House Fly Maggots

[thelastbetta]

I have some freshly hatched live house fly maggots, I was wondering if they'd be any good to feed to my bettas?

 

[RandomWiktor]

If you cultured them yourself, it is probably safe, though any live food runs some risk of being contaminated with bacteria. If you did not culture them but merely stumbled upon them, I would strongly suggest against it, as they tend to spawn on rotting things and thus will almost undoubtedly carry risky levels of bacteria. I wouldn't chance maggots that grew in a garbage can, carcass, or pile of dog doo.

 

[thelastbetta]

No I didn't get them from outside or anything. Their mom laid eggs in my cats dish that had some canned food in it and they ended up hatching.

I'm not sure what kind they are though because they're really small, thin and move rather fast and are actually climbing up the side of the cat food dish.

 

[RandomWiktor]

Mmm, cat food has some pretty unsavory ingredients, and if its been sitting long enough to get maggoty, I personally wouldn't want maggots gutloaded with it in my betta tanks. Its up to you, certainly, but I don't know how much I'd be keen on putting any live food I didn't personally culture and gutload in my tanks.

 

[willtang3000]

i get my maggots from a local fishing shop there fine to feed then just need to dust of the sawdust which keeps them dry.I would rather not feed them at your current situation as your cat food has probably picked up quite a few bacteria and may have more germs as the fly that laid them could of been anywhere hope this helps

 

[_cRaCkEr_]

Why not ? just feed them to your betta.

 

[mamafish68]

cracker, clearly you have not read the previous post. why would you risk contanimating your fish with an unknown bacteria?

I'm with random & will, say NO to these buggers for now

culture your own clean ones

 

[_cRaCkEr_]

cracker, clearly you have not read the previous post. why would you risk contanimating your fish with an unknown bacteria?

I'm with random & will, say NO to these buggers for now

culture your own clean ones

I read it actually.... Why are you so afraid have you tried it ? Bettas sometimes needs to eat dirty foods and it makes them feel healthy like in the wild.

 

[mamafish68]

LMAO you're so concerned about how the betta feels??? then why dont you run out and set all of yours free?

 

[Synirr]

LMAO you're so concerned about how the betta feels??? then why dont you run out and set all of yours free?

They'd be snapped up by predators in no time, the long fins and/or bright colours practically scream "come eat me!!"

 

[RandomWiktor]

Just like your dog would probably get sick if you let him chomp down a big rotting pile of deer guts, a fully domesticated VT betta would probably get sick if you fed him something his ancestors might be perfectly fine eating. Considering bettas can get sick and die from eating cultured foods if there is a bacterial contamination, I would think it poor judgement to feed it some unknown maggot wriggling around in a dirty old cat food dish. Or maybe I just don't like taking risks with my bettas, even if it does make them "feel more wild."

 

[mamafish68]

LMAO you're so concerned about how the betta feels??? then why dont you run out and set all of yours free?

They'd be snapped up by predators in no time, the long fins and/or bright colours practically scream "come eat me!!"

duhh thats the point i was going for. echoed in randoms post.

 

[Synirr]

There's actually a lot to be said for feeding bettas things that are less than clean... it builds up their immune systems. If they haven't been exposed to it from an early age though, it can be dangerous. When I was raising juvies in the storage room of our garage all kinds of bugs would fall into their tub and I'd find nothing but legs left

 

[Betta_Lovex3]

I feed my dogs what they would eat in the wild, so I don't see anything wrong with bettas eating the things they would in the wild.

 

[mamafish68]

Well as soon as you let your dogs roll in piles of rotting maggot infested roadkill and come trotting in the house i'll listen to what you have to say... oh by the way, in case you didnt know, it's what they do in the wild...