I would rather be safe than sorry. If any of my animals appear to have parasites, then I treat them. Reptile folks constantly say not to feed wild insects for the reasons already mentioned. I don't see the situation being any different for fish. So I will just agree to disagree.
I actually think I might have killed them all before getting the chance to try. I've only once given my fish live food and it was back when I only had Psych, so early last year and it was a tiny little centipede or a millipede that somehow had the misfortune of finding its way to the top of Psych's bowl.. a little nudge and it fell in lol.
I've thought about putting a bucket of water outside to see if i could get some mosquito larva to show up but knowing me I would forget I put it there and then have a million mosquitoes at my back door lol.
Starting to feel bad that I eat wild gathered berries and mushrooms. Lol. Don't eat it it's been outside!
Our fish are already full of parasites (farmed fish actually have more than wild fish..) So I'm pretty sure they can handle it. I collect mosquito larvae from our rain barrel.
I think the question is whether or not ants themselves are toxic, which has been answered by people that have experienced this.
Indjo, where on earth do you find ant eggs? D: especially from fire ants. Posted via Mobile Device
In my country ant eggs .... actually it's a mixture or many different larva (ants, bees, etc) .... are sold as bird food (people also often use it for fishing). Every time I get some for my birds, I leave some for my bettas.
I sometimes gather my own (small black ants - but not those tiny sugar ants) that nests under a wood or rocks..... but it's a hassle - I have to smoke/burn the adults away.
I would rather be safe than sorry. If any of my animals appear to have parasites, then I treat them. Reptile folks constantly say not to feed wild insects for the reasons already mentioned. I don't see the situation being any different for fish. So I will just agree to disagree.
What do fish eat in the wild? In many of those countries there are still parasites. I feed my bettas pellets, frozen bloodworms, and live mosquito larvae. There is no harm at all, I haven't had a problem with feeding my bettas any sort of live food. Also OFL feeds almost all her fish insects she finds.
That it is... The only difference with prepared commercial foods is that they're cooked, but tons of dog foods have been killing dogs lately due to not being cooked enough.
Like I said our fish are already carrying lots of illnesses and nasties, they have immune systems. The day I see a fish become sick from insects I'll take that back. I mean I wouldn't gather from a puddle in the GTA but I live near a healthy ecosystem that I consider safe. Posted via Mobile Device
Anything caught in nature often carry diseases specially those living in water, like worms, daphnia etc. But I believe ants are pretty "clean". They are cleaner than any fly species. The eggs/larva should be parasite free - otherwise they would die. To be safe, only feed freshly gathered ant eggs, though they can eat adult ants.
I breed and raise my bettas in rather old and dirty water, feed live food to the young. They become stronger and have better natural repellents (?) against parasites compared to those bred and raised in clean water - compared to the ones I bought. Thus far ant/ant eggs has never given me problems (both fresh and .... dead or3 day old eggs). If I repeatedly rinse newly caught worms, daphnia and mosq. larva, I wouldn't have any problems either.
It's personal reference and judgement. You know the environment from which personally caught/gathered insects came from. So you can judge if it's safe for you little friends or not. Bought live foods is more of a gamble because we don't know their origin.
I live near a swamp, which is one of the most fragile ecosystems.. It's full of frogs, leaches and crayfish, which are all indicators of a healthy environment since they are so sensitive. Posted via Mobile Device
I live up north in the middle of the woods. And i feed my fish/reptiles wild bugs, Grass hoppers i like the best because i know they were born there and because we dont spray pesticides. So theres nothing realy wrong feeding bugs as long as you know what the bugs have been eating and how they live. Now i dont feed my pets any bugs from my house because who knows what there eating/drinking in my house. If you live in a city then you should never feed bugs but where i live i know its safe.
I live near a swamp, which is one of the most fragile ecosystems.. It's full of frogs, leaches and crayfish, which are all indicators of a healthy environment since they are so sensitive. Posted via Mobile Device
Not necessarily. What ever creatures that thrives there managed to develop immune systems that can overcome what ever parasites (natural selection). Fish caught from nature will survive if they can get through their stress but domestically bred fish may get sick if they're kept in the same tank. This indicates that the wild specimen has better immune systems compared to domesticated fish, not because it's from a healthy environment, though .
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