We drop in fruit flies for them and tend not to keep waterscorpions or backswimmers with them which will pick them off, although I sort of wonder if they are only able to pick off the weak ones. Dineutus do great in our largest indoor tank and we've had some for about a year now going strong and with little to no die off.
you should have 2 tanks 1 tank with preditory insects like the water scorpion, giant water bug, lesser giant waterbug and maybe backswimmers and the other tank for others like whirligigs, sunburst, lesser boatmans, common boatmans, etc
Sticks tend to mold, and leaf litter seems to leach tanins that make the water brown. Not the look I'm going for in the guest house, but I do enjoy having some naturalistic set ups like that in the bug room!
Strangely I've not been able to propagate the duckweed to the extent I'd like to. Maybe it's because the couple tanks I have it in are not in the sun or I don't run lights on most tanks. Not sure. Would love to have more of it to put into some of my indoor and outdoor tanks though.
I tossed the box quite a few months ago. I got the tank at a major pet chain store. So far I like the tank although there is a small gap between the lid and tank walls on 3 sides and the beetles are able to move up the glass if they want to, through adhesion and water tension abilities they seem to possess.
If other food is being offered, the incidence is lower. A larger tank is recommended. The backswimmers breed where they show up naturally in large numbers in our outdoor livestock tanks. The beetles fly into them as well and they live communally in nature when all factors are in balance.
@@bugsincyberspace Have you ever had predatory incidents occur in this tank? Also, I found out that most diving beetles are about the same size as backswimmers, so that explains how they can cohabit. I used to think that all diving beetles were larger than backswimmers, but that varies based on the species. Backswimmers are themselves predators, and might sometimes prey on smaller diving beetles.
That's funny, but I'm not surprised. What is more surprising is that many of my best customers over the years have been pest control companies that buy some bugs to educate about the good bugs.
How do you maintain these aquatic insects long term? I know the general aquarium maintenance, but what about the different life stages of the insects. Like how long will they live in captivity or if they breed in captivity and if so what maintenance that ensues?
Each type has its own requirements but more generally water, some land/float options, and an absence of predators are required. Some of them breed in outdoor tanks we have. Others fly into the lights on my property from nearby or further away sources of water. The ones in our indoor tanks are pretty much for display, and with the mix of things in them reproduction occurs but the eggs are typically quickly eaten by tankmates. Adult specimens themselves live for a year or two, and sometimes they come into the tanks before they are mature.
I know this is an older video, but what aquatic insects would do best with aquatic isopods and clam shrimp? I’m going to do a 5.5 gallon invert only aquarium and those two crustaceans, plus snails, are the only stocking I’ve come up with so far
I currently have a 5.5 gallon that's been running for many years but is unstocked at the moment. I was thinking about diving beetles and/or that water scorpion for possible inhabitants as well as possibly catching some aquatic insects in my area (Minnesota). What advice would you be able to give me?
if you don't want the duckweed to take over, find a floating ring-shaped object, attach a suction cup with superglue to glue it to the side of the tank so it doesn't get pulled in by the filter return, put in your duckweed. When it gets thick, scoop some out, but it'll stay in place and do its job scrubbing the water.
I believe that some of my water scavenger beetles are chowing on the duckweed. I'm more worried that these small bits will disappear before the propagate than being overrun with it. But I appreciate your ideas and I don't know much about using it in a tank. I am curious about what you meant by "scrubbing the water." Does duckweed offer some benefit to the tank aside just looking awesome? Thanks Dean!
@@bugsincyberspace duckweed is, for small or large bodies of water, the greatest water purifier EVER. It's even used in some sewage treatment plants! Your tank is too small for any of the other good floaters- water hyacinth or giant water lettuce- but it'll definitely do a great job.
@@bugsincyberspace Same with us, sort of. Aquatic isopods were everywhere in Connecticut, but we haven't found any in New Hampshire yet, even though they do live here. What state are you in now?
