Can I Feed My Fish:

[three-fingers]

Nobody is actually providing any argument as to why feeding live food from a water butt would be harmful...

Frozen food is safer, because its usually been sterilised, and it also requires less effort to feed. However it's also more expensive, the frozen water is dirty, has less vitamins and the fish react to live food differently (depending what they are).

Unless you have birds regularly bathing themselves in the water, it's perfectly safe.

I feed my fish live food from the garden all the time in the summer.

 

[Diz1979]

And how is a water butt going to have fish parasites in it?

I'd much prefer live food from a water butt than from those little bags with the horrible water in them. It's free and the waters cleaner.

I never put the water from the bags of bloodworms into the tank as it is rancid, instead pour them into a net and rinse through before putting them in the tank.

 

[matchstickman47]

Hi,

As a fish lover and a gardner, I would advise against you feeding them to your fish. The water in your butt is basically stagnent, I had a bird bath full of these little red worms, I left them to see what would happen, they turned into little gnat's. I have seen them in my pond before but the fish seemed to leave them alone, but as for aquarium fish, I wouldn't take the risk. Better to be safe than sorry.

thank you
yeash it seem other want the ops fish to die
good use of precautionary principle

 

[dcarmor927]

And how is a water butt going to have fish parasites in it?

just wanted to say...its not that there are FISH parasites, just nasty SH%$ parasites...bird flu is affecting humans right? so these bacteria and what not can get inside and kill the fish with no problem...

Although i live in the US and have never seen a water butt, still sounds bad to me

 

[Inchworm]

What about chemical pollution from the air? Where I live, if it rains very lightly you can sometimes see the residue of it on cars, plants, and other dark colored surfaces. If this is what collects in the water butts, could this kind of thing effect insects growing in it?

 

[three-fingers]

I never put the water from the bags of bloodworms into the tank as it is rancid, instead pour them into a net and rinse through before putting them in the tank.

Neither do I, you can do the same with live food from the water butt . Though in most cases the water butt water should be clean enough so that there's no point in throwing it away .

yeash it seem other want the ops fish to die

LOL WUT

just wanted to say...its not that there are FISH parasites, just nasty SH%$ parasites...bird flu is affecting humans right? so these bacteria and what not can get inside and kill the fish with no problem...

Although i live in the US and have never seen a water butt, still sounds bad to me

I hope you wash your hands every time before putting your hands in the aquarium if that's what you think . I also hope you quarantine every single fish before you add it to the tank, and even if you do, the risk from the water butt is pretty much negligible compared to adding any new fish to a tank.

You can be sure your aquarium has loads more pathogenic bacteria in it than the water butt and strains that are potentially far more harmful too. The fishes immune system keeps them in check, and these pathogens only become a problem when there's something like an ammonia spike stressing the fish.

What about chemical pollution from the air? Where I live, if it rains very lightly you can sometimes see the residue of it on cars, plants, and other dark colored surfaces. If this is what collects in the water butts, could this kind of thing effect insects growing in it?

Not too much of a problem really. The residue itself is just dust and sand particles (clouds are made when water condenses onto these) .

People often collect rain in water butts to use in fish tanks instead of RO water.
In cities or other areas where lot's of cars and/or factories are pumping lots of fumes into the air, I wouldn't advise using solely rainwater in aquariums, but merely feeding insect larvae from water butts is not an issue at all .