Matt
Pupa
I'm having a second / 3rd attempt at rearing Giant Water Bugs - Abedus sp. - and am still running into problems, so any advice would be useful.
Previously I tried with a couple of batches of small nymphs - these were kept in small pots / deli cups with either small amounts of java moss or plastic mesh for them to rest on. They would eat, moult and grow, then I would find them dead (drowned?) at the bottom of their container.
I bought a pair of bugs at a Bug Show a couple of weeks ago, the male was covered with eggs. I set them up in a small tank - around 2 gallons - with a lot of weed in, a lot of which reached the surface. The male could be found mostly near the surface airing the eggs. Yesterday evening the first of the eggs began to hatch and the young wandered off into the weeds. Looking at the tank this morning, all of the nymphs that have hatched are dead and have sunk to the bottom of the tank.
I've removed most of the water from the tank and am now left with a pile of damp weed poking well out of the water with about 1-1.5 inches of water in the bottom of the tank and the tank on a slight angle so as to give a variation in depth. I'm hoping this might result in fewer deaths when the rest of the eggs hatch.
I'm guessing that in the wild the youngest nymphs inhabit the margins of the water and move around in the shallows over things like fallen leaves where it is just wet, or spend their time sitting on floating mats of vegetation. I've got Orins' book and have read the appropriate chapters but am still getting problems. Anyone have experience with thse bugs and can tell me how they managed them please - sems a shame for them to hatch and drown within a few hours.
Matt
Previously I tried with a couple of batches of small nymphs - these were kept in small pots / deli cups with either small amounts of java moss or plastic mesh for them to rest on. They would eat, moult and grow, then I would find them dead (drowned?) at the bottom of their container.
I bought a pair of bugs at a Bug Show a couple of weeks ago, the male was covered with eggs. I set them up in a small tank - around 2 gallons - with a lot of weed in, a lot of which reached the surface. The male could be found mostly near the surface airing the eggs. Yesterday evening the first of the eggs began to hatch and the young wandered off into the weeds. Looking at the tank this morning, all of the nymphs that have hatched are dead and have sunk to the bottom of the tank.
I've removed most of the water from the tank and am now left with a pile of damp weed poking well out of the water with about 1-1.5 inches of water in the bottom of the tank and the tank on a slight angle so as to give a variation in depth. I'm hoping this might result in fewer deaths when the rest of the eggs hatch.
I'm guessing that in the wild the youngest nymphs inhabit the margins of the water and move around in the shallows over things like fallen leaves where it is just wet, or spend their time sitting on floating mats of vegetation. I've got Orins' book and have read the appropriate chapters but am still getting problems. Anyone have experience with thse bugs and can tell me how they managed them please - sems a shame for them to hatch and drown within a few hours.
Matt
