Misquitoe Larvae for Bettas?

[Ron]

Could I feed my conditioning bettas live misqitoe larvae? I have a bucket of standing water with millions of the larvae in there. Could I feed them to my 2 betta pair? Would they harm them? Thanks,
Ron

 

[SneakBetta]

I don't think that would do any harm, but I'm not 100% sure

 

[smb]

Mosquito larvae would be great for your Betta's. It's their favorite food and I'm sure they eat a ton of them in the rice paddies.

 

[Ron]

Ok, thanks I will feed them to larvae. What do I do, just put the larvae in with the bettas. Will the bettas find them?, Will the larvae hide in the gravle and plant? How do I feed itto them? Thanks
Ron

 

[Kossy]

Yes you could alwasy think of it this way. Bettas come from Tailand right...they lived in small areas such as horse imprints with water right? Anyway where they lived they probably only fed on live insects such as mosquito larvae or small spiders/hoppers (Don't feed them that thought) but yes larvae are great for him but for us

 

[Ron]

They love it!!! I'm a little worried about the femake though, she looks as if shes going to burst. I read that you should keep feeding them untill they refuse it. Well, she won't refuse anything!! She is so big, I'm afraid something bads gonna happen to her. Could it happen? Shes about as big as my fancy guppy females that are about to give birth!!!What else can I feed them, like insects that I can find outside. Do they eat small female crickets? Or anything else like that? Thanks,
Ron

 

[cheirodon]

I once had a catfish die from over eating, so I suppose it's also possible with betas

I use a straw to suck out the larvae without stirring the water too much, because it is usually muddy, and stirring would make it impossible to see the larvae. If this is not the case, then I suppose a fishnet is ok. In any case, try to get as little of the water from the larvae transfered to the tank, so you'll maintain control over your tank water conditions. And rinse the fishnet also, just in case...

By the way, tetras love mosquito larvae too.

Miguel.-

 

[LiquidLife]

Don't feed them until they stop eating on their own--some fish will eat until they die, literally. I've seen it happen. And don't feed them lots of food every day either. When bettas are constantly overfed, they develop fat deposit around their internal organs which eventually kill them prematurely (they won't live very long). An ocassional feast is fine but basically keep their eating to a minimum--they aren't getting all that much exercise so they won't need that much fuel.

If you have extra larvae, you might want to make small froze ice cubes out of them for future feedings once the season is over. Clean the larvae first (net them and run under some clean water, then dump them into a minimum of conditioned water before freezing).

It'd probably be hard for you to catch enough bugs to do regular feedings with. You might want to culture some fruit flies (wingless ones are good since they won't fly away) which are an ideal size for betta mouths. Crickets may be a bit too big for bettas to handle. You might be able to find small maggots in some clean places (don't ask me where, just the thought of maggots gives me the creeps).