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Macroinvertebrate tank at high school

Started by Guest_farmertodd_* , Jan 17 2010 07:59 PM

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18 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 17 January 2010 - 07:59 PM

Howdy folks,

I finally got some pictures of a tank I setup at an urban high school where my I have a 10 hour-a-week fellowship through the National Science Foundation GK-12 program. We set this up in October, I've been really impressed how long things have lived. Pretty much all taxa that I've put in there have survived. I stocked it lightly with leaves and have been putting in sinking fish food. Seems to be enough for thing to get by on... Maybe I'm just deceiving myself and I'm slowly starving them to death. But things are molting through instars and stuff. So I dunno.

The tank is extremely low maintenance. Mainly top off and then a quick 50% water change every couple months.

The kids love the snails, probably because they can see them (it's hard to get excited about corbicula, I'm sure). But every now and then, if I have a student interested, I'll flip a rock and we'll see who is under there. Sometimes, I get lucky and it's the hellgrammite, other times a stonefly jets off, and then sometimes, there's just nothing there. I think that's what they like the most about this. Suspense. And then the shriek

The aquarium setup (nothing glamorous!)

aquarium.jpg 137.07KB 6 downloads

Web-weaving caddisfly larvae

caddisfly_01.jpg 129.09KB 5 downloads

Corbicula (asiatic clam)

corbicula_02.jpg 145.77KB 6 downloads

Gilled snail

gilled_snail_02.jpg 83.33KB 3 downloads

Hellgrammite (dobsonfly larvae)

hellgrammite_04.jpg 173.6KB 3 downloads

Limpet

limpet_01.jpg 106.13KB 3 downloads

Mayfly larvae

mayfly_01.jpg 165.15KB 2 downloads

Pouch snail (exotic Physella acuta from aquarium trade)

physid_snail_06.jpg 141.88KB 1 downloads

Planaria

planaria_02.jpg 83.38KB 3 downloads

Ramshorn snail

ramshorn_snail_04.jpg 101.85KB 1 downloads

Water penny

water_penny.jpg 178.68KB 3 downloads

Todd

Edited by farmertodd, 17 January 2010 - 08:00 PM.

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#2 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 17 January 2010 - 09:09 PM

Nice tank. And it answers one of my unspoken questions, how well would water pennies do in an aquarium? I haven't noticed anyone else mention keeping them in an aquarium.

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#3 Guest_Moontanman_*

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Posted 17 January 2010 - 10:03 PM

That is a realy cool tank, Are water pennies insects? Would things like clam shrimps, tadpole shrimps or fairy shrimp be out of place?

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#4 Guest_CATfishTONY_*

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Posted 17 January 2010 - 10:33 PM

nice tank Todd,
what camera did you use?and what macro setting are you using?

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#5 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 18 January 2010 - 12:25 AM

That is a realy cool tank, Are water pennies insects? Would things like clam shrimps, tadpole shrimps or fairy shrimp be out of place?

Water pennies are a type of beetle, although they don't look the part.

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#6 Guest_mudminnow_*

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Posted 18 January 2010 - 09:12 AM

I like the tank. I often find I watch the invertabrates in my tank as much as my fish.

Nice tank. And it answers one of my unspoken questions, how well would water pennies do in an aquarium? I haven't noticed anyone else mention keeping them in an aquarium.

I have kept water pennies before. They did well.

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#7 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 18 January 2010 - 11:22 AM

Thanks guys.

Bruce, I had no trouble keeping water pennies in that mongo stocked 100 gallon (or web weaver caddisfly and hellgrammites, for that matter). It was a matter of providing heterogeneous habitats with all sizes of substrate particles, really. In fact, the hellgrammites weren't bothered by any of the fish at all and lived in the big cluster that hid under a very large piece of driftwood. I think they may have just backed themselves into holes. So long as I didn't turn smaller cobbles over, the webweavers would find places the fish couldn't get. It was neat to see how two different groups (vertebrates and invertebrates) partitioned the riffle

Moon, I think those taxa would get eaten. If it's something that typically thrives in vernal, ephemeral pools, then I think the life history of those species is going to intersect with the mouth of a fish

However... I don't want to discourage you from testing it out! And I've enjoyed keeping fairy shrimp in fishless systems as well.

Tony, the camera is a Nikon D60 with the 105mm macro and SB-400 speed flash. Talk about overkill on a 10 gallon bug tank! lol

Mudminnow, what types of systems have you setup using macroinverts? This might be something cool to work on together (and others) and put into AC.

Todd

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#8 Guest_mudminnow_*

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Posted 18 January 2010 - 07:02 PM

Mudminnow, what types of systems have you setup using macroinverts? This might be something cool to work on together (and others) and put into AC.

