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whirlygig beetles

Started by Guest_danseswfish_* , Sep 21 2008 09:53 AM

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9 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_danseswfish_*

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Posted 21 September 2008 - 09:53 AM

Ive just returned home with two fun new specimens for native freshwater tanks and would like an opinion on both of them. One was a bunch of whirlygig beetles that are very amusing and the other is the freshwater bryozoan Pectinatella magnificata. I was wondering the culture pros and cons to these that I have not already discovered.........the beetles seem to be disappearing and the bryozoans stink!!! :neutral :neutral:

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#2 Guest_mikez_*

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Posted 21 September 2008 - 10:52 AM

Can't help you with care details but as a general rule, bryzoans are difficult to impossible in my experience.
Whirlygigs fly away so if you don't have a tight fitting screen cover, they will disappear.

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#3 Guest_Newt_*

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Posted 21 September 2008 - 11:05 AM

The Pectinatella you find drifting up to shore this time of year are senescent colonies- they'll just rot in your tank. You gotta try to find the young ones in the spring. I haven't managed it yet.

Like Mike said, whirligigs can and will fly off.

Edited by Newt, 21 September 2008 - 11:05 AM.

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#4 Guest_Casper Cox_*

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Posted 21 September 2008 - 11:44 AM

Next time you get a whilygig...
take it home, take a big silver spoon, fill it with water and put that whirlgig in the level spoon.
get out a magnifying glass and check that dude out.
kind of remind me of a hightech armored csa merrimac ( civil war era ).
pretty cool. amazing how fast they are. some smell like apples. sometimes i use them as a natural aireator in my closed cooler, hehe.
ive put them in the cement pond but they soon fly away.
big swimming swarms are impressive. beautiful patterns on the water's surface.
cool critter.
ive never been biten by one but have been told they do. some get almost 3/4" long.

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#5 Guest_uniseine_*

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Posted 21 September 2008 - 06:22 PM

<clip>
cool critter.
<clip>

And they have 2 eyes on top of their head
AND
2 eyes on the bottom of their head.

Edited by uniseine, 21 September 2008 - 06:23 PM.

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#6 Guest_danseswfish_*

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Posted 21 September 2008 - 08:20 PM

They are really cool and from what I have read theyre relatively innocuous. But their larvae are voracious predators......assuming they lasted that long before they got preyed on themselves. Too bad they dont stay in the tank but the spiders dont seem to be minding that!!!!!!

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#7 Guest_smilingfrog_*

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Posted 22 September 2008 - 12:01 AM

I've always liked them. When I go to my grandmother's lake cabin, I'll stand on the dock and feed the mosquitos that I swat to the whirligigs in the water below. It's always fun to watch. Toss a freshly swatted mosquito into the middle of a bunch of them, one will eventually bump into it, grab it, start spinning furiously in place, and pretty soon a pair of mosquito wings drift away and the whirligig swims off.

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#8 Guest_critterguy_*

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Posted 23 September 2008 - 11:46 AM

Interesting stuff. I kept waterstriders in captivity briefly one time and they promptly bred, laid eggs, and hatched nymphs. The nymphs would have been easy to raise on fruitflies/sweepings were it not for several other projects also going on at the time.

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#9 Guest_Irate Mormon_*

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Posted 23 September 2008 - 11:23 PM

The Pectinatella you find drifting up to shore this time of year are senescent colonies- they'll just rot in your tank

If you want the Bryozoan experience, just cook up a batch of Jello and dump it into your tank. Fun for the whole family and it's safe for the kids too!!