I found Water Scorpion

During my quest to find Newts in New York I came across many other living wonders. 

Some of them I already shared in previous videos. 

And some I still want to share. 

I take samples of aquatic plants at ponds and lakes I visit.  

Locally growing plants often cannot be found in pet stores. 

Many of those plants make a nice addition to my aquarium gardens. 

And all wild growing aquatic plants come with a host of local bacteria and critters.

One never knows what comes with wild plants for sure. 

And it is one of the most enjoyable parts of such adventures for me.

That is how I found this critter at the Blue Heron park of Staten Island on July 10th, 2022. 

I am curious about this aquatic critter.

 I want to identify and probably learn more about it. 

I've been using the iNaturalist app for identification of critters and plants I find. 

Taking pictures is necessary for identification.

My phone has a very low signal in this park. 

So, I took pictures of the critter and decided to bring it home with the plants I found it on. 

A couple hours later I put the critter in the 29 gallon tank I've been preparing for newts.

 I still hope to find Red-spotted newts in Staten Island. 

The aquarium populated with local bacteria, plants and critters would make newts feel like home. 

I want to make this paludarium as self-sustainable as I did with all my jar aquarium gardens. 

The iNaturalist app recognized and identified this critter as Water Scorpion.

 Check the link in the description to the video for more info. 

Here I give you just some highlights. 

So, that is my iNaturalist post with pictures and location where I found this water scorpion. 

Click on the picture to enlarge it for a more detailed view. 

On the map you can see the location where the pictures were taken. 

That is where I found this water scorpion. 

The identification was already reviewed and confirmed by 3 users. 

This water critter belongs to genus Ranatra.

 Let's click on the link to read what scientists know about Ranatra. 

The critter on the picture looks exactly the same as the one I found. 

Let's scroll down to the description.

 Oh! The water scorpions are predators - how interesting! 

They live in stagnant or slow moving water - that is my type of aquarium. 

They eat insects, tadpoles and small fish. 

Wow-wow...they eat small fish! 

And they are active all year around.

 It sounds like an interesting pet to keep in an aquarium. 

The water scorpion is relatively small - about an inch of slim stick-like body. 

It would probably take a month for this water scorpion to digest one young Endlers fish. 

I have plenty of small Blue Star Endlers fish to provide food for the water scorpion and a newt. 

But keeping a newt with the scorpion in the same tank could be problematic... 

One of them may get eaten or hurt by the other one...

 I don't have space to set up a separate tank for this water scorpion this year. 

The next trip to Staten Island in a couple days I will release this water scorpion back where I got it. 

The next time around I will be prepared for an adventure with the water scorpion :)

 Have fun and happy adventures :)