Need help with Lethocerus sp.

[whoami?]

Well, my brother lives near lots of woods and lakes, and he knows that I find bloodthirsty vicious arthropods quite fascinating. Living in a woodeed region, he sees giant water bugs fairly often.

Well, he recently brought me one. I find these bugs very cool, so i decided to keep it. I stuck it in a medium Petpal, added a small water hyacinth, a little bit of duckweed, and a small amount of some other type of aquatic plant (lots of filaments, with small capsules located throughout: "Bladderwort", if I remember correctly). I then threw in a stick. Then I added a few feeder guppies (or mosquito fish). Then i added the bug.

The problem is, the bug hasn't eaten a damn thing in the three weeks I've had it. Not a single fish has disappeared.

So, has anyone kept giant water bugs before? What am I doing wrong? It has food. It has plants to hide in. It has a pine branch, just in case it decides to climb out of the water.It's being kept in pond water. And I even keep it outide, so that it has a natural day/night cycle. So why isn't it doing ANYTHING? Hell, I've only once seen it moving at all in the three weeks I've had it.

Any advice?

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

Try a cricket.
How cold is it outside?

 

[Wade]

It could be near the end of it's life cycle. I've had them do the same thing, and eventually die, while others have lived on for close to a year and devoured anything that moves.

Wade

 

[whoami?]

Originally posted by Wade
It could be near the end of it's life cycle. I've had them do the same thing, and eventually die, while others have lived on for close to a year and devoured anything that moves.

Wade

I guess that's possible. I wouldn't expect them to live very long. And while I don't know much about them, I wouldn't be surprised if it ventured out of its native pond for a final booty call, which for many bugs is a sign that the end is near.

Anyway, I did try feeding it a cricket a couple of times. The first time, I returned later and found a hollowed out cricket on the bottom of the tank, with a snail eating the "skin". Now, I have three types of animals in the tank: feeder guppies, snails, and the bug. While I suppose that the snail possible could have sucked out the cricket's guts, the hollowed out cricket seems more consistent with a bug feeding, based on the fact that bugs have sucking mouth parts.

But the second cricket I threw in disapper\ared completely. I have no idea what the hell happened to that cricket.

Anyway, I've had evidence that the bug may have eaten a cricket, while it's apparently shown no interest in fish. So I suppose I'll add a few crickets until I can determin just what's happening to them. And if the bug happens to die, I'm sure I can obtain onether one (hopefully not at the end of its life).

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

The 'sucked out' one was eaten by the water bug, they sort of drink them like a can of pop (except they scrape the insides with a long, nasty, whiplike stylet)
The cricket that's missing escaped.
If it's L.americanus you may have it for another 4 years. If it's L.griseus (very similar) it would probably already have died.

 

[Iowa T Keeper]

When I was a kid we caught these when hunting for frogs/toads/tadpoles/turtles ect. We would try to keep anything.

Anyway back to the point. I got a giant water bug, no idea what speices now and kept it alive all summer on tadpoles and I mean it would ATTACK them! IT was possibly the coolest pet I had --until I got a T -- I finally had to kill it so i could turn it in for a school insect collection. Anyway I put it in a sealed bottle for a week and nothing. So I took it out of water and put it in a sealed bottle. It took forever to get this guy to die.

Anyway now that I think back on this I think this summer I may have to go out to the old pond and see what I can come up with