Fish do not have a well-defined diet. They eat the most abundant organisms in the environment where they live. Generally the prey change during the growth. They are generally quite fond of insects.
Fishing enthusiasts may also wonder if the maggots they use as bait would be appropriate to feed to their aquarium fish. The answer is yes! Maggots should not be the main food for your aquarium fish, but they are a great supplement.
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Do fish like to eat insects?
As far as fish are concerned, the idea is actually quite “natural”: in the wild, trout and salmon feed partly on insects.
Fish are vertebrate animals that live in water. Numerous small fish feed on insects that fall into the water, and some are caught in flight. Naturally, many eat other smaller fish or algae.
What insects do fish eat?
In most cases, the insects fed to the fish are fly larvae, as well as small worms, similar to those fed to birds.
A track also increasingly exploited, it is the insect meal. The process is quite simple, you just have to dry and mix the insects, in this way, it is possible to make small croquettes for fish.
How to find insects for your fish?
Maggots are easily found in bait stores. Many areas of the country have bait stores that are open year round. If you are not fortunate enough to have a year-round bait store, or perhaps don’t have one nearby at all, worms are also available online.
Often, online sites offer other products, such as wax worms and night crawlers, which can be safely fed to your aquarium fish as supplemental food.
It is also possible to grow your own maggots. However, due to the availability of maggots on the market and the fact that they should only be used as a supplemental food, I do not recommend growing them. When buying maggots, they should be soft to the touch because as they age they become firmer. White flies will have a dark spot – the larger this spot, the younger the fly.
Why feed insects to your fish?
It is actually a super food for our fish. These insects, which we find in nature, cost nothing, and even allow us to have a little stroll in the same way.
According to a study conducted in the laboratory, fish prefer insects to food specially made for them. Indeed, after having given insects to the fish many times, the latter do not throw themselves on the specialized food as before, but they continue to throw themselves on the insects when the researchers give them some.
Another important point is that the insects do not dirty the water as much as the kibble that is usually given to the fish. Indeed, the kibbles crumble much more easily, leaving micro particles in the water, impossible for the fish to eat.
In addition to being a natural food for fish, insects are rich in protein (45-75% of dry weight depending on the species) while having a very low environmental and water footprint (based on the environmental impact and water use required to produce a commodity). In addition, insects have very good conversion rates, i.e. the efficiency of a feed to produce 1 kg of insects.
The insect rearing cycle is itself sustainable and complementary to agriculture: insects are fed with co-products from agriculture such as oil cakes and other cereal straws, while insect droppings are reused to fertilize these same fields.