Water donkeys represent a large population. These representatives of crustaceans belong to the family of donkey, to the order of isopods. They have nothing to do with insects. There are many species of these crustaceans, and each of them takes its place in the ecosystem.
Habitat aquatic 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 terrestrial wood lice are somewhat different from water lice, and under water they can be only about an hour. Water donkeys also live in a humid environment, but can live under water, inhabit coastal parts of freshwater reservoirs, puddles, ditches.
They can live in lakes and slowly flowing rivers. They can not accumulate a lot of fluid in the body, so they need a strong shell and a humid 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 clear, they can sink up to 5 meters in depth. Heavily polluted water bodies are also inhabited by crustaceans, 7 thousand per square meter get along quite well. They live from 9 to 12 months.
A donkey in the sea cannot survive, because this species lives only 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 wood lice ranges from 15-20 mm. The color may be taupe, gray. This creature has eight pairs of legs, the last pair is bifurcated, similar to the tail of a pinch, only water donkeys do not pinch anyone with these bifurcated legs. For humans, they are not dangerous.
If hunters — fish or predatory insect larvae — encroach on these small creatures, then they become immobile and it is not easy to notice them. Moreover, in case of danger, a sea donkey or a wood lice is thrown off the 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 eating the fish.
If the fish is not predatory, then the small inhabitants carry out the function of cleaners in the aquarium.
Maintenance and breeding of water donkeys
Most often, these small crustaceans are bred as a feed crop. It is extremely rare that they are kept simply as a sight for observation. They do not need to create separate conditions, they are able to live in conditions where there is little oxygen, for example, underground or in a rotting substrate. A water donkey in an aquarium is able to find food for itself. Rotting remains of plants and tissues of dead microorganisms are quite suitable. If the aquarium is operational, then there is always something to profit from. You can feed him extra boiled cabbage, oatmeal, leaves.
Owners of aquariums themselves can grow such food for their fish in a separate container.
Invertebrate breeding
Reproduction is possible at a temperature of only 7 degrees heat. The 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 their hatcher bag for up to 6 weeks. Children grown up to 1.5 cm leave their mother and begin an independent life. When the water donkeys reach the age of 2 months, they themselves will be able to give offspring.
Crustaceans eat a lot and for a long time, during their life a year long they can eat up to 170 mg of leaves. Moreover, they themselves are self-propagating nutritious food. Most aquarium fish eat them with pleasure.
In the absence of a male individual for reproduction, the female can do without the male, having fertilized herself (partogenesis).
Crustacean behavior in vivo
The life of small crustaceans is not particularly burdened with anything, they always have something to eat. They slowly move along the bottom or freeze without movement among the remains of decaying plants, if necessary, float. During periods of drying ponds, woodlice are buried in the sludge. May fall into a stupor until the rainy season begins. In winter, they fall into hibernation, when 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 carapace is first dumped from the rear, and then from the front. The dumped 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 a water donkey. A photo of wood lice in their natural environment is presented in the article.
For a person, he poses no danger. The question of whether a water donkey bites or not, the answer is simple: no, they will not be able to bite through human skin. A crustacean can bite off small pieces of food when it eats, but it will not be able to bite through human skin.
Its role in the ecosystem
Most people do not like such residents 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 in the water for them, they multiply very quickly. Having nourished and assimilated all the nutrients, they become an excellent fodder for the aquatic fauna. They are fed by burbots, ruffles, carps and crucians.
Donkeys have many relatives. One of them is the woodworm, it feeds on wood and is very similar to wood lice. From the side of these relatives can be taken for the same look.
Using donkeys as a feed crop
In the warm season, it is not difficult to find water donkeys in places with high humidity. In winter, they can be found only at the bottom of ponds in a state of hibernation. And the owners of the aquariums take care of their fish all year round and want to feed them healthy food. Small crustaceans are nutritious food.
To breed livestock at home, amateurs catch about 2 dozen aquatic wood lice. Females should be larger, remember that they differ in size. You need to place them in a flat and wide vessel with water. There should not be soil in the vessel, you need to establish a weak aeration. In an impromptu pond, the bottom is slightly covered with leaves.
At this time, crustaceans need to be fed vegetables and oatmeal. They multiply quickly enough, without any impact and assistance from the outside. In relation to each other, they behave peacefully, so there is practically no loss. The colony of growing water lice should be controlled and thinned out (fed to fish). To do this, it is enough to get a leaf that was buried by donkeys from the water and shake them in the aquarium.
The donkey's chitinous layer is softer than that of terrestrial wood lice, so almost all fish eat them. This option may be useful to those who breed or contain fish that are fastidious in their diet.
Donkey Mass Cultivation
Fisheries monitor the diet of farmed fish. It includes both plant and animal food. Often they grow feed themselves in both industrial and pond conditions.
In living organisms, an increased concentration of nutrients. Such feed can really be called complete. With proper nutrition, the fish grows well, tolerates winter starvation calmly and digests proteins from live food well.
In fish farming, various living organisms are grown for feeding, including crustaceans. It is crustaceans in most water bodies that are the mass form of zooplankton. Young animals feed on crustaceans in large numbers.
Arthropods breed very quickly, and thanks to this biomass is created in a short time. They grow water donkeys in floating cages in ponds using special technologies.
The crustaceans are fed live, frozen and dried. As a powder, it is added to feed mixtures.
Sea lice
The article mentioned that donkeys live only in fresh water, but they have many relatives who perform the same functions of cleaners, only at the bottom of the seas. Water donkey does not occur in the Black Sea. A two-centimeter baby will not survive in salt water, it is not adapted to such living conditions. But his cousin, wood lice, reaches up to 60 centimeters in length and feels great in a marine environment. At the bottom of the sea, she cleans the area from the carcasses of whales and other carrion, eats a lot.
This giant crayfish looks more like wood lice than normal crayfish or lobster.
Among crustaceans, there are also parasitic species, for example, wood lice, which devours the tongue. This crustacean parasitizes on the body of the host (fish), namely it bites into its tongue and feeds on the blood of the fish. Thanks to the sharp claws, the parasite does not have problems with how to fix its body on the tongue of the fish. A bloodless tongue loses its function, but the wood louse remains in place until the end of days of fish. Apparently, the fish itself does not realize that wood lice became its tongue.
Again, for humans, this species is not dangerous. If you touch a living creature or try to pull it out, then only in this case it can try to bite.