I never thought of keeping these guys in a tank setting! I see them all the time in the water around my house and I just love them. What do you feed these guys?
They are not terribly picky. Many people feed them pet fish or shrimp foods. We mainly feed them dead insects that we find in our various other pet bug tanks.
Hello big fan from Tucson!! Wanted to ask do you know of some good places to go to to find any predatory ground beetles in Tucson? I'm trying to find some but don't really have any luck
Hi Aundre, Mt Lemmon is pretty great. One of our favorites is up there, Scaphinotus. Of course you can find Calosoma most anywhere. Pasimachus are often in areas where you find water and grasses.
@@insectilluminatigetshrekt5574 I might snag some little ostracods from one of the other tanks but am mostly going for a clean look here that won't make anybody's spouse, who they dragged down here on a bug trip to the guest house, itchy. ;)
Do those Banded Diving Beetles eat stuff off the Water Scorpion ? Like some Fish do to other fish ? It would be cool to watch the Water Scorpion eat one of the other bugs, I didn't know they ( Water Scorpion ) was Venomous would it be like a Bee Sting ? I have seen them and pick them up, I have never been bit or stung by them. Do you know if walking Sticks are Venomous ? I have heard they are and they are not, I don't believe they are.
The banded diving beetles were merely resting on the waterscorpions. Yep, somewhat like a bee sting though probably not as dangerous since some people really have trouble with honeybee stings. Walkingsticks are not venomous, although there are some species that can project a liquid out of their thorax. There is a genus from TX to the SE US called Anisomorpha that can do this and people used to email me every year about how their dogs got into a tangle with one and were temporarily blinded.
Great stuff! Im curious, how sensitive are these guys to water parameters? Fools gold might leech into the water a bit, do you think it will affect them? It looks really cool in there!
I can't speak with authority as to how sensitive they are but in the wild we see them in cattle tanks and creeks and stagnant pools and puddles. I think most any pet tank would be a 5 star hotel by comparison.
most breath air so water parameters aren’t usually a problem. A study was done on waterscorpions (ranatra) and they scored an 11 on the pollution tolerance scale. The scale normally goes from 1-10
It depends on the species/type. Most of the larger beetles and hemipterans will rise to the surface and poke the tip of their abdomen through the surface of the water to gather air. Some aquatic beetles will gather little bubbles of air that form on plants or rest on rocks, or even other bugs, often through the stream of water that falls back into the tank after running through the filter.
#BugsInCyberspace Hey Peter, I was wondering if you might be able to do a favour for me in you next upload? I friend of mine is a fan of yours, and was hoping to get to where you guys are at when he was in Arizona recently, but it never really worked out, d'you think that you might be able to give a big shoutout to Kuoni #Reptipods by chance? Thanks! -Connor
Oh, sure, shout out to Kuoni! I think I remember exchanging a couple emails with them a year and a half ago, or so. A healthy enthusiasm for bugs which is always mutually appreciated and as I recall I first spoke with his mother through email and then he emailed me a couple times. And a shout out to you too for your regular comments here and unique appreciation for carabids. Thank you!
Learned the hard way unfortunately. My four waterscorpions picked off all my water scavenging beetles and backswimmers :( They haven’t touched the laccophilus though so that’s good. Nice looking tank!
Yeah, the backswimmers are so abundant I half treat them like feeders. They do very well in my outdoor cattle tanks, etc. It's seems a balancing act when you have all these things together, in combination with a tank of the appropriate size (and abundant access to feeders). Aquatic feeders are as easy to care for as terrestrial ones, and when you live in a place where they are active all year round they are a solid choice for a tankmate, if just temporary. Are you one of the ant guys I recognize from Instagram?
its also a lot harder to replace the insects I lose up here in phoenix since most of our bodies of water are permanent. Vernal pools are really best for looking for those guys. Ill be down by you guys a lot this summer so Im sure ill catch more.
