# Are mosquito larvae safe for fish?



## Guppy_Madness (Sep 2, 2010)

Hi everyone,
One of my friends told me that I can feed my Guppies, Mollies, Platies the larvae and it is better then the flake food in LFS. Like first of all it is live food and second it is full of nutrition.
My concern is does Mosquito Larva carry parasite, if they do then what is the best solution to remove them. Plus is it really healthy than flakes???
Please please please give me your expert advice.
Thanks,


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Generally live foods are "healtier" than flakes. But like you said, there is some concern for parasites via the mosquito larvae or any other live foods. If that's the case, then you can always just treat with an antiparasitic at the end of the live food season, although the likelyhood that your fish will get a parasite are low enough that you can probably not bother.

That or you can gamma-irridiate the food to be 99% sure


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## Cory (May 2, 2008)

I had some Endlers (relatives of guppies) in an outdoor tub all summer and all they had to eat was insect larvae and other things that fell in. They grew tremendously and had no problems with parasites.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

The major concern would be that all the mosquito larvae get eaten; otherwise, you will have adult mosquito flying around your house


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

A glass top usually stops most buggies from getting out..  Feed sparingly.. I am sure you will have no survivors. LOL


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## AquaNekoMobile (Feb 26, 2010)

Darkblade48 said:


> The major concern would be that all the mosquito larvae get eaten; otherwise, you will have adult mosquito flying around your house


A thoguht came to mind here. Think like a CDC setup. They have 50L clear container for sale often at Can.T. Buy a pair of long gloves. Cut two holes and silicone/glue/whatever gets it stuck solid for the gloves into the holes. Make sure you buy gloves larger then your hands for easy in/out.

Now if you can cut some opening on the top of the box and silicone down some no-see-um mesh on there. Buy them now as they are cheap from Wally's/SHoppers Drugmart as they're clearing summer stock. rip them apart for the size you need. It'll aloow air flow. Put your water samples into the box and let them breedup. I'm thinking the lid should be on the table but others may want the lid on top.

If you're uber paranoid silicone the lid so it is sealed in with no cracks for the mozzies to come out. Now you're asking HTF do I extract my larva? Well cut two small holes on the sides of the box justlarger then your smallest brine shrimp net and gun tape a painter stick to it to make it longer to reach your breeding containers. I would make a hinge flap with gun tape then tape the sides just to make sure the container is sealed in from any mozzies comingout. Should I need a handle on the small side doors use a screw with it's tip cut or sanded off or rounded off (on the sidewalk or powertools) then punch/drill a hole and silicone that screw into both side doors for easy opening.

Hope that helps. If you need to warm the water check Wallys/Rona/Lowes/Can.T/Nursey for a greenhouse kit. I saw Home D having it for $35 which is just a heating matwith a dome and peat pellets. Slide heat pad under your breeding setup and water warms up. Thinking more if you wanted top up waterloss without opening the breeder dome stick a air line tube in each tray and poke/drill a hole and silicone it to the outside so you can refill the trays if you wish by having a 2-4L bottle with water and the bottle lid with two holes in it. One hole is for the air pump. The other hole is for the airline hose to the breeder. As the bottle pressurizes the water will be forced out and into the breeder trays. It helps if you have a bleeder for the air so it does not built up too much air but if not just lossen the bottle cap. What about mozzies comingup the air line tube? Well just bend each air line tube leaving the breeder and rubberband it or gun tape it. No mozzies leaving that way.

Just an idea.


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

You don't really want to breed mosquitoes for live food in a closed set up. because the females only lay after a blood meal. However, in the summer you can easily raise mosquito larvae by luring the females to lay in containers of swampy water outdoors. As long as you pour the water through a fine net every week or so and feed the larvae to your fish, you're actually reducing the total number of mosquitoes in your area. If you see pupae, you aren't harvesting often or thoroughly enough. You also get bloodworms in this setup.

If you have more larvae than your fish can eat, put them in water in a closed container in the fridge. They'll pretty much stop growing and survive for weeks.

Newly hatched larvae are fantastic food for fry, so I sometimes collect the egg rafts and float them in a fry tank, so the fry can eat them as they hatch.

I don't worry about parasites since there are no fish in the buckets I raise the larvae in, so there's no way parasites or diseases can get there in the first place. Parasites have to have something to parasitize or they can't complete their life cycle.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

Well said bae. Mosquito larvae are terrific food.


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## Guppy_Madness (Sep 2, 2010)

Thanks everyone a lot for your generous advice  
I have another question :-
Do Blood Worm, Midge also only lay eggs after a blood meal like mosquito.
This question came into my mind after reading “bae” reply.

Please reply.
Thanks


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

No they do not. They are an excellent food also.


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## Guppy_Madness (Sep 2, 2010)

That's good that they are not blood suckers, if they do not take blood as food then what do they eat.
According to my research their life span is 2-3 days and in this time period they just do one thing BREED they do not eat or drink any thing in this period...IS THIS INFORMATION TRUE???


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

Guppy_Madness said:


> That's good that they are not blood suckers, if they do not take blood as food then what do they eat.
> According to my research their life span is 2-3 days and in this time period they just do one thing BREED they do not eat or drink any thing in this period...IS THIS INFORMATION TRUE???


Like many insects, most of their lives are spent in the larval stage. Once they metamorphose, all they do is fly around and breed. In a few days, all spare materials are converted into spawn, and they die. The adult form is basically a distribution method for the aquatic larval stage.


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## Guppy_Madness (Sep 2, 2010)

Thanks everyone


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

I've also been warned many times about using mosquito larvae, but after using them to feed my fish for over three years now, I have yet to run into any problems.

Great snack - and in the summer you get to see how lazy your fish have become eating pellets/frozen/flake foods. They often have trouble at first catching live food, which is amusing!


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

You often see ridiculous warnings about live foods such as mosquito larvae being a source of all sorts of pathogens including parasites. Mosquito larvae come from water that generally do not contain fish, so not any real risk of parasites. Same for earthworms; they don't carry fish parasites either.


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