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how about insects in the diet? i have a couple oscars, convicts, a blue gouromi and a paradise gouromi, 2 plecos and a cory. ive put a couple cockroaches in the tank and the oscars always eat em up the quickest, if they dont see the bug, the paradise definitly always gets seconds. is there some household or outside bugs i shouldnt feed them? im in florida, im defintly not going to give them a hand full of fire ants or a wasp. but like are millipedes,cockroaches,palmetto bugs of the sort ok for the fish??

kenny

Most insects are fine for fish; they usually form the staple for most fish in the wild. Just stay away from brightly-colored insects, as they are probably toxic or distasteful. But flies, crickets, roaches, caterpillars, etc, are for the most part safe for fish.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

do you know anything about bloodworms and oscars. i think i heard that the oscars cant have those, is this true?

As far as I know they can. Bloodworms are just larvae from some sort of fly. They are small, so the only time they should really be fed to Oscars is when the Oscars are young.

I guess if you get them from some crappy store they could carry diseases or parasites, but the frozen ones are fine.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

IMO i would not feed your fish any bugs you would find around the house... cockroaches can easily have walked through poison or pestiside and then be fed to your fish...

*Chelle*
_______________________________________________
I love the fishes cuz they're SOOO delicious...

Hi,
When I had oscars, the kids in the neighborhood used to
catch all manner of bugs and bring them over in jars.
They they would tip the jars over into the tank and watch
the oscars go nutz gobbling them up.

Food for the fish, and fun for the kids..

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

My 70's back numbers of TFH magazine even tell you how to go about capturing some cockroaches in 1-gallon pickle jars and feeding them so that you have a permanent supply to feed to large Cichlids. Oscars do indeed go nuts over them, and they're not the only large Cichlid to do this - for some reason, the crunchy outer integument seems to provide a degree of culinary satisfaction to several big Cichlids, most notably the likes of Green Terrors, Black Belts and Guapotes. A breeding pair of Jaguar Cichids, for example, will relish destroying them on the basis that they might provide a threat to the fry, even though the cockroaches can't break the surface.

Aquatic insects (and their larvae) that DO pose a threat to the fry of larger Cichlids are destroyed with double satisfaction by parent Cichlids - the moment a large parent Cichlid claps eyes on a dragonfly larva, wallop - it's in pieces. Diving beetles sufer the same fate. if you like Nature red in tooth and claw, it's highly entertaining to watch!

Of course, insects are prime fare for Archer Fishes too. One of the great spectacles of the natural world is watching Archer Fishes practising their artillery skills on bluebottles in an appropriately prepared aquarium. Large specimens will also dispose of house spiders and substantial beetles, which will be subject to repeated artillery strikes until they hit the water!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

On the note of Archers, it is noted that in captivity that some get lazy and simply just jump for their prey rather than shooting it down. So much for buying the awesome fish for (often) it's water-spitting abilities! Well, it gets them their food...

I'd just worry about too many hard parts blocking digestive tracts in some fish (and of course some poisonous insects), but if you don't feed too often you're probably fine. Of course, primarily insectivorous fish such as Hatchetfish or African Butterflyfish probably handle this type of diet better.

The last red flag is that you don't want bugs from areas with pesticide. That'd just be a bad idea.

--------------------------------------------
The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Moths work well also. They are easy to catch on warm nights around a light source. I also gave crickets and grasshoppers on occasion when I kept larger cichlids and arowanas.

I used to have a Figure 8 Puffer that I would sometimes feed crickets to. I would buy them at a local pet store.

It was quite cool watching the puffer stalk it then shoot up to the the top and rip its head off in one bite.

John

Having reptile experience I tend to know quite a bit about feeder insects, so in terms of nutritive content,and in order of quality they tend to be like this.( ill just cover the widely available ones for now).

1) german house cricket. Good choice this one- relatively soft chitin in the armour and fairly easily digested, they are good for most fish and most fish will accept them. They can be easily gut loaded with fresh vegetables like cabbages, even tropical fish flake, and slices of orange or potatoes, carrots etc.