Be careful putting mineral rich stone deposits in your tank, I’m no expert at all so as long as none of the heavy minerals are water soluble you shouldn’t have an issue. We have limestone rocks in florida that bubble when you first put them in and I’ve killed off an entire tank of fish before on accident by using them
Yikes! Yep, I've still got a few things to learn about these tanks but my friend @shapesinnature is gradually becoming an expert through sharing information with people like you
I love the look of this tank…looking forward to seeing it in person on my next visit!
I've got some dates for you! Text me if I neglect to text you back in the next day or two. Thanks Rus, and see you soon!
Glad to see you here man! Hopefully next year I’ll be out there as well!
Los Insectos Acuáticos son los mejores
As a kid I dreamed of having a setup like this. Perhaps one day...
Unfortunately there was very little access to these most of the time since I was a kid. I do anticipate a surge in interest for these in coming years!
that duckweed will grow extremely fast and spread. I also like a Java moss and those marimo Moss balls.
I had never even heard of a water scorpion before seeing them here and they're just so funny, what an odd collection of features lol
Precisely, and not unlike a vinegaroon, eh?
That's a really nice looking tank.
Thanks BT!
Love to see water beetle 🤗
I love the aquatic inverts, there amazing! great video
Thanks Isaac & Ace!
Fascinating and interesting and cool
Thanks for sharing such cool information and content. It's always a pleasure watching these videos you make.
First comment. Thanks a bunch, RT!
Cool, I always have trouble when trying to keep Gyrinus in captivity
We drop in fruit flies for them and tend not to keep waterscorpions or backswimmers with them which will pick them off, although I sort of wonder if they are only able to pick off the weak ones. Dineutus do great in our largest indoor tank and we've had some for about a year now going strong and with little to no die off.
Aquatic insects always have the most fun common name!
you should have 2 tanks 1 tank with preditory insects like the water scorpion, giant water bug, lesser giant waterbug and maybe backswimmers and the other tank for others like whirligigs, sunburst, lesser boatmans, common boatmans, etc
I have tanks like that and quite a few more besides. ;)
Add some sticks and leaf litter to the tank.
Sticks tend to mold, and leaf litter seems to leach tanins that make the water brown. Not the look I'm going for in the guest house, but I do enjoy having some naturalistic set ups like that in the bug room!
in a month the duck weed will take over the tank's surface.Try using aa fork or an afro pick to transfer or remove excess duckweed.
Agreed!
Strangely I've not been able to propagate the duckweed to the extent I'd like to. Maybe it's because the couple tanks I have it in are not in the sun or I don't run lights on most tanks. Not sure. Would love to have more of it to put into some of my indoor and outdoor tanks though.
Neat little setup what brand of aquarium and gallons?
I tossed the box quite a few months ago. I got the tank at a major pet chain store. So far I like the tank although there is a small gap between the lid and tank walls on 3 sides and the beetles are able to move up the glass if they want to, through adhesion and water tension abilities they seem to possess.
Water scorpions look so pathetic when taken out of water, it’s hilarious
I don't think I've ever seen one fly but I will say this for them. They look better out of water than most fish!
Wow! It had never occurred to me as possible to keep backswimmers and diving beetles communally. The beetles don't eat the other bugs?
If other food is being offered, the incidence is lower. A larger tank is recommended. The backswimmers breed where they show up naturally in large numbers in our outdoor livestock tanks. The beetles fly into them as well and they live communally in nature when all factors are in balance.
@@bugsincyberspace Have you ever had predatory incidents occur in this tank?
Also, I found out that most diving beetles are about the same size as backswimmers, so that explains how they can cohabit. I used to think that all diving beetles were larger than backswimmers, but that varies based on the species.
Backswimmers are themselves predators, and might sometimes prey on smaller diving beetles.
Surprised to see a commercial for a bug killing spray! 🤔
That's funny, but I'm not surprised. What is more surprising is that many of my best customers over the years have been pest control companies that buy some bugs to educate about the good bugs.
