Water donkey in the aquarium: photo, conditions of detention

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Water donkeys represent a large population. These representatives of crustaceans belong to the donkey family, to the order of isopods. They have nothing to do with insects. There are many types of these crustaceans, and each of them has its own place in the ecosystem.

Wood lice habitats

A fairly common species can be found under stones, in shallow river water or under large pebbles. This living creature is also called wood lice, but ground wood lice are somewhat different from water lice, and they can only be under water for about an hour. Water donkeys also live in a humid environment, but they can also live under water, inhabit the coastal parts of freshwater reservoirs, puddles, ditches.

Can live in lakes and slowly flowing rivers. They cannot store much fluid in their bodies, so they need a strong shell and a moist environment. Thickets of aquatic plants in rivers, ponds and lakes are a good shelter from fish and even beetles, which do not mind eating such food. If the water is clean and transparent, then they can sink up to 5 meters in depth. Heavily polluted reservoirs are also populated by crustaceans, 7 thousand per square meter get along quite well. They arelive from 9 to 12 months.

The water donkey cannot survive in the sea because this species only lives in fresh water.

Aquarium crustaceans

Invertebrates have a flattened body, males are larger than females. Respiration occurs due to lamellar gills located in the abdominal region. Two eyes are located on the sides of the head. The size of the woodlice ranges from 15-20 mm. The color may be grayish-brown, gray. This living creature has eight pairs of legs, the last pair is two-branched, similar to the tail of a plucker, only water donkeys do not pinch anyone with these two-branched legs. They are not dangerous for humans.

If these small creatures are attacked by hunters - fish or predatory insect larvae - they become motionless and it is not easy to notice them. Moreover, in case of danger, the sea donkey or water woodlouse discards its limbs, and restores them during molting.

But in the aquarium they cannot escape from predatory fish, because they are placed there precisely for the purpose of making the fish eat.

If the fish is not predatory, then small inhabitants act as cleaners in the aquarium.

Keeping and breeding water donkeys

Most often these small crustaceans are bred as forage crops. It is extremely rare that they are kept simply as a species for observation. They do not need to create separate conditions, they are able to live in conditions where there is little oxygen, such as underground or in a rotting substrate. A water donkey in an aquarium is able to find food for itself. Rotting remains of plants andtissues of dead microorganisms are quite suitable. If the aquarium is operating, then there is always something to profit from. You can feed him with additional boiled cabbage, hercules, leaves.

Aquarium owners can grow this food for their fish in a separate container.

Invertebrate breeding

Reproduction is possible at a temperature of only 7 degrees Celsius. Individuals have male and female representatives. The male waits for the moment of molting, and during this period a rather long mating takes place (up to 10 hours). The female is able to lay about 150 orange eggs at a time, they will stay in the brood pouch for up to 6 weeks. Children who have grown to 1.5 cm leave their mother and begin an independent life. When water donkeys reach the age of 2 months, they will be able to give birth.

Crayfish eat a lot and for a long time, during their life-long years they can eat up to 170 mg of leaves. At the same time, they themselves are self-propagating nutritious food. Most aquarium fish eat them with pleasure.

In the absence of a male to reproduce, a female can do without a male by fertilizing herself (parogenesis).

Crustacean behavior in natural conditions

The life of small crustaceans is not particularly burdened by anything, they always have something to eat. They slowly move along the bottom or freeze without moving among the remains of rotting plants, if necessary, they swim. During periods of drying up of reservoirs, wood lice are buried in silt. They can go into a stupor until the rainy season. Fall into winter timeinto hibernation, when the water is heated to 12 degrees, they come out of it, and all life cycles start.

Shedding takes place in two stages, part of the shell is shed first from the back, and then from the front. The discarded chitin is eaten and used by the body as a building material for new cells. The population is numerous, there are many favorable places for the life of the water donkey. A photo of wood lice in their natural environment is presented in the article.

For a person, it does not pose any danger. To the question of whether the water donkey bites or not, the answer is simple: no, they cannot bite through human skin. The crustacean can bite off small pieces of food when it eats, but it cannot bite through human skin.

Our role in the ecosystem

People for the most part do not like such tenants in their neighborhood. If crustaceans settle in bathrooms, they try to get rid of them as soon as possible and eliminate the cause of dampness. But in the ecosystem, water donkeys play a very important role. Like all crustaceans, they feed on the remains of dead fish, particles of rotting algae and fallen leaves. If there is a lot of food for them in the water, they multiply very quickly. Having fed and assimilated all the nutrients, they become an excellent food for aquatic fauna. They feed on burbots, ruffs, carp and crucian carp.

Water donkeys have many relatives. One of them is wood borer, it feeds on wood and is very similar to wood lice. From these relatives can be mistaken for the same species.

Using donkeys asfodder crop

In the warm season, it will not be difficult to find water donkeys in places with high humidity. In winter, they can only be found at the bottom of reservoirs in a state of hibernation. And aquarium owners take care of their fish all year round and want to feed them he althy food. Small crustaceans are nutritious food.

To breed livestock at home, amateurs catch about 2 dozen water woodlice. There should be more females, remember that they differ in size. You need to place them in a flat and wide vessel with water. There should be no soil in the vessel, you need to install weak aeration. In a makeshift pond, the bottom is slightly covered with leaves.

At this time, crustaceans need to be fed with vegetables and hercules. They multiply quickly enough, without any influence and help from the outside. In relation to each other, they behave peacefully, so there are practically no losses. A colony of growing water woodlice needs to be controlled and thinned out (feed to the fish). To do this, it is enough to get a leaf from the water, which was occupied by donkeys, and shake them into the aquarium.

The chitin layer of donkeys is softer than that of ground woodlice, so almost all fish eat them. This option may be useful for those who breed or keep fish that are picky eaters.

Mass donkey rearing

Fish farms monitor the diet of farmed fish. It includes both plant and animal foods. They often grow their own food both in industrial and pond conditions.

Aliveorganisms have an increased concentration of nutrients. Such food can really be called complete. With proper nutrition, fish grow well, tolerate winter starvation calmly and digest proteins from live food well.

In fish farming, various living organisms are grown for feeding, including crustaceans. It is crustaceans in most reservoirs that are the mass form of zooplankton. Juveniles feed on crustaceans in large numbers.

Arthropods breed very quickly, and thanks to this, biomass is created in a short time. Water donkeys are raised in floating cages in reservoirs using special technologies.

Crayfish are fed live, frozen and dried. As a powder added to feed mixtures.

Sea woodlice

It was mentioned in the article that donkeys live only in fresh water, but they have many relatives who perform the same functions as cleaners, only at the bottom of the seas. The water donkey is not found in the Black Sea. A two-centimeter baby will not survive in s alt water, he is not adapted to such living conditions. But its relative, the sea woodlice, reaches up to 60 centimeters in length and feels great in the marine environment. At the bottom of the sea, she cleans the territory from the carcasses of whales and other carrion, eats a lot.

This giant crayfish looks more like a woodlice than a normal crayfish or lobster.

Among the crustaceans, there are also parasitic species, such as the tongue-eating woodlice. This crustacean is parasitic onbody of the host (fish), namely, it digs into his tongue and feeds on the blood of the fish. Thanks to sharp claws, the parasite has no problem fixing its body on the fish's tongue. The bloodless tongue loses its functions, but the wood lice remains in its place until the end of the days of the fish. The fish itself, apparently, does not realize that the wood lice has become its tongue.

Again, this species is not dangerous for humans. If you touch a living creature or try to pull it out, then only in this case it can try to bite.