Ranatra sp. care

[mantisfan101]

My local fish store always has some of these in the feeder ghost shrimp tanks and I was thinking of getting some. What I know so far is to give them low water flow, plant/areas where they can hang from and stick their air tubes out of the water, and that they need live food which I can provide. What else am I missing? Can I keep the communally? How do I overwinter them? How do I breed them? I believe that the female lays eggs in vegetation at the water surface, but when the larvae hatch, how do I care for them?

 

[Salmonsaladsandwich]

You can keep them communally, I've done so before after seeing an aggregation of them on a single stick in the wild.

Their food doesn't have to be live, they will take freshly prekilled. They can eat terrestrial prey like crickets and mealworms as well as aquatic prey.

 

[pannaking22]

Make sure there are plenty of things for them to hang from or take shelter in and that should decrease chances of cannibalism by quite a bit.

 

[Salmonsaladsandwich]

Make sure there are plenty of things for them to hang from or take shelter in and that should decrease chances of cannibalism by quite a bit.

I don't think this is a genus that cannibalizes at all as adults. I've kept them communally without much space and literally seen them stacked on top of eachother in the wild.

 

[pannaking22]

I don't think this is a genus that cannibalizes at all as adults. I've kept them communally without much space and literally seen them stacked on top of eachother in the wild.

That's good to know. I admit my comment was sort of a generic "keeping predators communally" sort of thing, but it's good to know that these guys seems to get along well.