Today I went and caught some small critters from the local pond. I caught 3 pond snails and lots of little bug things with wing kinda things for swiming. I was wondering if they are safe to feed to my fish. All I know about pond critters is that dragonfly larvae are dangerous to fish so I tryed to keep away from them ( I guessing they are the ones that look like little dragon flys). Here some pics if they help.

Could some one help me identify what they are?

Those critters I believe are water boatmen.

You can feed them to the fish as along as the fish are large enough and fast enough to devour them. I fed some water boatmen to my rainbow fish a while back and they certainly enjoyed the tasty snack.

As long as the source is pollution free then I can't see any problems.

the pond that they come from is resonably dirty with algae but is not polluted. Its funny that when I was up there the water was as warm as my tank, but in winter it freezes over enough to walk and jump on

I think the water boatmen (or is it the backswimmers?) eat fish eggs and small fry. That is why they are no good in tanks.

I often collect greeblies from ponds. Just make sure nobody has sprayed weeds or anything nearby.

I feed a few to my fish tonight. Tasty treat for the big greedy head tail light tetra. And I have no fry or eggs in the tank so if any survived they hopefully wont do any damage and should die off? oh and what do greeblies look like?

Depends on the greeblie :lol:

I am referring to mossie larvae, daphnia and any other small critter that ends up in the water.

but will any surviving boatmen be fine?

They will survive no trouble at all.

thats bad, will they breed (i think maybe one got swallowed by the head and tail light but got spat out again) They will not harm the fish in anyway will they?

I feed my fish these little critters all the time. The large angels love them and usually there are a few survivors but they do not last long. I feed my newts tyhe water boatmen as well and they love them.

hey,

I feed my angels little critters aswell and they love them. I found a plastic dish (they go under plants pots) outside which was full of mozzie larvae. My brother's three swordtails also didn't mind 8) .

just a question, but what do mozzie larvae and daphnia look like? Im going to try and catch some of them next time. And could you catch some and farm them?

I have no experience what so ever in daphnia, but my mozzie larvae look a little like tiny dragonflies with no wings. They swim backwards (away from the 'head' end) with a small 'twist' in each direction. /

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If that helps to explain

Mosquito Larvae (thanks Wikipedia)

Mosquito Larvae (thanks Wikipedia)

what was that? An acknowledgement of source? Jolly good show old chap; certain persons will be pleased.

what was that? An acknowledgement of source? Jolly good show old chap; certain persons will be pleased.

:lol: I don't know about that - I forgot to reference "the" Babylonians for use of "their" Alphabet!