One summer, years ago, the maintenance of the pool of the Littlefield Fountain at the U. of Texas was neglected. The pool is about the size of a small swimming pool but only a few feet deep. All sorts of aquatic insects colonized it. It was an awesome sight: Lots of water boatmen, backswimmers, beetles of various kinds, water striders, and also some giant water bugs. This was the only time I have seen a water measurer. I was a grad student in the Zoology department at UT then and I got some other students to come and look at it with me. Unfortunately they cleaned the pool a week later. The main requirement is that your proposed aquarium should have no fish. There should be plants. I think that if you leave it out of doors the insects will come to you. Then you would have to get it inside, so you have to plan for that in advance.
I have had these. I collected them from a pond and kept them in a fairly large vase on my desk, only 3 or 4 of them. The vase had a native water weed and an LED light on top. They don't generally like moving water or bubbles. After they find a place they like, they absorb their wings and cannot fly any more, which is why your collected ones are staying in the water and not trying to fly.. They are fearsome predators for their size and will gang up on larger creatures. I suspect that they have a poisonous bite because I have seen a cockroach go limp and immobile after being bitten by one. They are also somewhat social which is why all your beetles get along together. You are mistaken about them laying their eggs in the mud. They attach an egg cocoon to a water plant, which is why a plant is essential. You have to get that cocoon and wait for the eggs to hatch, and separate the larvae as soon as they come out, because they will eat each other. The adults will eat the larvae, too. You can raise the larvae in separate trays. This is where the mud comes in. When the larvae are ready to pupate, they dig into in the mud and do it there. When they emerge as adults, you have to have the tray covered or they will fly away. There is a long description of how to do this by a scientist in St. Louis, connected with the St. Louis Zoo, I think, and he got an 80% success rate in raising them. That doesn't count the larvae that ate their brothers and sisters inside the egg cocoon, of course... :-) The are indeed fascinating and attractive creatures. They can swim very fast underwater when they want to. I once put a baby cockroach in the vase instead of the usual fish flakes, and one of them grabbed it and swam around with it like a prize. Another one practically jumped underwater and stole it from him. Then the first one did the same thing and stole it back. The thefts happened so fast that you could hardly see them. Good luck with raising them. According to the article, it's a lot of work. Oh, I found the link for you: titag.org/2016/2016papers/osullivanthermonectus.pdf
Spring is coming on here and it's definitely an exciting time to be outside. I'll try to catch some hummingbirds on film in the next couple days. Of course, much of what I see on any decent hike either doesn't make camera or was small and not probably of interest to most people. But I appreciate you guys watching and filming along the walks makes them even more interesting to me. Thanks Robbie!
I got the bugs in early this morning they are all perfect the package is amazing and thanks for the extra much appreciated it my kids are loving it so much 😊
There are so many interesting bugs in ponds and streams and particularly in warm places, or in the summer months. It's a great way to experience the unseen depths of nature that many people are completely oblivious to.
I should have put a light up on top of the tank for the video. The yellow spots on the beetles is really rather golden with sort of a metallic quality to it in good light!
@@bugsincyberspace That would definitely be next level for sure . I use these little micro lights from Aqueon on some of my display tanks . They able to do several colors and mix colors . I’m sure given that these little guys look amazing with natural light you could really make a awesome display using a mix of colors on them !!!
Omg I get so jealous of how dry and arid Arizona look I want to visit so bad… being from a city from the east coast with a marsh and a river literally down the road it literally never get dry here lol…
Those are sic bro I am all the way tired of waiting for season I find a few things here and there But not anything I’m looking for specifically. I did find some interesting wood roaches that kind of reminded me of red runners
Awesome tank. I would love to keep diving beetles in the future! By the way have you had any problems with the diving beetles and backswimmers trying to eat each other? Those tiny beetles look particularly vulnerable.
The backswimmers become prey when they are weak/dying but healthy ones seem to do just fine with them. Similarly, if there is a dead roach or something around, I will drop that in the tank and the beetles will swarm it and feed on it as a group.
It sort of depends on how many you have in the tank, as to feeding frequency, and then also of course the size of the feeders. They will group feed and will eat both live prey and also scavenge. As for water changes, your own personal opinion on the way the tank looks is probably the deciding point, rather than what the beetles like. In nature they often stagnant pools they are found in are far from clean. I use a filter on my longer term tanks, but the one in the video was more of a holding/temporary tank at the time the video was filmed. I have since purchased a filter for it and added more water.
So nice bro, I have a little diving beetle on a big jar, and I found a big larvae, do you think it was an egg from the beetle ? And how do I feed them ? They only eat living prey ?
Would these be bad to keep with a hang in back filter? Not high flow but would they stick to the intake? Also are they good w a bunch of ramshorn snails? I have a ramshorn snail tank they might like w live plants and floaters
I run a filter in a 45 gallon tank that has them and ramshorn snails. The snails are reproducing in large numbers, and the beetles are perfectly happy with no possibility of being sucked into the filter.
@@bugsincyberspace you should make a quick update vid on the 45 gal i watch it after making that comment. Did the snails ever turn blue? They definitely reproduce fast- they will take over your tank if you don’t take them out. I have hundreds in a single 7 gallon tank
Those suddenly appeared in my betta aquarium didnt know what they were so i did some research and landed here But now my question? How they can suddenly appear im from germany those arent realy nativ here? + i didnt bought anything new for my aquarium
This is a species I’ve always wanted to keep I don’t know the Specific species I kept before because it was when I was a kid but they were local to Washington state but I’ve always thought the Sunburst were very pretty
I grew up in Oregon and saw very few diving or water scavenger beetles of this size but I did occasionally see a black one about half the mass of these.
Predatory leeches are pretty cool, I've seen a few videos on youtube of people keeping them as pets(even a facebook group dedicated to keeping leeches as pets!). It would be cool if you could sell them and even breed them.
