[APD] Re: Water Boatmen and Green Water

[Joshua L Wiegert <jlw at dune_net>]

Water Boatmen do eat greenwater, and will therefore help clear up the
water.  They'll also do it fairly quickly.  Like any organism that eats
phytoplankton, how quickly will depend on how many you have and just how
bad the water problem is.  You an use Daphnia, Cyclops, or Moina and their
relatives to help clear up the water, too.  The advantages of Boatmen,
though, is that you can see them -- they're kind of entertaining to watch
-- and, unless you have larger fish -- they don't get eaten in the first
few hours!  On the downside, if the tank is not covered, they can get out
...  The big warning is that boatmen look a great deal like a few other
Hemipterans, noteably backswimmers, which do not eat algae and bite...
really, really hard.  Backswimmers may also prey on small fishes.  If you
can reliably tell the two apart, you've nothing to worry about.  Boatmen
are completely harmless (to fish and such, anyhow.  They can and do also
bite, though its not as bad as the backswimmer).  Boatmen have a short
beak, while Backswimmers have a longer beak.  Boatmen have short, oar like
legs, while Backswimmers have longer legs.  I have trouble telling them
apart, so I don't use them very often.

I'm a little biased of course....  I wrote the blurb.

end
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><,DARWIN,>
Joshua L. Wiegert
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Feel free to contact me by any of the above means for any reason.
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