Alternative fish feed

[Chamsiddine Afraitane]

I've been doing some research about alternative feed. some studies show duckweed; I think that Moringa Oleifera  leaves are the best.The leaves are very rich with a balance diet, It's a tree that grows in tropical and subtropical climate easy to maintain and within 6 Months of planting  you can start harvesting the leaves.

I would like to hear your thought in that one.

Afraitane.  

[TCLynx]

I understand they make great bait for some types of fish.  How easy is it to catch them?

[RW]

Easy! I plan on outsourcing to kids for a nickel each cricket.

Crickets are probably easy to breed too. Although i have no idea. You often see them at pet stores.

[TCLynx]

I've read about breeding crickets but I don't think I would want that in my house.  I think I would want an outbuilding before going there.

 

As to a nickel a cricket, well how many fish are you planning to feed this way?  I think I would be trying, "if you catch some crickets, you can feed them to the fish"

[Christian James]

Crickets are easy to breed, but are hard to keep clean.  I've raised them before when I was breeding panther chameleons, but it's not worth it if you can get roaches where you live, especially Dubia & Red Runners.  Crickets stink, make tons of noise and have a short lifespan.   I would take roaches & black soldier flies any day over crickets.

[TCLynx]

The chickens have dibs on the roaches, of course the roaches here, we call them palmetto bugs and they resemble skateboards with legs more than roaches.  Oh the chickens love them.

[TCLynx]

Of course the next thing I'll probably try is growing cherry shrimp in my raft bed so I can feed them to the catfish.

[tkrabec]

I just read over at homesteadingtoday (dot com) about a guy who picked up road kill and suspended it over a pond on a metal mesh, the flies would lay eggs & maggots & eggs would fall into the water & provide some food.  I've also heard of this being used for chickens.

[Christian James]

As long as you don't mind the smell of rotting road kill it works. Instead you can just get a BioPod or build something similar and collect the black soldier fly grubs that way. When you actively raise a whole colony they will be able to handly road kill without giving off a smell, and attracting far less flies I actually just got in from feeding my chickens the grubs from my BioPod.

[TCLynx]

While I like the biopod and BSF and their larva.  I won't claim that if you put roadkill into a biopod that it won't stink.  The BSF larva if going strong might take care of it quickly but the BSF bin does have a pong of it's own.

 

[Christian James]

If yours is stinking, add better drainage.  If the medium is turning clay-like or pulpy add some coconut coir or sawdust to it.  Mine hasn't had any stench since fixing both problems.  Also upping the amount of coffee grounds really helps.

[TCLynx]

How do you add better drainage?  Drill holes in the bottom?

 

But even if it's pretty dry and not clay like, you add a dead raccoon into a bin that size it will stink for a bit until the larva manage to eat it.  The bin isn't big enough to add enough material to cover something like that to stop it stinking.  This would be why most carcases larger than a fish wind up in my Hot compost pile.

[Christian James]

Here is a similar example of what I made for mine from the Black Soldier Fly Blog:

http://blacksoldierflyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/diy-unitv...

here is the original post:

http://blacksoldierflyblog.com/bsf-bucket-composter-version-2-1/

BioPods unless really really well maintained won't be able to handle a raccoon, but if you build something larger like the Bug Barracks I think it might be fine w one:

http://raisesoldierflies.com/?page_id=618

that's next up on my list of things to build