Advice on keeping aquatic insects?

[saltyscissors]

In the spring, I'm gonna try keep some pond skaters, water scorpions and great diving beetles, but I have no idea what special requirements they have. I know they're carnivores, and I know they're aquatic, but how much would they need feeding? does the water need changing every now and again? what substrate?

I'm thinking of a Gerris sp, Nepa cinerea and Dytiscus marginalis. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Nomadinexile]

In the spring, I'm gonna try keep some pond skaters, water scorpions and great diving beetles, but I have no idea what special requirements they have. I know they're carnivores, and I know they're aquatic, but how much would they need feeding? does the water need changing every now and again? what substrate?

I'm thinking of a Gerris sp, Nepa cinerea and Dytiscus marginalis. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I would recommend talking to a good aquarium store. They will basically be fish tanks for the water scorpions anyway. The skaters probably don't need oxygenated water, but it will need cleaned and what not. That's all I have.

 

[BiologicalJewels]

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=90127
http://scabies.myfreeforum.org/Giant_Water_Bug_about1952.html


dig around my friend, dig around.

 

[Galapoheros]

I don't think clean water is a necessity since these things live in ponds and creeks and large temp puddles. I've kept some of this stuff over the years, never serious about it though. You don't need deep water. I've never kept whirligig beetles though, caught them but never tried to take care of them. I've got a giant water bug right now, thought it would've died already or tried to fly away but it's still doing great. They like to be able to grab on to something close to the surface, maybe floating, driftwood or something like that. I don't think sub is important but water bugs like stuff on the bottom the can grab on to when they swim down. This water bug I have tries to swim towards me when I walk by, thinks I might be something to eat, they can see pretty well.

 

[Acro]

If you are into aquatic insects, you should get the book "Assassins, Water Scorpions and Other True Bugs". It covers: Giant Water Bugs, Water Scorpions, Water Striders, and Backswimmers. You can find it here:
http://www.angelfire.com/oh3/elytraandantenna/

When you get the inverts set up, please post some pics!

 

[Deroplatys]

I reared some water scorpions to adult last year, i still have them in fact
Heres a care sheet i wrote on them

Common Name: Water Scoprion

Sienctific name: Nepa cinerea

Size: Around 2cm

Distribution: Common but localised

Description:
Water Scorpions are not true scoprions but superficially resemble them. They are infact true bugs from the Nepidae family. Water scorpions are aquatic bugs that live in shallow water, usually close to the surface, however they still need to breath air. They do this from the use of two filaments at the end of their abdomen which are held together to form essentially a snorkle, although these are not present in juveniles, instead they simply hold thier abdomens up to the surface. The nymphs always reside just under the waters surface, perched on twigs or dead leaves where as the adults on the other hand often dive deeper and remain amongst the leaf litter. Water scorpions do not have claws exactly like a scorpion, but have raptorial limbs much like preying mantids. Water scorpions are sit and wait hunters, once they catch their prey they quickly paralise it and drain the fluids from the prey item through their short pointed proboscis, which in larger species could cause a painful bite. Nymphs are more rounded than the adults and also lighter in colour, found in sandy or chocolate browns. Adults are darker and are camoflouged amongst dead leaves. Water scorpions are poor swimmers and prefer to crawl about to perch on twigs or leaves. Water Scorpions also moult under water.

Housing:
Nymphs should be housed individually as they are cannabalistic, communal living WILL result in casualties for they attack any smaller or moulting siblings. A cricket tub sized container will do with just under 2 inches of water, be sure to add several twigs and fill the water with leaf litter, although obviously not enough that the water scorpion cant move or moult. Adults can be housed together as they are less aggressive towards each other. I have my adults in a medium Pet Pal plastic tank with about 3 inches of water. I have also included a land mass of the adults, just a small corner of sloping mud with a very small patch of moss and lichen, although that isnt nessisary. As with the nymphs there are plenty of twigs and branches for the water scoprions to rest on, aswell as plenty of leaf litter, water plants can also be added for both nymphs and adults.

Feeding:
Water scorpions are sit and wait predators, feeding upon any smaller insects and also each other when young. They seem to prefer mosquito and midge larvae, but will catch and eat anything they can overpower, for example water lice, pond worms, daphinia, and even small pond snails amongst other things. I catch these prey items from ponds and introduce them to the water scorpions enclosure, they will often feed upon any detritus in the tank and thus survive in there and sustain the water scorpion for a long period of time.

Breeding:
Information is scarse on breeding these but from what little information is available you can judge that the females lay near the waters edge in the soil, the ova apparantly having long filiments just like the adults to take in oxygen. Once they hatch they should be housed seperatly untill adult. Sex determination is most likely like that of other true bugs in that there are subtle differences in length and shape.

