# Free Fish Food



## cS (Jan 27, 2004)

Guess what my fish will be having for breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday for the next several weeks? [smilie=l:
Even the Amano shrimps will hunt and devour these aphids alive. Why should the ladybugs have all the fun eh? [IMG]http://www.industreal.spb.ru/smiles/party.gif[/IMG]


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## glenhead (Jan 29, 2005)

So what do you do, just scrape them off the plants and dump them in the tank? Sounds tasty, and cheeeeeeeap!


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## cS (Jan 27, 2004)

Put a piece of paper underneath them. One flick of the branch and a bunch will fall off. No need to touch them at all. It will probably take the fish a few minutes to realize that it's food. But once they get a taste, the next time you put these aphids in, they'll snatch them off the surface quite quickly. In fact, my chocolate gouramis will compete with the other faster tetras for them. Neato! :axe:

Down side is of course that you'll have to allow the aphids to live on your favorite roses. [smilie=k:


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## Magnus (Feb 4, 2004)

Wow, looks tasty (if I were a fish...







)
I didn't think fish would eat these guys before. How big does your tetra have to be to eat them? Would/could they dirty up the tank?


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## Error (Apr 16, 2004)

Wow, what an excellent source of food.

I wonder if there are any plants beside roses that would attract them better. (My roses never seem to develop quite that level of infestation).


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## cS (Jan 27, 2004)

Magnus said:


> How big does your tetra have to be to eat them? Would/could they dirty up the tank?


The smallest fish I have are the Axelrodia riesei/stigmatias, Boraras maculata, and Hyphessobrycon amandae. Each will gobble up about 2-3 aphids before the bellies will obscenely bulge. Aphids come in all sizes; but it's not like the fish care either. Using their mouths, they swish the easily swishable aphids and gobble them up. The apistos take a mouthful while my chocolate gouramis are a bit more refined, attacking them individually. And as far as I can tell, the aphids aren't "dirtying" the tank.



Error said:


> I wonder if there are any plants beside roses that would attract them better. (My roses never seem to develop quite that level of infestation).


I don't really know Error. I don't deliberately culture them. They just show up every spring for a couple months before disappearing. They seem to prefer my wild polyantha roses, which luckily are pretty hardy so they don't do any noticeable damage.


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