Bug bites/Dry foods photo series

[brewmaster15]

Hi all,
Someone gave me a bag of bug bites to try. I had never used it before so I decided to to throw some in a glass of water and get a feel for how it rehydrates before trying to feeding it to my fish. I was not surprised to see it expanded a bit, I have seen alot of crumble type food do this. It just goes with the territory. The crumbles tend to sink slow and then expand and soften. Most of the time its not an issue but every once in a while you get a fish that is a royal chow hound. These can eat so fast that they bloat up a bit. Pre-soaking is a good idea if you have a fish prone to being a pig. So since I was playing around with some macro photography I I thought I would do a series of photos over time.

IMGP3984 by Al Sabetta, on Flickr

Time 0 min.. added food.
IMGP3985 by Al Sabetta, on Flickr

These crumbles initally float abit.

T=1 min
IMGP3986txt by Al Sabetta, on Flickr


T=3 min
IMGP3989txt by Al Sabetta, on Flickr

T= 10 min
IMGP3992txt by Al Sabetta, on Flickr

T=20 min
IMGP3997txt by Al Sabetta, on Flickr

At this point I stopped taking picture, This hydration happens with any dry foods.. water expands the food. If are having trouble with fish having very extended abdomens or prone to bloating and blockages, try pre-soaking any dry foods they are eating. Most of the time its not an issue, but there is always fish that tries to set a world record on gulping down food.

hth,
al

[Willie]

Great observation, Al. I lost a few L-398 pleco fry as a result. I tend to overfeed with bare bottom tanks, so the plecos end up sitting on a pile of Bug Bites. Now I know better...

[LizStreithorst]

So did your fish like it?

[brewmaster15]

So did your fish like it?

Not really. I had a few that picked at it.. One guy did eat a bunch, but most didn't like it. I tried it only a few days though so take that with a grain of salt. Its not something I plan on adding to my fishes diet here,,more like a" well I have it lets try it" food. Its a shame too because I really like the concept of using soldierfly larvae as a fish food ingredient...Its a great protein source thats renewable and utilizes waste.

al

[LizStreithorst]

I'll tell you a little story I think you'll find interesting.

A few years ago I heard a piece on NPR about the guy who was developing the flies for use in food. I forwarded it to a friend I met on another fish forum who made his own food in small batches. My fish like his food and I figured he'd be interested. He contacted the guy in the story and bought some to make his own food. The developer wanted him to become their only distributer. I thought it was great, but my friend wanted to stay small. He called the food that he made "Bug".

I bought some because like you I thought it was a great idea. My fish didn't care for it either. I was disappointed. Of course all I had back then were Discus. May be other fish would like it. The developer found another big fish food make her and gave him the contract. It's available in all the pet stores and is called Bug Bites.

[brewmaster15]

Wow that is an interesting story. Its a small world. No pun intended, but that would really BUG me.

sorry.. couldn't resist, my kids would flag that a bad "dads joke"

al

[Willie]

Same experience here. Discus don't seem to enjoy BugBites. But angelfish, both scalare and altum, like them. Mostly I feed them to the plecos.

[Disgirl]

Interesting, my Discus all eat and enjoy them. But my Discus eat everything I give them, fish food that is. I give the small powdery, crumbles from the containers to my Endlers, so they eat as well as my Discus!
Barb