Final comments:
Water scorpions are fairly easy to maintain and are an interesting invertebrate to keep.

Sub adult nymph

Sub adult nymph

Recently caught nymphs awaiting seperation

 

[Deroplatys]

Oh and heres a couple of vids i made for them, they are very fun to keep

[YOUTUBE]KgiQ2UqS2yA[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]wCQGRJd_ILU[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Galapoheros]

Cool, I think I remember seeing the pics. How do you tell the females from the males? I've been wondering what sex I have here.

 

[JPJ]

Dragonfly nymphs are really easy and cool to keep as well.

 

[blazetown]

I learned you can feed mealworms to water striders last summer. I would suspect tiny minnows or smaller surface insects to be better food though.

 

[Nomadinexile]

I don't think clean water is a necessity since these things live in ponds and creeks and large temp puddles. I've kept some of this stuff over the years, never serious about it though. You don't need deep water. I've never kept whirligig beetles though, caught them but never tried to take care of them. I've got a giant water bug right now, thought it would've died already or tried to fly away but it's still doing great. They like to be able to grab on to something close to the surface, maybe floating, driftwood or something like that. I don't think sub is important but water bugs like stuff on the bottom the can grab on to when they swim down. This water bug I have tries to swim towards me when I walk by, thinks I might be something to eat, they can see pretty well.

outdoors, there are other creatures and life "cleaning" and oxygenating the water. Even with plants in your habitat, they are not large enough, nor is your tank biology complicated enough, not to have something "cleaning".

It might be filters, it might be algae eaters, but if you stick a few plants and a few bugs in a tank and just leave it, you will have a mess on your hands sooner the later!!

then again, maybe I'm wrong here. And, hypothetically, you could create a passive closed loop system that wouldn't need any "cleaners", but that would involve a lot of room and plants, maybe a large aqua culture fish tank. You could run water (even waste water) through a system of old bath tubs outside, that grow floating aquatic plants, another tank with tilapia and clams, and then through your tank, where expelled water is then recycled back into the system. But that would be a lot of work. But then you would have a beautiful aquatic garden! You would have home raised tilapia you know what they've been fed! And you get to reuse and recycle your waste water!

For more info on systems like I describe above:

Toolbox For Sustainable City Living- A do it ourselves guide
By: Scott Kellog and Stacy Pettigrew
copyright: 2008 ISBN: 978-0-89608-780-4
Published by: South End Press; Cambridge,MA

This book covers water filtering/recycling, passive solar, producing your own ethanol, bio-gas (Natural gas type mix), growing food, setting up a composting system, AND EVEN Insect production of feeders for fish and chickens and Humans!

Anyway, I don't have any connection to the book writers, publishers, or anyone else who profits in anyway from this. I am just a BIG fan of this book. I think it could save your family, or even your communities in the coming years. And you could make some awesome bug habitats working within designs of book. Systems can also be scaled down and up, check it out!

 

[saltyscissors]

Hey Deroplatys, is tap water safe to use? And if so, does it need changing every now and again, or scavengers?

 

[Galapoheros]

At the least I would circulate the water just a little, these don't filthy up the water as much as fish do, I've found I don't need a filter. I do have Daphnia swimming around, they help out. The water bugs and beetles the op is talking about breathe surface air so water quality and oxygenation isn't terribly important, not for them anyway, it's how they can live in stagnant water but you don't want a smelly aquarium of course. My bug aquarium has a lot of Spirogyra algae in it, they like that kind of stuff but there is too much in it right now. When it gets like that I just reach in, grab it and chunk it.

 

[Acro]

Check out this old post for a fun read. Be sure to look at page two for my contribution! Enjoy!

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=143272

 

[Reptiliatus]

Here's a video of my Canadian native Water scorpion eating a guppy!

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD4iUQcsiGg&feature=related[/YOUTUBE]

 

[GiantVinegaroon]

I recently kept a Ranatra sp. until it disappeared (I think my crayfish ate it).

Really easy to keep. Think of it as an underwater arboreal. Just offer things to cling onto(especially near the surface since they breathe with that tube on their abdomen) and feed once in awhile and you're good.

 

[Villagecreep]

anyone have advice on where and how to catch aquatic insects? I know this thread is old but i'm just curious.

 

[Schledog]

It’s simple as putting a net in the water and dragging it along the bottom, but you can also check around really bright lights for giant water bugs

 

[Villagecreep]

It’s simple as putting a net in the water and dragging it along the bottom, but you can also check around really bright lights for giant water bugs

Oh okay thanks this is really helpful! You'd think I'd know this because I have a stream in my backyard!