Water slaters in NYC Central park lakes

Water slaters in NYC Central park lakes

Local ponds have many interesting critters and plants beneficial for aquariums.

Here are some clips of my live stream from the Central park of NYC, back in Summer 2022.

July-August is the best time for duckweed in NYC.

I've been keeping Bladder snails in all my aquariums.

My Eastern newts consumed bladder snails in great quantities.

Blackworms are a great source of live food for aquarium fish.

I took a sample of pond weed from the pond.

Aquatic plants always come with a host of different critters.

Use a pipette to catch and sort out critters.

Here I got some blackworms, copepods, seed shrimp, daphnia and...that's something new for me.

There are two of them.

I was able to identify them as water slaters.

They are also commonly known as pond slater, water louse, aquatic sowbug, water isopods.

Usually I put wild samples in separate nursery aquariums for observation.

It could be any small size tank, jar or container.

Small containers are great for observation.

I already made many videos about blackworms and other tiny critters.

My Blue star endlers fish enjoy eating live food.

It is a main reason for culturing live food.

Old aquariums with detritus work great for this purpose.

I moved fish from one of my couple years old aquariums to make a tank for new projects.

Let's put blackworms with seed shrimp and copepods into this tank.

Give it a month or so and this aquarium will be filled with live food for fish.

And the best part - I don't have to do any maintenance. 

Now let's get back to the water slaters.

All these critters came with the plant - rinse the plant in the jar to shake off whatever there is.

I use a turkey baster to transfer water slaters into a small container for a better look on them.

Both water slaters are about 1 cm long.

These water slaters are adults judging by their sizes.

Water slaters look very similar to terrestrial isopods.

 count 6 pairs of legs.

Water slaters are bottom feeders.

And these two water slaters are too large to be harassed by my small fish.

So, I am going to put both water slaters in this aquarium with Endlers fish.

Here slaters will find plenty of detritus to feed on.

Here they go.

Fish rush to check on what dropped in the water.

One of the slaters landed on a plant.

Observing small water slaters is a difficult task.

Water slaters are naturally good at hide and seek :)

I lost track of my water slaters shortly after and could not find them after that.

The next time I come across water slaters I would put them in a separate shallow aquarium.

Water slaters could make a nice addition to my aquarium's cleaning crew.

Speaking of cleaning crews for aquariums...

I add water with wild caught tiny critters to my other nursery aquarium gardens.

Scuds and Seed shrimp (ostracoda) make the main core of the cleaning crew in my tanks.

And they also serve as live food for my fish.

Summer is the best time to get them all from your local ponds.

Have fun and happy aquarium gardens :)