Arthropod/invertebrate tank

[Malkavian]

Seems like it would be kinda neat to have a tank that's all aquatic crustaceans and insects with maybe just one or two fish. Anyone ever tried this? My only thought would be that it would be too boring with all the critters hiding out during the day..

I was thinking of adding smoething like the following:

aquatic insects - diving beetles, water boatmen
various shrimp
crabs or crayfish (which require a land area, i know)

all in a fairly heavily planted natural looking tank.

Diving beetles prey on small fish so having those plus a betta or similar would be right out, but I don't think they could prey on larger shrimp or hardshelled crustaceans.

can you have things like freshwater mussels or river clams in an aquarium or do they need a lot of current to live well?

 

[Synirr]

Woah, sounds like a cool idea! You couldn't have a betta with crabs/crayfish though... those would be some shredded fins! You could have "feeder" guppies that could serve as food for the beetles and crayfish as well as something to inhabit the midwater level, though
I've seen freshwater clams for sale on Aquabid.com many a time, and apparently they do well in aquariums. They are parasitic during their larval stage though, and will infest the fish if they reproduce.

 

[Bling]

What a coincidence---just yesterday I was thinking a similar thing, a non-fish stream-type biotope, only smaller. I've recently discovered I have a small population of hydra. I guess it's a "bad" animal, but so interesting (a relative of marine anemone). I even saw one that had caught a TINY snail. Then, not long after, I saw some strange green balls that might be sponge. . . anyway, I hope you pursue your unusual tank, and let us know what happens.

 

[Mo_loves_fish]

that would be awsome!!

 

[DeepSeaFishin]

Bling those hydra can actually be very dangerous, if they attach to a fish it will eat the fish alive, a long and cruel deat to the fish

 

[thapsus]

I have 53 liters invertabrate tank. I have 4 apple snails, 1 neritina and lots of shrimp in there. Works well, it's very intresting to watch.

 

[Malkavian]

What a coincidence---just yesterday I was thinking a similar thing, a non-fish stream-type biotope, only smaller. I've recently discovered I have a small population of hydra. I guess it's a "bad" animal, but so interesting (a relative of marine anemone). I even saw one that had caught a TINY snail. Then, not long after, I saw some strange green balls that might be sponge. . . anyway, I hope you pursue your unusual tank, and let us know what happens.

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That's funny, if it were me I'd consider the hydra an awesome addition to a tank. They're awesome little critters to watch. Can feed 'em daphina or brine shrimp or bloodworms (or probably feeder guppies if it came down to it)


I'm not sure you could find enough stuff to go in, but a pond tank of Hydra, daphina, cyclops, planaria and maybe shrimp would be really neat, and almost self suffecient if you could get the daphina or cyclops breeding fast enough..

 

[rain-]

I actually have only 1 fish at the moment, MG CT betta male, Crybaby, then I have hundreds of apple snails with rainbow of colours, 15 other snail species, over 100 shrimps (Crystal Red, White Pearl and couple other species) and two clam species. They really do look awesome in planted tank, no need for fish there.

I don't know much about those beetles and I have only experience on these smaller shrimps which the beetles would most likely eat, at least the offspring would be considered dinner. Same goes with most of the crabs and crayfish, they might eat the small shrimps.

My favourite mix would be a shrimp species, Crystal Red, Bumblebee or some other like that, pygmy cories or other small cory species (C. hastatus or habrosus) and some clams. They all would enjoy same type of tank, good aeration (and some current), no predators, not too high temperature and lots of plants. You would need to make sure that the clams get enough to eat (there's some liquid foods for sale, even the liquid fry food would be good) and won't happen to die and pollute the tank when they start to rot.

 

[Bling]

Hydra attach to a fish Yikes! I thought their foot was just a sticker, and the feeding part was the hairs on top. That's where their venom comes from, I believe. I know they launch themselves into the current now and then---which is when I'm able to scoop them out alive (always squash them when trying to remove from glass, leaves, etc.). I'll keep removing them, at least keep the population as small as possible.

 

[superjalami30]

For quite awhile now I've wanted to set up a small 10 gallon tank with a giant water bug.
Mud bottom, decaying leaves, wood, a few low light plants.

http/www.whatsthatbug.com/toe_biter.html

I catch these buggers in the mill I work in, they get huge, 3-6 inches long!

 

[Malkavian]

Yeah toe biters get HUGE. I wouldnt mind keeping one but it would devour bout anything elsei could possibly put in the tank...

 

[superjalami30]

Yea, you'd have to house it by itself.
You'd probably have to set up another tank just to house the other bugs you'd need to feed this monster.
Feeder guppies/goldies could be used as a staple diet
I did a project in grade school on them (many yrs ago) and had pictures of one sucking a garden snake to death!!!!
If bitten by one you can expect a severe burning sensation around the bit area.

I brought one camping a few yrs ago, intending on letting it loose in my brothers tent, this of course was before I knew they bit, let alone the pain they cause.
It got away, and fortunatly I wasnt able to go through with my intended prank.