crickets to rd

[large_cichlids]

are crickets good for rd.I gave a couple to mine this afternoon and he seemed to love them.will they help increase growth.

 

[pumbus]

in the lfs i work at we have a 350G cichlid/ catfish community,everytime somebody is looking for crickets which are kept right next to the 350 i'l always take 20 or 30 and fire them into the pond and they get devoured pretty quick,i woulden't feed them as a staple but once or twice a week won't hurt

 

[TheMightyOscar]

i dont like feeding crickets to anything, especially if they are from pet stores.

crickets are VERY prone to worms, they IMO are worse to feed a fish than goldfish..that is..if they are from pet stores.

when i kept reptiles, i would get them from cricket farms, never had any problems.

before that i was feeding crickets from pet stores and had many deaths due to parasitic infections.

i switched over to mealworms and superworms, and fed crickets only as a treat..but yeah..

just a word of caution, crickets carry disease.

 

[pumbus]

i feed them to my fish at home aswell as lizards and have never had or heard of any problems,but the crickets we get even the ones the LFS get them from canadian feeders who have very healthy stock

 

[fivespeed302]

i dont like feeding crickets to anything, especially if they are from pet stores.

crickets are VERY prone to worms, they IMO are worse to feed a fish than goldfish..that is..if they are from pet stores.

when i kept reptiles, i would get them from cricket farms, never had any problems.

before that i was feeding crickets from pet stores and had many deaths due to parasitic infections.

i switched over to mealworms and superworms, and fed crickets only as a treat..but yeah..

just a word of caution, crickets carry disease.

Where do you think the crickets at pet stores come from? They are ordered from cricket farms. As to parasites, I'm not going to say that they don't have them but I have never heard of this being an issue.

 

[TheMightyOscar]

Where do you think the crickets at pet stores come from? They are ordered from cricket farms. As to parasites, I'm not going to say that they don't have them but I have never heard of this being an issue.

i know where the crickets in pet store come from...HOWEVER

the pet stores do not keep their cricket bins sanitary, at least not the ones i've been to

moldy food + dead crickets = parasites

if you've ever kept reptiles, you'd see where i was coming from

i would never take the chance, as i HAVE dealt with parasite infested crickets.

 

[pumbus]

well i keep many reptiles and haven't had any problems yet,and i get my crickets from the store i work at

 

[RedDevilDon2005]

are crickets good for rd.I gave a couple to mine this afternoon and he seemed to love them.will they help increase growth.

ive been giving mine algae waffers for snacks, he loves them and im already seeing a difference in his appearance.

edit: i steer clear of crickets and now live feeders. he started acting really odd the other night after a feeder. so no more of those.

 

[windsurfer]

my experience is that you can get good crickets from pet stores, as long as they take care of them properly. the pet store that I go to gets them twice a week and cleans out their bins in between. as for cricket farms, they are not always the cleanest places, so I believe the answer depends.

also, in studying reptile nutrition, i've seen it said many times that the nutritional value of a cricket depends on how you gut load it. it's possible for a cricket to have almost no nutritional value or be quite nutritious depending on how it was gut loaded.

i have a panther chameleon, and I've got crickets on hand almost all of the time, but I never feed them to my fish. if I want to give my fish live food, I use black worms, white worms, night crawlers, raw shrimp or beefheart.

windsurfer

 

[TheMightyOscar]

well, i never said all of them were bad
yours obviously must keep them pretty clean

i would just look in the bins anyway, if there are any moldy looking potatoes in with them i would pass up on them...


again, not saying all crickets from all pet stores are bad, i didnt start having any problems until about 6 months after i started feeding them..

im simply stating my experiences

my experience is that you can get good crickets from pet stores, as long as they take care of them properly. the pet store that I go to gets them twice a week and cleans out their bins in between. as for cricket farms, they are not always the cleanest places, so I believe the answer depends.

also, in studying reptile nutrition, i've seen it said many times that the nutritional value of a cricket depends on how you gut load it. it's possible for a cricket to have almost no nutritional value or be quite nutritious depending on how it was gut loaded.

i have a panther chameleon, and I've got crickets on hand almost all of the time, but I never feed them to my fish. if I want to give my fish live food, I use black worms, white worms, night crawlers, raw shrimp or beefheart.

windsurfer

agreed