ants for oscars?
- Thread starter Hunter2001
- Start date
Gee, I'm not sure. Do oscars like ants? I've never heard of this one before. But I'd imagine it would take quite a few to make a dent in these big guys' stomach. 
For very small Oscars, maybe...unless they're some really big ants!
I don't remember ever feeding even a baby Oscar (~1") anything smaller than large brine shrimp. And even then it wasn't more than a week or so before they were on small feeder guppies.
Now feeding insects to juvenile/small adult Oscars is another story. Almost any type of bug that wasn't taken down with insecticide was put in my Oscar tank (large roaches, katidids, locusts, spiders,...). Even common house gekkos were tossed in.
I don't remember ever feeding even a baby Oscar (~1") anything smaller than large brine shrimp. And even then it wasn't more than a week or so before they were on small feeder guppies.
Now feeding insects to juvenile/small adult Oscars is another story. Almost any type of bug that wasn't taken down with insecticide was put in my Oscar tank (large roaches, katidids, locusts, spiders,...). Even common house gekkos were tossed in.
Yeah, becareful with wild ants: they often have low levels of insecticide and I can't speak for how they act in water, but they can bit HARD (I used to feed them to box turtles). Might be more risk than its worth.
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i inquired somewhere about feeding ants to my betta, and there was some reason i was advised against it. i cant remember what the reason was. but maybe you should try to do a little extra research first.. just in case.
CORRECTION:
i did a little more research on feeding ants to aquariums, and i found this site:
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/crustaceans/a/summerfood.htm
it seems to think that ants would be just fine.
HOWEVER, depending on the area where you live, i would be careful
1) not to use fireants - cuz they probably dont feel too good in your fishys mouth
2) to beware of any pesticides/chemicals that might be on the ant's body.
3) ants are not very nutritious, the exoskeleton is made up of something that is difficult to digest, but its small so it doesnt really matter for bigger fish (but thats why it was not acceptable for the betta) this would probably go with any arthropodesque insect.
i did a little more research on feeding ants to aquariums, and i found this site:
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/crustaceans/a/summerfood.htm
it seems to think that ants would be just fine.
HOWEVER, depending on the area where you live, i would be careful
1) not to use fireants - cuz they probably dont feel too good in your fishys mouth
2) to beware of any pesticides/chemicals that might be on the ant's body.
3) ants are not very nutritious, the exoskeleton is made up of something that is difficult to digest, but its small so it doesnt really matter for bigger fish (but thats why it was not acceptable for the betta) this would probably go with any arthropodesque insect.
Run a saearch on ants on this site, there was a pretty lengthly thread a couple of month ago that had several good links. I'd stay away from spiders, just my thought, some people say it's fine. but ants are fine in most cases. My Oscars always got a lot of beetles and june bugs as well as the occasional housfly or ant. may flies are obviously awesome as well.
I don't know if it was on this forum or the other one I go to but some guy tried to feed ants to his puffer and the ant attcked the fish- so be careful. depending on where you get them I would worry about pesticides too. I know you can order freeze dried ants- would that work?
When I had a green sunfish before, I used to feed him the 2 inch wolf spiders that would come inside during the summer. We started spraying pesticide in the garage to kill the spiders, so of course any spiders I found after that I never even thought of feeding to him.
. But he did seem to enjoy them.
. But he did seem to enjoy them.