Tsarmina Posted October 19, 2008 Report Share Posted October 19, 2008 i have a pond in the front yard which i have a supply of daphnia growing in. while cleaning out some slime yesterday i also found bloodworms, mossie larvae, a water boatman and damselfly larvae. my question is, are boatmen and damselfly larvae any danger to small fish? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imsweet Posted October 19, 2008 Report Share Posted October 19, 2008 i've heard of boatmen eating fry as a breeder here fishes them out when he sees them and feeds them to the large g/fish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucid Posted October 19, 2008 Report Share Posted October 19, 2008 Boatman and Damselfly larvae eat fry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heir Posted October 20, 2008 Report Share Posted October 20, 2008 :roll: Water Boatmen of New Zealand are non-predatory, dining on aquatic plants and algae instead of insects and vertebrates. They use their straw-like mouthparts to inject saliva into plants. The saliva digests the plant material, allowing the water boatman to suck the liquefied food back through their mouthparts and into their digestive tract. A few species of water boatmen are predatory, but the majority are herbivorous. New Zealand ones however, are not predatory. Damselfly nymphs are carnivorous, feeding on daphnia, mosquito larvae, and various other small aquatic organisms but usually not fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucid Posted October 20, 2008 Report Share Posted October 20, 2008 We have had both in tanks before and SAW them eat guppy fry. Go figure. :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heir Posted October 20, 2008 Report Share Posted October 20, 2008 Interesting. Never heard of this before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsarmina Posted October 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2008 thanks people. time to go on a bug hunt and kill the little sods. that last thing i want is to lose my small supply of daphnia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted October 20, 2008 Report Share Posted October 20, 2008 thanks people. time to go on a bug hunt and kill the little sods. that last thing i want is to lose my small supply of daphnia pictures tsarmina in wetsuit and mini speargun hunting down those dreaded boatmen 2 types of boatmen Water-boatman (Arctocorisa arguta) and Back-Swimmer (Anisops wakefieldi), they swim by the rowing action of their back legs. The back-swimmer swims on its back, the water-boatman swims uppermost. Both are carnivores and feed on insect and other animal life in the water. Mosquito larvae form a large part of their diet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heir Posted October 22, 2008 Report Share Posted October 22, 2008 pictures tsarmina in wetsuit and mini speargun hunting down those dreaded boatmen 2 types of boatmen Water-boatman (Arctocorisa arguta) and Back-Swimmer (Anisops wakefieldi), they swim by the rowing action of their back legs. The back-swimmer swims on its back, the water-boatman swims uppermost. Both are carnivores and feed on insect and other animal life in the water. Mosquito larvae form a large part of their diet. Water boatmen and Back swimmers are completely different. However, they are both in the Hemiptera order of insects which has around 80,000 species of cicadas, aphids, stink bugs (the ones the STINK when you're doing your gardening) and other certain beetles. There are over 500 known species of water boatmen in the world. Over 90% of these are herbivores! I realise you got your information from here; http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/W/Water-boatman/Water-boatman/en But I still dissagree with this! haha call me stubborn but I'm yet to see NZ water boatmen eat anything more than plant matter! Just my two cents worth. Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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