Happy day...in another life I did the mosquito larve thing in the house. I know I posted about that earlier, but man, it caused all sorts of ruckus when they stopped being larve, let me tell you.
A few years ago I tried the ant thing. I thought I was pretty crafty in luring the ants into a trap made of coconut fiber. I thought I was pretty smart in shaking them all out into a glass vase. I thought the Goyder River Rainbows would eat them for dinner and as a midnight snack, so I dumped a fair-sized portion...say...a tumbler glass full of them (not packed down). After watching for a moment, I left. I mean, I often feed the fish and get on with the night, right? And it was at that precise moment that a series of unfortunate events occurred.
1. My wife noted, somewhat stridently, that I had used a Lalique vase her dead grandmother gave to us for our wedding. Well, she was alive when she gave it to us, but the Lesson Learned is that just because it looks and feels like glass doesn't mean it should be used like glass, and certainly not for transporting wildlife. Or holding flowers. The thing was so damn dusty and I didn't want the fish or ants harmed by the dust. I mean, if it was so important, why was it stuffed in the back of the cupboard like that?
2. It seems that ants float and, when given duckweed and red root floaters and stuff to cling to, are able to not be eaten by fish. They also ball together and trap oxygen while they swim to said plants or, as luck would have it, an airline hose conveniently placed and serviceable as an escape route.
3. Did you know that dark blue carpets with small red color blotches make for an excellent background against which ants can hide in plain site? Marvelous bit of camouflage, really. And you know what kind of ants we apparently have in Florida that hide very well against that background? I will give you two hints. It is red and rhymes with "ire."
4. I am not so neat when it comes to feeding flake and stuff, and over the years, a bit of food and muck has gathered on the carpet at the edge of the stand, which is where the fire ants went, because who says no to a free buffet? So in the morning when I went to see how fat and happy my fish were, I discovered that they were not fat, and in fact felt somewhat cheated by the whole experience. And while I busy nudging stuff around on the surface, looking for the ants that did not make my Goyders fat and happy, I felt....something. On a toe. So I did what humans always do, which is to use the opposing heel to rub it while getting on with the ant hunt.
5. It was around this time that the startled screaming started. The memory is somewhat hazy, but it started out with "Ow what the %^*@!" This was followed by an amazing display of calisthenics for a man rocking the dad-bod. Even Jackie Chan would have been impressed. Heck, I bet I moved with slightly less grace and elegance that a grebe mating dance.
6. Did you know that screaming is an attractant? I attracted a wife, who screamed, and a son, who screamed less, and then attracted a whole lot of banging shoes and noxious sprays and finally attracted a professional exterminator. I even attracted a bit of a medical bill, because an ensuing lump on my toe needed to be dealt with rather firmly, and harshly. Now that I think about it, people who cut things off of other people seem to take a certain amount of glee at their jobs. Historically they worked for religious institutions and had fancy titles like Grand Vizier, but I'm pretty sure they are now called dermatologists.
Sigh. So there you have it. If you do use live foods, just think a bit down the timeline as to what happens after you think the fish are going to be fat and happy.