Hoglouse, healthy?

B

benjamin

Guest
I have a thriving population of hoglouse in my garden pond this population last through the winter, while when the ground freezes it's difficult to dig for worms. I've read that hoglouse (also known as waterlouse, the aquatic relatives of woodlouse), make great food but can be laden with parasites, the wild newts in my pond sure seem to like them. Should I try feeding them to my captive newts?
 
You could set up your own culture, which after some time should be free of parasites do to lack of vertebrates.

I've been looking for these as possible large fish food, but have yet to see any.
 
If you look in a pond with lots of leaf litter you'll find some, my garden pond (no fish, only wild newts, frogs, and invertebrates) is writhing with them. Hard water is probably also a requirement because of their hard plating. They grow maximum size to about 1.5 inches but usually stay at 1 inch, I think males are larger than females. Does anybody know how to culture these guys.
 
I culture gammarus, simply put them in a container(pref 3-5 gallons plus) and add plant clippings, pellets whatever to it.

Ben: I have looked in similar places, but haven't seen em. The gammarus appear to be taking the niche the aquatic sowbugs would otherwise inhabit. I'll do some more snooping. They are either Lentic littoral or Lotic depositional so i've read(though are said to occasionally live in Lotic erosional habitats).

In laymens terms, that would be "shoreline" Slow moving water where matter is deposited, and fast moving streams where matter is removed.

If I got that wrong feel free to correct me.
 
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