[/quote]

I have only two tanks right now. One is a 75 gallon that I had posted a picture of a few weeks ago in the captive care section. The other is a ten gallon that serves as a quarantine tank for the 75. The tanks are newly set up and the weather is cold, so I have not gone out in weeks to collect. On the 75, I have a fluval 404 for filtration, a mag drive 9.5 for circulation, and 130 watts of PC lighting. The only fish I have are two fathead minnows and a blacknose dace. The invertebrates came in with the rocks, gravel, and sand I took from the creek. I assumed most of these invertebrates would die off when the tank cycled, but they did not. I have snails, limpets, hydra, scuds, water pennies, stoneflies, mayflies, many types of cadisflies, and a few others. One of my favorites is a type of cadisfly larvae that builds a log cabin like structure cemented to a rock. This cadisfly simply holds its arms out in the current occasionally licking them clean. Anyway, I wanted to change a couple of things with the 75, so as much said life as possible is now in the 10 gallon. Yet, I plan to set the 75 gallon back up similarly in the near future. As far as helping you out with an American Currents article is concerned,I'm all for it. Just tell me how I can help.

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#9 Guest_brynneth_*

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Posted 19 January 2010 - 03:34 AM

beautiful tank! its always nice to see people trying some different things in their tanks.

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#10 Guest_Newt_*

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Posted 19 January 2010 - 11:37 AM

Neat! I'm pretty sure your mayfly is actually a damselfly, though. Do you keep the algae growing with that light, or do you have to add new algae-covered stones periodically?

I set up a 10 gallon for my mom's preschool class every year when they do their "pond life" section. I usually get some more robust macros- small crayfish, large hemipterans and beetles- as they seem to keep the very young kids' attention better and are more likely to survive the inevitable cracker or cheerios dropped in the tank.

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#11 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 19 January 2010 - 01:57 PM

Thanks guys. You're totally right, Nathan, that's a damselfly.

The algae grows quite well on its own with food nutrients added, sun and the light. That's just a clippy light and a 20w curly bulb.

Todd

Edited by farmertodd, 19 January 2010 - 01:58 PM.

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#12 Guest_mikez_*

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Posted 21 January 2010 - 12:11 AM

Very cool. nice pics too.
I love tanks like that. I got hooked tying trout flies as well as collecting live food, with some critters serving as models first, then served as dinner. :cool2:

Do you have many emergent bugs flying around? My wife gave me grief over all the flying critters, especially the duckweed moths that look like grain moths. :rolleyes:

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#13 Guest_BTDarters_*

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Posted 21 January 2010 - 05:42 AM

Nice tank, Todd! I've kept water pennies for a while. Mine even had babies! It was pretty neat!

Brian

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#14 Guest_mudminnow_*

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Posted 21 January 2010 - 04:36 PM

Nice tank, Todd! I've kept water pennies for a while. Mine even had babies! It was pretty neat!

Brian

Wow! The water pennies had babies? Did the water pennies metamorphose into adult beetles first? Or, can water pennies (a larval stage) reproduce without becoming adults? I have never heard of such a thing, but that does not mean it's impossible.

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#15 Guest_BTDarters_*

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Posted 22 January 2010 - 07:52 AM

I don't think that it morphed into an adult first. I actually had it in a "leech tamer" in a tank because I wasn't sure what it was at the time. It lived in there for several months and apparently was eating. After a few months there were two of them. They both died eventually, but I had them for quite a while.

Brian

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#16 Guest_SunnyRollins_*

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Posted 22 January 2010 - 12:12 PM

You should try getting some kind of diving beetle for the tank. Not the predaceous ones though!

I also suggest offering meat for the planarians. Hamburger, hot dog, eggyolk, or liver should work.

Edited by SunnyRollins, 22 January 2010 - 12:16 PM.

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#17 Guest_PhilipKukulski_*

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Posted 11 February 2010 - 07:07 AM

I threw a tank together for my high school. Not many visible critters, but who knows what will grow up.

Posted Image

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#18 Guest_Clayton_*

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Posted 16 February 2010 - 03:59 PM

I'm sure there is a lot of life in there. My only worry would be that disturbing the tank looks like it would silt up for hours, so it will be hard to pick up a rock and see who's living underneath it.

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#19 Guest_bulrush_*

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Posted 15 June 2010 - 10:23 AM

That is a realy cool tank, Are water pennies insects? Would things like clam shrimps, tadpole shrimps or fairy shrimp be out of place?

Each year I raise fairy shrimp and clam shrimp outside in ponds. This year I'm trying to get some daphnia to add to my pond. These ponds with fairy shrimp, clam shrimp, daphnia will not have fish for obvious reasons.

Clam shrimp and fairy shrimp are both filter feeders, and need very green algae water to do well. A few will survive in clear water, but barely. I added some clam shrimp to a pond outside with green water. My clam shrimp completely cleared my green pond water in a week. Also, both of these will be eaten by dragonfly larva and mayfly larva, both of which are hungry predators.

And to keep the green algae growing, the pond/tank needs to be in a very sunny, warm (80-85F) location.

Tadpole shrimp (aka triops, billabongs) will eat anything that's on the bottom of the tank, and might even go for fairy shrimp and small fish. They eat a LOT! Be warned. They are best kept in a species only tank.

Edited by bulrush, 15 June 2010 - 10:33 AM.