Would anyone be interested?

[LeilaNami]

Hey all. I have an egg mass from my water scavenger beetle [Hydrophilidae]. The larvae are due to emerge any day now. Would anyone be interested in the larvae or matured beetles? (They grow super fast) Very fun beetles to keep and voracious too! :clap:

(This is just a feeler to see if anyone is interested at all and I'm not sure if I need to post this in the classifieds)

 

[GiantVinegaroon]

I can ask my professor if he'd like any. As for me, idk if i have the room to set up a tank...

 

[LeilaNami]

Sure thing. I've got around 72 separated right now. The egg mass hatched this morning.

 

[dtknow]

What species? I recently caught and released one of the huge ones that I at first thought was a Lethocercus americanus.

 

[LeilaNami]

What species? I recently caught and released one of the huge ones that I at first thought was a Lethocercus americanus.

I'm actually not sure. She's a big girl though and a hog. She is around 2" body length and will devour a frozen fish food cube in an hour. I'm leaning towards Hydrophilus sp.

 

[kupo969]

Any chance that you can show us some setup pics? What kind of space/maint. do these need?

 

[dtknow]

Sounds like H. triangularis. That is indeed what I caught. They are imposing, but not exactly what most would call beautiful! That being said, it'd be fun to raise some. I'm sure you've looked at larvae photos already?


I'd love to try my hand at some of the predacious diving beetles sometime.

 

[LeilaNami]

As far as care goes, a five or ten gallon tank is fine. Some floating plant cover or a silk aquatic plant that floats a little on the surface, and a decoration that goes out of the water to provide a somewhat dry surface. Filter is optional. I use one because the plant matter colors the water. I've been feeding her a frozen fish food cube that contains plant and animal matter every few days and leafy greens in between. She LOVES duckweed and devours the stuff.

As far as pics go, we're going to get a cord for the camera and try to post it. The pics aren't great and we can't take new ones because the camera was dropped in the water and water got in the lens

Yeah I've looked at larvae photos and they sure look imposing. Mine do too and they're only a cm long right now They started cannibalizing the minute they hatched. H. triangularis and H. ovatus look very similar. I need to get a look at the prosternum to tell.