2) Black field crickets- bigger, tougher chitin, but can also be gut loaded. Good choice for bigger fish.
Downside is , if you keep them round the house they tend to sing at night with the volume of your average telephone, and they have quite powerful jaws and can nip back when attacked. Thats not going to bother your average oscar though.

3) Cockroaches. Use either giant madagascan hissing cockroaches or indian deaths head cockroaches - the nutrition is excellent, they eat almost anything, and are not likely to become pest species in your house. They breed rapidly and in some numbers, and can be offered as food in all stages of development, and actually can be a satisfying mouthful to large predators like arowana. For best results offer them either blanched in boiling water, or immediately after they have shed their skin and are still soft and white.

4) GIANT mealworms , sometimes known as morio worms. Better nutritive value for fish than regular sized mealworms, they are a different species. When feeding them to fish its a good idea to crush the head before they go in,as they have powerful jaws and live several minutes in water. They have been known to chew their way out of predators. Do not allow the fish to become packed full of these, since they take a while to digest and the armour could concievably cause gut impaction.Not a bad choice for fish over 1 foot long, but obviously partially grown giant mealworms can be used with smaller fish.Use recently moulted worms if you can.

4 ) waxworms- actually a a caterpillar of a moth that lays its eggs in beehives, they are excellent for conditioning breeding fish, with a couple of cautions A) they are very fatty and should be used sparingly, and b)they have irritant hairs on the body that some fish will find distasteful. Try keeping some until they metamorphose, the adult moths arent as fatty and will provide excellent nutrition if you offer them before they need to feed on the day they emerge.If you have a tricky surface feeder this is probably the biggest tool in your box for getting it interested. Butterfly fish, archers, rainbows, gouramies, killies etc will go absolutely ballistic for them. Watch that tank hood when you pop them in . If you use a lot of them remember to give the water a quick skim, the moths wing scales can really build up on the water surface.

5) Regular mealworms, have a higher chitin to nutrition ratio than giant mealworms in relation to their volume, despite the armour feeling softer, as sold in shops almost nutritionally useless, you must feed them up on grains like those found in breakfast muesli and a few fresh vegetables to replace the lost nutrition, after theyve fed for two days, then offer them to your fish. Feeding them bran does NOT count as feeding them, it just keeps them ticking over.Adult beetles do make good food as long as your fish have the jaw power to cope with the armour and are large enough to shift the wing cases from the digestive system, and that usually requires your fish to be over 6 inches. Mealworms are always better offered when they shed the skin and are still white and soft.

6) Maggots. - obviously you can get these from bait shops etc, but avoid the dyed ones, and feed them well before offering them to the fish, obviously you should keep them cool in the fridge and only buy or raise as many as you need, or youll have a houseful of flies. Nutritive content is highly variable.

7) Fruitflies- easy to culture, and almost universally accepted by small fish. They contain fruit sugars and a tiny bit of protien, and are very easy to digest, but they retain vitamins badly and are therefore not suitable as a large component of the diet. The cultures they are kept in often smell a bit foul, and once in your house they can be irritating, and certainly will enjoy attacking fruit in the fruit bowl. Irritating, but useable.


Theres literally thousands of insects you can use, spiders generally go down well, indian stick insects are usually accepted, locusts are great but have hard armour, and a good kick, im tempted to break their knees before offering them to fish, and if you can keep them eating they offer good nutrition, but then keeping them eating can be tricky sometimes.

The major contraindictions to watch for are - cranefly and their larvae- terrible risk of tapeworm, millipedes- generally produce arsenic compounds that can not only poison the fish but the tankwater too, and finally the lizard keepers nightmare, the lubber grasshopper. They look big and juicy but are deadly poisonous to fish. Some people swear by using wild caught insects, but frankly theres a huge risk of internal parasites and insect killing toxins and strange gut contents, so overall id skip them and go for captive raised.

The main thing to remember with feeder insects - is that they have to be fed, if you dont theres literally no point in feeding them to your fish, they will have a rubbish nutrient balance and you might as well stick to the flake and frozen foods.

The TFH article in the 70s said much the same - source your insects from a place that you know is pesticide free, then cultivate them so that you have a permanent supply. The succeeding generations will, of course, have the advantage that you KNOW their provenance because you will be responsible for feeding them!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002