breeding flys ( you know ) maggots, on purpose...

Magnum Man · Dec 27, 2025

talking house / farm flys... anyone following my threads, knows I've been really busy lately, but with the warmer than normal temps, I took today to do a few things outside, around the farm... including burning some garbage... we still recycle, feed wet organic to the pigs, but still accumulate some burnable trash... one issue is we don't accumulate a lot, so I burn, when the cans get full... often there is "fly larvae" on the white trash bags... some of which I saw today... this made me think about trash bag fly larvae harvesting... I know Bug Bites uses black soldier fly larvae... I don't know why house or farm flys would be different than soldier flys... if clean bags were used, and the best ( stinky enough, yet clean food wise )choice for fly food ( open for suggestions there ) I would think fresh fly larvae would be better than dried... thoughts or discussion???

GaryE · Dec 27, 2025

My understanding is they're very different from soldier fly larvae, which are calcium rich. Farm fly maggots are very fatty. I imagine they're decent food, it's more that they are unpleasant to cultivate. White worms are also fatty, but fed once or twice a week are excellent to condition fish for breeding.

Soldier flies have a very different nutritional profile, but fatty foods in careful small quantities are okay. What really goes down well is ant larvae...

fishorama · Dec 27, 2025

I wonder if the maggots fed on spoiled, moldy or bacteria laden stuff if it would be safe for fish or if there is a way to "purge" them?

I know when I worked in wild bird rehab, I ordered live maggots & other insect-based foods as a change from just mealworms. I didn't know when they'd arrived. I got an angry phone call, my co-workers were not happy after they sat for a couple days LOL. They could have opened them or called sooner...

Magnum Man · Dec 27, 2025

that is why I said I was open for suggestions... even trying to preload the maggots could be possible... we have bottle flys here as well...

Magnum Man · Dec 27, 2025

GaryE · Dec 28, 2025

I was wrong on the fattiness issue. You'd have to harvest them before they could fly, but they sound like a good food. Gross, but good.

Magnum Man · Dec 28, 2025

at this point, still a discussion topic... not just going to run out and start making maggots on purpose... yet...

so we use traps around the farm, that use a pouch of powder in a double pouch, double, because it stinks so strongly of vomit, that gets poured into the trap, along with a cup of water, then it's just the typical small opening, find their way in, can't find their way out, and they catch 1000's of flys... a garbage bag grower, would not need to attract 1000's just need a few flys, and a rich enough food source, that was disease free, to grow the larvae on... just thinking of "best" / safest food sources... could be anything from pizza, to the stuff they put in petri dishes for cultures, maybe even grass clippings, or something beneficial to gut load the larvae, like spirulina???

Magnum Man · Dec 28, 2025

Magnum Man · Dec 28, 2025

looks like by keeping the temperatures in the mid range, you could have a feed able source for 2 weeks, before the pupal stage, then I'd suspect pellet eating fish would likely even eat larvae at the pupal stage... if grown in clear bags, larval stages could be monitored, and fed to fish by size...

GaryE · Dec 28, 2025

I can see you learning how to do this, and developing a skill you can't talk about at suppers at your Church... We fishkeepers can be a disgusting lot in the eyes of others, with our whiteworms, fruit flies etc, but KIng Maggot Farmer is a fierce title to earn.

I don't mind being seen as weird, since that's a mildly accurate thing. After all, we keep tank after tank of strange creatures. I would try it, if I had a farm.

Rusty_Shackleford · Dec 28, 2025

Spikes/maggots can also be kept in the refrigerator to slow down their growth and life cycle.

Another overlooked food source is termites. They are high in fat so probably more of a treat or conditioning food rather than an every day staple. Back when I kept a lot of frogs I had a guy I would order termites from every summer, but I believe it is also possible to collect your own. I'm sure you can Google the exact details, but the premise is you obtain some regular old corrugated cardboard and cut it down to 6"x6" squares. Cut enough to have a stack 4" tall. Go into your yard away from your house or into the woods. Dig a hole and bury the cardboard. Come back in 6 weeks and dig up the cardboard with your supply of termites.

Has anyone ever thought of why all the insect based fish foods use BSFL? I think it's all an offshoot of the reptile industry. Back in the day if you were keeping reptiles there were only two commercially available foods crickets and mealworms. Neither were ideal nutrient wise and as the herp industry grew so did the amount of commercially farmed prey items. Superworms, Dubia roaches, hornworms and eventually BSFL as it was touted to have the perfect 2:1 calcium to phosphorus ratio that reptiles and amphibians need.
So BSFL are good nutrient wise for our reptiles. But do we really know if they are good for our fish? I'm guessing not enough studies have been done to provide conclusive proof. I'm sure there is nothing wrong with them along with many other insects wr could be culturing and feeding our fish. I almost wish I had some larger fish. I would.lime to see how they react to a roach or superworm that I feed to the tarantulas.

GaryE · Dec 28, 2025

I know that soldier fly larva flake will actually produce killie eggs, which no other flake I've used has.

For a lot of insectivorous fish, ants are a huge food source, as small fish tend to live under overhanging bushes ants use to cross streams. They seem to often fall. Small spiders are also often in your net when you're catching killies, so I assume they live as close to the water as they can get, to pick off water loving flies, and get picked off in turn.

The biggest problem with live foods is their size. If you keep small fish, your options are limited.

Rusty_Shackleford · Dec 28, 2025

GaryE said:
The biggest problem with live foods is their size. If you keep small fish, your options are limited.

Dart frogs prefer very small prey. Even though many could take pinhead crickets, they won't. That's why flightless fruit flies both melanogaster and hydei are the staple. Termites, bean beetles, rice flour beetles, isopods and springtails also are cultured to supplement. Many newly morphed Oophaga pumilio froglets are so small springtails are their first food. They would be interesting to feed to fish as they are so light they don't break the surface tension of water so they float at the surface.

Lanpenn · Dec 28, 2025

I prefer black soldier fly larvae. I used to cultivate them, and now, since is summer here, I can get lots and lots of BSFL with just some kitchen scraps in a shaded area inside any container. However, some animals (there are reptiles that apparently live in the warehouse...) started spreading mess and dirt all over the warehouse. I know that there are good BSFL bins, but these things do not exist in Brazil, and I would have to be inventive to elaborate on something interesting relating to that. Other problem: we have a large backyard (although it is more front yard than backyard...), but if I dispose of kitchen scraps the dogs go and mess, eating all of them... housefly larvae usually disappear once Hermetia illucens spreads all over the compost. The pros is that housefly larvae are softer than BSFL, by far.

My deceased Betta splendens used to eat the tiny live larvae I gave. My current Trichogaster chuna, extremely picky? He would rather eat live Artemia franciscana.

I also believe that more fish food brands are using BSFL in a way to comply with stricter regulations, including environmental ones. A few years ago, there was a boom of BSFL-based fish food even in Brazil. Until not so much time ago, BSFL was only a fish bait known as "bichinho da laranja" (orange maggot?).

emeraldking · Jan 2, 2026