Live Food From My Garden

[Jimmy Twotimes]

Hi

I have a water butt in my garden, nothing special it just collects rain water from the gutters.

The last few days when i have gone to fill my watering can, i have noticed that there are millions of mosquito lavae swimming about, the kind which i gather are ideal food for my fish.

I would happily scoop some of these out but im concerned that if i do so i may introduce unwanted 'things' that could get mixed in with the water that has been sitting outrside in the open.

Is this not a risk worth taking? I dont want to bring in bugs, pathogens, goodness knows what from the water that has sat outside.

Unless, if i net them outside then just dip the net in my tank - would this be a safe way of doing it?

Seems a waste not to treat the fish!!

Any advice?

 

[Rex740]

I usually just scoop a bunch of mosquito larvae out with a fine mesh net and add them to a fish tank that way, I wouldn't recommend dumping any of that water into your fish tank.

 

[Jimmy Twotimes]

Thanks Rex - i've just done it! But was a bit concerned cos the water but has lots of dirty bits floating on top which got mixed in with the net.

I transferred what i had in my net to some tank water in a shallow jar then with a teaspoon put in the lavae! Pretty slow and long winded but cant think of any way to avoid any 'bits' gettin in my tank...

But the fish went absolutely mental for them!

Was actually think if i could culture them now in a cleaner environment (but still outside)...

Any tips most welcome.

 

[fluttermoth]

Clean your water butt out more often

My kids spend hours fishing in my water butt with an old tea strainer and putting them in an old ice cream container for me

 

[fish48]

any dirty bits that as got mixed in with mosquito lavae Shouldn't do any harm to fish.

 

[OldMan47]

I have been scooping mosquito larvae myself for the last couple of weeks. The few leaves and such floating on the surface I simply remove with my net before I start scooping larvae. As you have observed, the fish go absolutely nuts for the larvae. I feel like it is the ideal win-win live food. It removes the mosquitoes so that they don't end up biting me and the fish get a treat at the same time.