Hi, i'm just curious if anyone hear has successfully kept water bugs (water boatman, diving beetles, back swimmers etc.) in an aquarium with small fish. Because the fish are very small, i'm not concerned about the fish eating the bugs, just whether or not they can survive and breed in an average fish tank. Thanks in advance.

Never tried it myself.I keep bettas and anything becomes lunch.Its an interesting concept though.

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Never heard of it. Let us know if it works though! (What do they eat?)

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It depends on the type of bug, algae, plants, and smaller bugs are some common foods.

Don't forget some bugs eat small fish

Hi, I remember having around 20-30 water beetles, 1 water boatman, 2 dragonfly larvaes, together with 2-3 stickleback fish. And that went mostly fine. I dont remember how long i kept it going but i think it was around a year.

The water beetles were around 1 cm long black/brown. They were really nice aquarium pets, always showing themself when i dropped food in the tank.
Mine were carnivorous but not strong and fast enough to catch a healthy fish, and the fish would quickly learn to stop bothering trying to eat the beetles, they could not swallow them I would strongly suggest you try these out. But be aware there are some bigger and more aggressive predatory species of these aswell, like the great diving beetle (but i havent tried these ones out so i dont know for sure).

Water boatsman looks really nice when they sit on the floor of tank with their backlegs spread out to each side. But with their long legs i would assume they would much more quickly be disabled to swim by the fish who rips em off. But The one lonely guy i had made it atleast in my tank.

Dragonfly larvaes are awesome, they mostly just sit in the shadow on a stem or a root and wait out for something to pass by. But they can be bigger about 3-4cm and have a strong jaw to snap their preys with. But again I think that most of the healthy fish would be good to watch out for the dragonfly larvae and also avoid them. But they prolly would take a small youngling if it got the opportunity. But it seemed to be living fine on pond snail babies.

Same with the water beetle. it even eats flake food from the surface.

The backswimmer I havent tried out with fish, but they have toxic enzymes and are predatory so i would be more careful with those. The sting is about the same as being stung by a wasp, and who knows if a fish could handle that?

There is alot of talk here from my side, I just hope it is appreciated

Thanks for the help, definitely appreciated. I was actually bitten by a backswimmer about a year ago and it hurt like heck. I can't wait to get some of these guys.

I read your first post again, andsee you're asking if you can breed them in an aquarium.
I think the boatsman and backswimmers completes all their larvae stages under the water surface, but Im pretty sure the diving beetle larvae needs a land part to transform into a beetle, it might depend on specie tho.

I also would like to add that many of these insects under water can fly, and are good at climping up the silicon or wires going in to the aquarium. So it would be wise to seal up the tank