You should get one those giant water bugs… Maybe not.
I have both Lethocerus and Abedus, actually. But not in that tank. ;)
@@bugsincyberspace They would probably kill everything in there.
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
I have that exact species of backswimmer, but don’t know its name! Can you give me the scientific name and if it eats plants or other bugs?
Not sure, sorry
How do you maintain these aquatic insects long term? I know the general aquarium maintenance, but what about the different life stages of the insects. Like how long will they live in captivity or if they breed in captivity and if so what maintenance that ensues?
Each type has its own requirements but more generally water, some land/float options, and an absence of predators are required. Some of them breed in outdoor tanks we have. Others fly into the lights on my property from nearby or further away sources of water. The ones in our indoor tanks are pretty much for display, and with the mix of things in them reproduction occurs but the eggs are typically quickly eaten by tankmates. Adult specimens themselves live for a year or two, and sometimes they come into the tanks before they are mature.
I know this is an older video, but what aquatic insects would do best with aquatic isopods and clam shrimp? I’m going to do a 5.5 gallon invert only aquarium and those two crustaceans, plus snails, are the only stocking I’ve come up with so far
I currently have a 5.5 gallon that's been running for many years but is unstocked at the moment. I was thinking about diving beetles and/or that water scorpion for possible inhabitants as well as possibly catching some aquatic insects in my area (Minnesota). What advice would you be able to give me?
if you don't want the duckweed to take over, find a floating ring-shaped object, attach a suction cup with superglue to glue it to the side of the tank so it doesn't get pulled in by the filter return, put in your duckweed. When it gets thick, scoop some out, but it'll stay in place and do its job scrubbing the water.
oooo!- you could cut a ring retainer float out of flat cork bark...now I have to do that, get rid of the plastic rings...
I believe that some of my water scavenger beetles are chowing on the duckweed. I'm more worried that these small bits will disappear before the propagate than being overrun with it. But I appreciate your ideas and I don't know much about using it in a tank. I am curious about what you meant by "scrubbing the water." Does duckweed offer some benefit to the tank aside just looking awesome? Thanks Dean!
@@bugsincyberspace duckweed is, for small or large bodies of water, the greatest water purifier EVER. It's even used in some sewage treatment plants! Your tank is too small for any of the other good floaters- water hyacinth or giant water lettuce- but it'll definitely do a great job.
@@deandavis8165 Wonderful to know, and thank you for the information!
Will the aquatic isopod and amphipod cultures be available again, soon?
I've not managed to find any in the new state that I live in, unfortunately.
@@bugsincyberspace Same with us, sort of. Aquatic isopods were everywhere in Connecticut, but we haven't found any in New Hampshire yet, even though they do live here. What state are you in now?
#santatank
I never thought of keeping these guys in a tank setting! I see them all the time in the water around my house and I just love them. What do you feed these guys?
They are not terribly picky. Many people feed them pet fish or shrimp foods. We mainly feed them dead insects that we find in our various other pet bug tanks.
Hello big fan from Tucson!! Wanted to ask do you know of some good places to go to to find any predatory ground beetles in Tucson? I'm trying to find some but don't really have any luck
Hi Aundre,
Mt Lemmon is pretty great. One of our favorites is up there, Scaphinotus. Of course you can find Calosoma most anywhere. Pasimachus are often in areas where you find water and grasses.
@@bugsincyberspace alrighty thank you. One more question. Are there tiger beetles up there as well? Or are there some good places to find some?
@@aundreking3572 Yes, there are multiple species of tiger beetles up there. You'll want to look for sandy areas around water for those.
Add some crustaceans as well like triops or scuds
Some of my tanks have small crustaceans, and one of them a very large crayfish!
