LIVE LARVA!

[utman66]

I'm preparing to breed my two bettas soon so i'm gonna try feeding the female live mesquito larvae. The problem is i have no idea how to do that. Should i just put a bucket of water outside untill some larvae arrive? I know that will get some... but is it safe? I don't want to spread any diseases to my betta. I'm not to worried about catching the larvae...i live in houston so i guess i'm blessed with a lot of mesquitos!!!.

ANy help would be great!!

 

[FroggyFox]

I net mosquito larvae out of my parent's ponds from time to time. The betta LOVES them!! I wouldn't worry about diseases and spreading them to your fish...but i'm not sure how to "farm" them w/o allowing them to actually turn into mosquitos.

I would net them...then put them in freshly dechlorinated water...to kinda rinse them off...then net them again to feed to the fish. My guppies adored them too.

 

[utman66]

thanks a lot. Yeah i don't really plan on farming them. I have a bird bath that has tons of them in there. So once they have the grub do you think they will have go back to pellet food. I know feeding them larvae all the time could get annoying.

 

[FroggyFox]

yeah...just make sure you dont feed them live food ALL the time without pellets. Bettas can get picky But they love the occasional treat! I would feed like 2 pellets...and then give him a larvae or two

 

[Rokl33t]

so are u guys saying that giving my betta a full protein diet ( tubafix or watever worms) isn't good for it?

 

[FroggyFox]

No...more saying that if you always give it live food that it's going to get spoiled and refuse to take pellet or processed foods...so you need to give it a well rounded diet. Some pellets, some worms, some larvae...whatever. Mine gets primarily betta pellets...and then sometimes a guppy fry or a bug or some larvae that I find.