check this out

[blazetown]

Never thought about it but i guess you can keep water striders in captivity with a screen lid. Two got into my aquarium from a water hyacinth i brought in and i noticed they seemed to be munching the springtails and or whatever the h*** those jumpy things are on the surface of my aquarium. So I kinda randomly dropped one lightly on the surface near the strider and guess what...

 

[GideonSmith08]

Cool. I should catch myself a few of these if I get a chance...

 

[Singbluemymind]

dude thats freaken awesome:clap: never would have thought of that

 

[blazetown]

lol yeah man kinda blew my mind when i did it...I actually had try it several times cause my stupid camera died. I think one of them actually got eaten by my polypterus but I'm gonna grab like a dozen out of our pond and see if I can get them to reproduce.

 

[Rochelle]

That is entirely cool! :clap:

 

[crpy]

Awesome, dont let em pop ya ,it smarts

I love aquatic inverts, I collect Dytiscus (predacious water beetles)and Lethocerus, (giant water bugs). maybe santa will give me a camera for Christmas so I can show them off.

 

[Singbluemymind]

lol yeah man kinda blew my mind when i did it...I actually had try it several times cause my stupid camera died. I think one of them actually got eaten by my polypterus but I'm gonna grab like a dozen out of our pond and see if I can get them to reproduce.

post lots of pics

 

[oregongrown]

That is entirely cool! :clap:

:clap: agreed

 

[dtknow]

They will breed easily in captivity if you have adults IME. They lay eggs at or a little below the waterline. Babies hatch out about 3mm across with legs but are plenty big enough to eat springtails, and eachother.

I didn't have the resources to raise them at the time...but they were really fun.

 

[blazetown]

Awesome, dont let em pop ya ,it smarts

I love aquatic inverts, I collect Dytiscus (predacious water beetles)and Lethocerus, (giant water bugs). maybe santa will give me a camera for Christmas so I can show them off.

What do you feed your beetles with? Fish? I actually have the natural form and the albino form "rosie reds" of a cool water minnow breeding in my pond this year and I've always wondered if water scorpions and diving beetles etc. would eat minnows.

 

[crpy]

What do you feed your beetles with? Fish? I actually have the natural form and the albino form "rosie reds" of a cool water minnow breeding in my pond this year and I've always wondered if water scorpions and diving beetles etc. would eat minnows.

I feed the beetles fish food, but they will eat your fish or any other living thing they are literally the piranhas of the beetle world.

 

[blazetown]

Before I could start typing the polypterus started munching minnows. I got a very interesting fish out of the pond as well. Either a hybrid or the native minnow in breeding colors. I think he just got eaten actually....Anyway lol here's pics of my catch. As you can see the oxygen difference and temperature difference from the pond outside to my tropical aquarium has screwed the shiners up a little. They're kind of floating and being eaten by bugs and fish. Oh yeah and I learned that water striders can get red eye in pictures

 

[dtknow]

That is a bluefin killifish(Lucania goodei). Native to SE US(Fl mainly). They probably got into your tanks/ponds with eggs in plants.

 

[blazetown]

If that is what it is thats pretty crazy cause I live in southern Ontario and i never noticed anything like that until now...the plants we bought could easily have had eggs on them if they were imported tho.

 

[blazetown]

I checked a bunch of killifish pictures and minnow pictures and I think it likely was a minnow. However I did throw in some guppies with the albino and natural minnows. They were also living with comets, koi and a butterfly koi. I doubt any of these fish could hybridize although the common goldfish and minnows are in the same family and I have seen several goldfish minnow hybrids before. Fantailed minnows actually in a pond containing fantailed goldfish. Likely it is just a male minnow in breeding colors though.

 

[dtknow]

Here is your fish. From the photos you posted it doesn't look like a minnow(at least the one that is in your hand is a bluefin killifish, no idea on the others). It has a zigzag stripe, the dorsal and anal fins are about the same size and are tinted blue, and the tail is tinted yellow and is not forked.
http://www.nativefish.org/Gallery/Lucania-goodei-2.jpg

Again, this is just going off the photo of the fish in your hand. I can't really tell whats in the other photos but I s'pose minnows. Well, if you had that many bluefins I'd be pretty dang envious!

 

[Shagrath666]

Here is your fish. From the photos you posted it doesn't look like a minnow(at least the one that is in your hand is a bluefin killifish, no idea on the others). It has a zigzag stripe, the dorsal and anal fins are about the same size and are tinted blue, and the tail is tinted yellow and is not forked.
http://www.nativefish.org/Gallery/Lucania-goodei-2.jpg

Again, this is just going off the photo of the fish in your hand. I can't really tell whats in the other photos but I s'pose minnows. Well, if you had that many bluefins I'd be pretty dang envious!

sorry to burst ur bubble but those aren't true bluefin killis, they are rosey red minnows used for feeding that have bred with what is called a rainbow dace (Cyprinella lutrensis) they are commenly kept at the same aquaculture facilities and breed easily cause the rosey reds are a Cyprinella sp. it is often confused in pet stores for the bluefin killi. and it looks close but the true bluefin would have elongate fins, its just ironic that the hybrid minnow has close colors. i know this all cause i worked in the fish industry for 6 years, its my bread and butter. arachnids are just a secondary obsession. and if you have koi with those beetles i would kill the beetles the larvea and adults can kill fish several times thier size. in the fish industry those bugs are EVIL

 

[dtknow]

Shagrath: Nope, the fish in his hand, at least, is a bluefin killifish.

Rosy red minnows are Pimephales sp.(mainly fathead minnow P. promelas). I've never heard of them hybridizing with red shiners(Cyprinella lutrensis)...which is pretty unlikely since they have two totally different breeding modes. But if you have photos that'd be most interesting.

Bluefin killifish do not have enlongated fins(see link/photo I posted). Well, at least they don't look enlongated to me. Petstores are usually not even aware that they have bluefin killifish since they usually end up in the store either from eggs in plant shipments, or as contaminants in shipments of ghost shrimp...all from Florida.

An additional photo clearly showing the fish from the side would be nice, but from those photo you've got at least one bluefin killifish, and some rosy red/fatheads.

 

[Shagrath666]

your probubly right, i was getting sp names wrong left and right, i was thinking of another type of minnow, i looked at it again and my main thought was that i didnt see the dorsal and anal fins, i have seen rosey reds breed with the shiner before at APET in Chicago, its a large aquaculture facility and distribution center. its has been a few years since i had a killi tank, mainly i do african cichlids trying to cross genus, and i have done it. sorry for my mix up

 

[blazetown]

no its not a killifish 100% chance of no...non-important plants and no contact with killies....its a minnow