[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: True Bugs
In a message dated 9/5/99 2:59:08 AM EST, Owner-Live-Foods at actwin_com writes:
<<
Someone define what you mean by "true bugs". Are they everything except
"true insects"? And if they kill the fish by dissolving them from the
inside
out, what do wild fish do to discern the nasty ones from the safe ones?
Count legs?
>>
True bugs are insects of the order Hemiptera. Some are aquatic. Most are not.
Some are wingless. Different species range from tiny to huge. None of them
have teeth or chewing parts to their mouth. Instead of a regular mouth, they
have horny jointed beaks that look something like a short thick hypodermic
needle through which they suck the dissolved contents of the plant or animal
they attacked. Large aquatic true bugs will eat aquatic insects, snails,
large fish, water snakes and frogs up to adult bull frog size. They attach
themselves to their much larger prey where they cannot be shaken off and
inject their poison and digestive fluid. Some of these are in a way like the
male seahorse. The male bug carries the eggs and then very briefly the young
on his back, dropping them off one at a time in different places. The small
aquatic ones I've raised will eat fruit flies and small crickets, needing
larger food each time they molt. They seem to grow better on a varied diet
than the first ones I raised only on ramshorn snails. If you can remove the
fish, a single adult or juvenile will rid the tank of all the snails. To
avoid cannibalism, each baby bug should be isolated. Adults can be used as a
way to dispose of culled and deformed fish. Counting legs will do the fish no
good. All insects, true bugs or not, come with six legs.