Them goggas and stuff.

Hi All

Water must have some of the biggest bio diversity around.
Yet we mostly look at fish for aquariums.

Was just wondering what other wonderful things there are out there that
would be interesting to have in an aquarium?
Not talking shrimp and the normal aquarium stuff. More like " water hondjies"
not sure what they are actually called.

I have found some interesting things in water before that would
have looked awesome in a little Nano but never thought of it.

Gerhard

 

Water hondjies noem hulle 'water boatman' in brits.

And Algae eaters! Wonder if they can tollerate warmer water.

 

Are you not thinking of the one that walks on the water?
I am talking about the one that almost looks like a cockroach
and comes up to the surface for air every once a while.
And it likes biting when your swimming.

 

Whirligig beetles perhaps?

Some of the aquatic beetles are actually quite capable of nomming our little fishies so watch what you wish for!

 

besides copepods, amphipods, fish, crustaceans and a few insects, most of the creatures in water are only there temporarily.

either in larval stages like mosquitoes and bloodworms or nymph stages like dragon flies. these are going to grow into adults, and will get out of your tank into wherever you are keeping them, some of these are predators and will eat each other and small fish, so not ideal tank mates.

most of these will probably only tolerate cold water though and unless you are going to dedicate a tank to this, the risk of introducing pathogens into your tanks is very high..

 

I've seen a tank with some kind of frog species - a whole bunch of them. Wish I would remember what they were - seriously interesting tank.

 

Dont add dragon fly nymphs... interesting to look at but the like to catch and chow-down on guppy-sized fish

 

Scary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWQ1KmCoFnE

 

very scary jenn

 

There are certain frogs that live in water almost 100% of the time - the "african clawed frog" or Platanna (please excuse the spelling) - used sometimes for catching catfish, lives well in fishtanks. Funny thing though, they go much lighter on light substrate - so they become ghost-platannas!

 

And if I remember correctly, a 'waterhondjie" is a water scorpion:

 

Insects... I think i might be able to help...

Water hondjies = Boatman (Hemiptera : Notonectidae)
Water Skerpieon = Water scorpion (Hemiptera : Nepidae) (Hemiptera : Belastomatidae) Nepidae gets anything between 20 and 45mm while Belastomatidae gets anything from about 12mm up to a good 80mm... And they are brilliant carnivores that eats tadpoles and fish... Diplonychus is really cool since the female glues the eggs to the males back and the carries them until they hatch... (I don't know if any female fish is this mean to the poor male...)

A very cool family of insects to keep that is quite fun to watch is the Dytiscidae (Coleoptera) They are predatory water beetles... (NOTE: very bad for any fish smaller than itself... Its size range is 1-45mm)
Gyrinidae (Coleoptera) is also cool, but you will need a tank that you can see the top of... These are the Whirleigig beetles...

And then just for interest sake these are LEGEND!!! Emesinae (Reduviidae : Hemiptera) Thread Assassin Bugs... The best description i ever got for these are: A daddy long leg crossed with a praying mantis... (NOTE: They are not aquatic...)

But most of these aquatic insects migrate to new pools when they are mature... And Dragon Fly larvae (Odonata) is the best method of controlling guppies that are breeding to fast to your liking...

I hope this helps...