on? I raised a darner nymph in a fishbowl once....That is the most fun, I think, raising them from nymphs (naiads) to adults, and then releasing the adults. I do believe that, given enough space (such as an aviary, or indoor botanical conservatory), one could have free-flying dragonflies. I predict, in fact, that eventually "dragonfly houses" and exhibits will be as popular as butterfly houses are now.