Water Mites and Giant Water Beetle

[Torhtue]

Hello!
My husband found this lovely little fella (or gal) about a month ago in front of our work. (pictures below)
He now resides in a nice little tank with a few fake plants to grab on to.
We have been feeding him crickets and other little critters ( in between cricket runs). He was wonderful up until about a week ago when we noticed little " things " on him. My hubby got excited and thought they were eggs. They weren't =(
So now we have some "wonderful?" little red water mites swimming around. We have tried changing the water and cleaning everything in the tank. I am guessing since they are "on him" that did not help much. He has two plastic "beta" plants ( as the pet store call them) and a bit of gravel on the bottom in his tank.

Is there any way to get rid of the mites?

Jimmy ( my husband named him so you know we can't get rid of him now right?)is pretty neat I'd like to keep him. Him being what he is I'm doubtful I can put anything else living in the tank to eat them. If there is anything that does.
With the part of the world I'm in we figure he is a Lethocerus americanus.
We live in Canada on the Bay of Fundy.

 

[Delapool]

Hello, I'm curious myself but don't have an answer. Did you find out anything that helped?

 

[Torhtue]

Not as of yet.
I fear they might be doing Jimmy in. He seems like he does't want to eat and he's stopped trying to attack everything that moves.
We are keeping him in the smaller spot and trying to change the water as soon as we see anything.
I'll let you know if it makes any difference.
It might be hard to tell from the picture but jimmy is about around 9 cm long (about 3 1/2 inches). I'm wondering if his lack of motivation might just be he's nearing the end of his life. I'm not sure how long these guys live. At his size I would feel safe in assuming he's a pretty old bug as some bugs go.

 

[Delapool]

Geez, that's bigger than I thought

Is it possible to ask around at pet shops which have a vet attached. We get one or two here for dogs or birds and sometimes you can sneak a question in for them when looking to buy a product (they win, you win so to speak).

 

[Brynjar]

These guys are not 100% aquatic. They have wings and also have to hibernate. They live for 2 seasons. When removing a wild bug from its natural biosystem you also remove all the natural buffers it has against dormant parasites etc. Example; in the wild there would be plenty of predators to eat the mites, other big bugs, the ability to dig down in the dark where mites don't thrive. Now you've changed the balance in favor to the mites and the result is they are eating your bug alive


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[shermanchd]

Nice response to older thread. Now, think you can actually add something relevant to the question instead of passive aggressively stating the obvious?