louis_last
Member
I've been doing a fair bit of pond dipping recently and I'm always amazed by the variety of life that turns up. It's got me thinking about whether there's other aquatic invertebrates that could thrive and even complete their lifecycle in planted tanks.
I have very occasionally seen sunburst diving beetles being sold by american vendors for aquariums and I know that some people keep water scorpions and giant water bugs. I suppose the issue is that so many of the cool insects you might find in water are the larval stage of something else but I'm certain there must be vegetarian diving beetles that could fill a similar role to shrimp in aquariums and although most need to leave the water to pupate I know that some don't. Has anyone ever tried keeping any unusual aquatic insects or crustaceans?
Right now I have a slightly unusual worm that I found living in a temporary pond in a spruce plantation that had recently been felled. The water was absurdly tannin stained and there was almost nothing living in it apart from these worms. They're not very exciting but they're not tubifex or the normal variety of blackworm, just look like perfect miniature replicas of compost worms.
I have very occasionally seen sunburst diving beetles being sold by american vendors for aquariums and I know that some people keep water scorpions and giant water bugs. I suppose the issue is that so many of the cool insects you might find in water are the larval stage of something else but I'm certain there must be vegetarian diving beetles that could fill a similar role to shrimp in aquariums and although most need to leave the water to pupate I know that some don't. Has anyone ever tried keeping any unusual aquatic insects or crustaceans?
Right now I have a slightly unusual worm that I found living in a temporary pond in a spruce plantation that had recently been felled. The water was absurdly tannin stained and there was almost nothing living in it apart from these worms. They're not very exciting but they're not tubifex or the normal variety of blackworm, just look like perfect miniature replicas of compost worms.
