What bugs do you feed your cichlids?
- Thread starter coryjac0b
- Start date
Anything non-venomous / poisonous I run across that isn't from a dubious source tends to wind up floating for half a second. 
My fish absolutely destroy june bugs. The only issues You'll find with the shell is when feeding them to smaller aggressive fish (ie 2" convicts), they'll tend to leave the wing section of the shell sinking to the bottom at times. Same issue with cricket legs, honestly. Larger fish should have no issue at all with beetles, as the ones in question are edible. ^_^
The only real issue with feeding caught insects is their source. Pesticides and poisons are a risk. Anything I catch gets a solid rinse before it goes swimming. Certainly doesn't assure safety, just a habit. It's a bit like eating raw oysters. One that'll put you in the ER can look and smell just like a perfectly safe one.
I have a known safe garden bed I go through regularly for earth worms. (No pesticides / fertilizers) I'll collect 2-3 dozen at a time in a plastic cup, and rinse them for about 2-3 minutes to cut down on silt.
At night, they'll get crickets / grasshoppers / beetles / etc from the wall around the light.
My JD's are growing very fast on worms, looking forward to the june bugs showing up.
Realize I'm not feeding the $300+ specimens some of the members here have, so adjust your risks accordingly. I still feel safer than dropping in feeders from the lfs.
My fish absolutely destroy june bugs. The only issues You'll find with the shell is when feeding them to smaller aggressive fish (ie 2" convicts), they'll tend to leave the wing section of the shell sinking to the bottom at times. Same issue with cricket legs, honestly. Larger fish should have no issue at all with beetles, as the ones in question are edible. ^_^
The only real issue with feeding caught insects is their source. Pesticides and poisons are a risk. Anything I catch gets a solid rinse before it goes swimming. Certainly doesn't assure safety, just a habit. It's a bit like eating raw oysters. One that'll put you in the ER can look and smell just like a perfectly safe one.
I have a known safe garden bed I go through regularly for earth worms. (No pesticides / fertilizers) I'll collect 2-3 dozen at a time in a plastic cup, and rinse them for about 2-3 minutes to cut down on silt.
At night, they'll get crickets / grasshoppers / beetles / etc from the wall around the light.
My JD's are growing very fast on worms, looking forward to the june bugs showing up.
Realize I'm not feeding the $300+ specimens some of the members here have, so adjust your risks accordingly.
I still feel safer than dropping in feeders from the lfs.Everything lol. I dig up worms and buy crickets. Whatever spiders I catch ( unless it is a wolf spider, then I keep them) and whatever else I find. I am going to try ants with my smaller fish because I have an ant hill outside my house now.
I keep the huge ones too.
It's fun to feed them things.
Never had any bite me(yet/ not that I know of, maybe while I 'm asleep. ).
Knocking on wood...
I pick them up by hand quite often too.
You're not watching Hockey?
Aren't you Canadian.?.
I have it on, & have the NFL draft streaming while I cruise MFK.
It's fun to feed them things.
Never had any bite me(yet/ not that I know of, maybe while I 'm asleep.
).Knocking on wood...
I pick them up by hand quite often too.
You're not watching Hockey?
Aren't you Canadian.?.
I have it on, & have the NFL draft streaming while I cruise MFK.
you guys keep spiders? uuhhgggg, I hate anything with more than 4 legs, if they're in my house and I can catch them easy enough I put them outside, if I cant then they meet my shoe, or anything else I can get to squash it.
I hate big spiders, but wolf spiders are pretty cool. They spin amazing webs. But if they bite, you really feel it. Hurts like a B****. I can't find a picture of the species I'm referring to, but they only get slightly larger than the size of a quarter.
