Pond Skaters

Has anyone here kept pond skaters? I am also going to be keeping diver beetles as well? What do they eat and habitat?

I kept backswimmers, waterboatmen and diver beetles in a bucket outside

Canadian anter wrote:I kept backswimmers, waterboatmen and diver beetles in a bucket outside

I want to keep them in a tank inside, probably let them live in my yearly tadpole tank? Any idea what i should be feeding them?

What is your tadpole tank like?? My kids are obsessed with tadpoles, that might be something fun and easy (?) to raise this spring...

Just a tank with pond water, and I just scoop some mud and algae from the bottom of the pond. Also try and get some aquatic pond roots in there as well. That works just fine.

Do they gulp air? Or how do you keep it from going stagnant? Or do you have a proper fish tank with a filter on it?

What do you do with the frogs? Release or keep or both? lol sorry to hijack your Skaters thread with tadpoles!

lol, no that's just fine. The fish tank I had was a ten gallon, and it never had a filter. They survived just fine, and the algae puts off enough oxygen for them to if I had to guess. Once they start climbing out of the water I just let them go.

I kept pond skaters when I lived in Japan. Oh wait they lived in the river near my house! Close enuff. Remember that pond skaters are predators and they will go after bugs stuck in the water!

I think the way to keep them is just in a fish tank with mud and algae and feed them small crickets

Fish tank is fine. You'll want some sort of water filter, especially if you're going to have mixed species, including those that dive. If you just keep pond skaters, kill some crickets/roaches/fruit flies and drop them on the surface, let the skaters feed and remove the dead. They'll need something to rest/climb on too.

I believe many species of diving beetles are scavengers as well. They definitely need a well filtered tank otherwise they'll drown.

I've thought it as food for my aquarium fish before, but wasn't too sure on the insects actual care and requirements. Plus didn't want them to jump out and have to deal with that aspect.

They eat dead insects, or ones that are dying on the water surface. I observed one eating a grasshopper a few weeks ago.