feeding fish Maggots

My parents have gone away and hence the rubbish wasn't taken out for a day and it seemed someone threw away something meaty and left bin open. To my amazement this morning when I moved bin a few hundred maggots dropped out. Then i checked properly and there were thousands of juicy maggots.

Whats the story of feeding these to fish? If lets say i gave them meat outside and then starved them for a day incase the meat was toxic or something?

These are the little guys

 

Hi doughb
I don't know about fish but I always warn people to feed these things ALIVE to reptiels because they can survive for quite a while in a stomage and virtualy eat through the stomach wall. So I would under no circumstances take a chance with small fish. If you freeze them first and make sure they're dead maybe.
I also don't know about the nutritional value

 

I feed my fish live stuff all the time, moths and all sorts of things I find under logs and stuff in the garden and haven't yet had a problem. In fact the love it, its actually the only stuff I've seen my fire eel eat.

But I've never fed them maggots, I reckon you should be safe... You have a point though; that their toxic diets may be a problem... So rather don't take my advice, lol.

If you do feed them to your fish post something on how it turned out.

 

Hi Aidan
Its not about the diet of the maggot its the LIFE maggot that poses the danger.
That live food is good is not in question, but you could try pieces of cooked mussle,shrimp or other frozen food and you chould see your eel in action:bigsmile:

 

Fair enough.

I'm gonna try the suggestions with the eel asap, thnx, i'm keen to get him a bit fatter. He didn't really take to the frozen food, not even fresh fish (or not that i saw). But i'm yet to try the shrimp and mussles.

 

Been doing some reading and I will give it a shot, quite a few articles from google. Reckon in 2-3 days i should have a supply. Just got to decide who are going to be the test fish...

I really need live food as I have trained my fish badly!

 

I finally have some maggots... Got them on a drum stick in a yoghurt tub, prob a few hundred, but very small still. Think by morning they will be fat and ill put them in the fridge and maybe rinse some off and try on some guppies or something...

 

Interested to see how this goes as I would like to cultivate the maggots for my Spiny Eel!

 

i hope this works as i have yet to see my spiny eel come out of hiding during the day and eat food.i hear they are nocturnal but some people see theirs active during the day.with my eel i just drop some food into the dark tank at nite and hope he comes out and eats,the same goes for my ghost knife.i bought them both 2 weeks ago and havent seen them eat since.i stay up till this time every night (11 ish) staring at the dark tank hoping to see either of them.i have tried frozen and live brine shrimp and bloodworms.is there anything i can do to make my 2 fish come out and eat during the day?...the eel and the ghost knife are my pride and joy they are both small still and im hoping to grow them up nice and fat but the way its been going i wonder what to do...any help?

 

My Peacock Spiney eel only eats earth worms (ok no and then he will take some bloodworm) I feed him an earthworm every three days as he only comes out from under the gravel when he is "hunting". The trick is to make sure he gets it. My eel actually takes the worm from my fingers, but I have to get quite close to him. Their sense of smell is very acute and once he has a sniff he takes it in seconds! On other days if he is hungry he take some blood worm which I feed his tank mates daily.

 

The maggots were tiny this morning, but eating like mad, doubled in size from last night, about 2 mm long maybe 3. Will check them when i get home this evening and try a few out. Haven't looked up their life cycle yet so need to see when I must cool them down before they become flies. Must be a pupa stage but not sure....

 

got home and the greedy buggers have doubled in size again! So rinsed one off and fed to guppy....no problems there! will see if he is still alive tomorrow morning.

I used a whole drum stick...not needed at all! just a piece would do. I now have 5 new clusters of eggs on the leg, but its starting to smell a bit! so think adding small pieces of meat daily would work better...so will try that out too...

 

Their growth is exponential! this morning they were huge and trying to get out the tub, so put them in the fridge, next to an identical tub of fresh yoghurt, to cool down for a bit. I will have a camera tomorrow so can take some pics. Have good feelings about this!

I think they might be a bit fatty at the moment, but have no idea, guessing when they become more fly like there is more protein? or not?

 

Sheesh this is really interesting... I look forward to seeing the pics. This may be the perfect live food for my fish!

Thanks for a good thread dougbb

 

Dougbb What do you feed them. don't they just eat decomposing flesh? Doesn't is stink like mad

 

I may have gagged a few times this morning!!! At the moment they are on a drumstick. Net seems to say it must be rotting by they were laid on it 5 min after cooking and hatched next morning so couldnt have been that rotten, now definitely is though!!!

I have looked at my first post in this thread and seems they can still grow to double their current size. Then they become pupas for atleast 3 days. So will feed some whole tonight and then leave some to become pupas. I will pick off a cluster off eggs and place on a small piece of meat and throw away the drum stick!

Did some reading now, there has been a lot of research into using them as a source of food for commercial use, fish farms, poultry etc... Seems to be 45% protein and a better food source vs earth worms. Also contain all but one essential amino acid and the present ones are generally in correct ratios...

Is a bit of debate on the type of food you feed them, i.e. bran versus meat, bran is better for the breeder, doesn't smell so bad, but meat results in a better food source, amino acid wise.

 

Is the test subject ok?

 

were ok this morning...will be home this evening and will check then, but pretty certain they are!...well hoping so anyway.

 

Maggot pics ---Puffer dead...

Got home today and puffer was dead...keen on more food. They like dogs that jump on you leg when you get home. Guppy is also good. Removed a few maggots from chicken leg, tough because they had burrowed in deep.

First pic is 2days ago and the one with them in the tub is from tonight,
I will freeze them or leave in fridge and feed a few to fish tonight.





This final bit is something i cut out of some research that is NOT my own, but i closed page before getting details, apologies for poor referencing...

 

"puffer was dead"

What happen to the Puffer?