@@bugsincyberspace nice, but adding some to this tank may be cool as well
@@insectilluminatigetshrekt5574 I might snag some little ostracods from one of the other tanks but am mostly going for a clean look here that won't make anybody's spouse, who they dragged down here on a bug trip to the guest house, itchy. ;)
Do those Banded Diving Beetles eat stuff off the Water Scorpion ? Like some Fish do to other fish ? It would be cool to watch the Water Scorpion eat one of the other bugs, I didn't know they ( Water Scorpion ) was Venomous would it be like a Bee Sting ? I have seen them and pick them up, I have never been bit or stung by them. Do you know if walking Sticks are Venomous ? I have heard they are and they are not, I don't believe they are.
The banded diving beetles were merely resting on the waterscorpions. Yep, somewhat like a bee sting though probably not as dangerous since some people really have trouble with honeybee stings. Walkingsticks are not venomous, although there are some species that can project a liquid out of their thorax. There is a genus from TX to the SE US called Anisomorpha that can do this and people used to email me every year about how their dogs got into a tangle with one and were temporarily blinded.
Is there any info on captive breeding Ranata sp.?
Wont all these aquatic insects eventually attempt to fly away?
I would be worried that the water scorpion would try to eat everything
Legitimate fear
Great stuff! Im curious, how sensitive are these guys to water parameters? Fools gold might leech into the water a bit, do you think it will affect them? It looks really cool in there!
I can't speak with authority as to how sensitive they are but in the wild we see them in cattle tanks and creeks and stagnant pools and puddles. I think most any pet tank would be a 5 star hotel by comparison.
most breath air so water parameters aren’t usually a problem. A study was done on waterscorpions (ranatra) and they scored an 11 on the pollution tolerance scale. The scale normally goes from 1-10
Question;
Can aquatic insects live in nonoxygenated water?
It depends on the species/type. Most of the larger beetles and hemipterans will rise to the surface and poke the tip of their abdomen through the surface of the water to gather air. Some aquatic beetles will gather little bubbles of air that form on plants or rest on rocks, or even other bugs, often through the stream of water that falls back into the tank after running through the filter.
#BugsInCyberspace Hey Peter, I was wondering if you might be able to do a favour for me in you next upload? I friend of mine is a fan of yours, and was hoping to get to where you guys are at when he was in Arizona recently, but it never really worked out, d'you think that you might be able to give a big shoutout to Kuoni #Reptipods by chance?
Thanks!
-Connor
Oh, sure, shout out to Kuoni! I think I remember exchanging a couple emails with them a year and a half ago, or so. A healthy enthusiasm for bugs which is always mutually appreciated and as I recall I first spoke with his mother through email and then he emailed me a couple times. And a shout out to you too for your regular comments here and unique appreciation for carabids. Thank you!
Learned the hard way unfortunately. My four waterscorpions picked off all my water scavenging beetles and backswimmers :( They haven’t touched the laccophilus though so that’s good. Nice looking tank!
Yeah, the backswimmers are so abundant I half treat them like feeders. They do very well in my outdoor cattle tanks, etc. It's seems a balancing act when you have all these things together, in combination with a tank of the appropriate size (and abundant access to feeders). Aquatic feeders are as easy to care for as terrestrial ones, and when you live in a place where they are active all year round they are a solid choice for a tankmate, if just temporary.
Are you one of the ant guys I recognize from Instagram?
@@bugsincyberspace yep, definitely a balancing act lol. And yea im antsaz over on instagram
its also a lot harder to replace the insects I lose up here in phoenix since most of our bodies of water are permanent. Vernal pools are really best for looking for those guys. Ill be down by you guys a lot this summer so Im sure ill catch more.
Be careful putting mineral rich stone deposits in your tank, I’m no expert at all so as long as none of the heavy minerals are water soluble you shouldn’t have an issue. We have limestone rocks in florida that bubble when you first put them in and I’ve killed off an entire tank of fish before on accident by using them
Yikes! Yep, I've still got a few things to learn about these tanks but my friend @shapesinnature is gradually becoming an expert through sharing information with people like you