Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My compost bin is absolutely full of these larvae but I dont know if they are black or garden soldier flies.
Is there anyone on this list actually feeding these to their Jade Perch?
I introduced a few into my tank but the fish just mouthed them then spat them out.
I know a lot of fish eat them but cant find out if Jades do.
I'm loathe to just keep adding them on the off chance they will be eaten.
Thanks

I tried feeding them to Silver Perch and they also just spat them out, but if you have chickens, well they love them.

Interesting thread so far. I know my Bluegill love these once they get big enough to eat them.

Do you have a photo as I also have things in my worm farm munching away lol very loud eaters and I haven't seen what the larvae turn into.

Not a good focussed shot but this is the black soldier fly

and this is one of the large grubs

According to the soldier fly blogs fish are supposed to love them, I've only tried a few but mine only mouthed them then spat them out.
Maybe dont feed for 4 or more days then try again.

Most of the fish they are talking about are carnivorous fish I think, yours, not so much . That's one of the things that makes this interesting

May be you should start with frozen blood worms first on your SPs and then move on to BSF or even meal worms. My fingerlings love blood worms. I buy them from aquarium shops and feed it to SP fingerlings. They love it.

Thanks for the photos, they certainly look like the larvae I have in my worm farm I did try my sp with them before and although they did disappear I am not sure they were eaten.

have a quick read, I want to do the BSFL as well.
http://www.ecofilms.com.au/jade-perch-t ... nics-fish/

I feed lots of these to my Silver Perch. They will readily eat them if you cut them in half. It is a bit messy however the fish grow very fast on them. When I had 50 Silver Perch I would sometimes feed up to 200 BSF a day.

Just don't make BSFL their only food as it is not a complete diet.

@torrens title

Ive had the same experience, when I feed BSFL without cutting the larvae in pieces my tilapia wont eat them. However when cut up in pieces it turns into a good old feeding frenzy. Probably when cut up, the smell is released into the water much better.

How much did the bsfl contribute to your total diet? I feed my tilapia now 30% bsfl and 70% pellet, but would like to increase the bsfl percentage as Im producing loads of them.

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Reviving an old thread... and having noted an occasional post about BSFL in other threads.

I've been thinking about BSFL to supplement feeding my silver and jade perch for years. Finally got around to it.

I'm pleasantly surprised to find that my jade perch go crazy for them. They don't eat the black hard shelled ones... probably would if I cut them like Torrens Title did. But I'm too lazy.

What's even more surprising, is that mine are self harvesting while still soft and white or at least only light brown.

I'm trying to work out why. All my research indicated that they'd only self harvest when mature and hard. Was thinking I'd have to process them with veggie scraps in to some sort of pellet.

It's a good problem to have [SMILING FACE WITH OPEN MOUTH]

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Hi dave, great revive, any chance you could add a bit more details on how you are growing and harvesting. I heard of this quite a while ago also but at the time thought them to be only tropical.

yes please more info.
I gave up with them in 2016 (yes the system is still going strong)but have to dismantle my system to move to another abode.
If I can find out why they get eaten I would love to plan in a self feeding system from scratch.

I'm going to preface what follows with a repetition of my admission that I don't know why they're self-harvesting early. And I've only just started this so I'm far from expert/experienced.

Asitis... I'm in Northern NSW... semi-tropical. But I think the key thing is heat - as opposed to humidity (which can be simulated anyway)... and I reckon it's probably hotter where you are than here. I don't know if mine will stay at least a little bit active over winter... am guessing yours would go in to some sort of hibernation. I can't say for sure they're in your area, but there are posts on here indicating that they're in the SW of WA - definitely not tropical.

Savarin... me too! ie having them autofeeding the fish would be great. I gave up on the idea a couple of years ago because I didn't think the perch would eat them when mature. Had a bit of spare time over the recent holidays and had a go. I can't say why they get eaten but the jp go crazy for them. There's no chance any get to the bottom of the tank. But they only eat the soft or semi-soft ones (see below)

I watched heaps of youtube videos... including an ABC one with Costa G. Lots of the setups used PVC pipes as ramps to get the mature BSLF to self-harvest. Some used large tubs and others round buckets or even garbage bins. it seemed to me that it didn't really matter what you did, the BSFL will come if you put the right things out for them.

But the most effective ones for self-harvest seemed to be simple boxes with some sort of drainage and an almost full width (or actually full width) 45 degree ramp.

I started out using a large plastic rectangular storage crate... probably about 50 L and with a lid. I used coreflute to build a ramp and cut a hole where the coreflute met the end of the crate. Also cut some PVC pipes to create an entry for the adult BSF to come in and lay their eggs (that part of the design is from the ABC video - you can see it in one of the photos below). I won't go in to the details too much because that system's just been retired.

That system worked well enough... (provided the BSFL in the photo above). As you can see, some of them are mature. But the mature (black and hard) ones float and the jp don't seem interested, so I just get them out with a small net when they come back around on my circular current. They've gone in the freezer and I'll have a stab at making my own pellets one day... and sooner rather than later if I lose whatever the magic ingredient is that is getting the soft ones to self-harvest.

Started out just with some coffee grounds and a couple of bits of banana peel. Nothing much seemed to happen for a few days... was begining to think all I was getting were house fly maggots when I noticed that the little white grubs were moving quite differently to maggots. There were maggots there too at first, but after a while the BSFL seemed to eat them or at least discourage the flies from laying eggs. Soon after, I could see that the BSFL were laying eggs in the coreflute I'd set up for them (above the food source) but just about everywhere else they could find a spot too.

And I'm now seeing quite a few adult BSF around my yard and definitely visiting the BSF farm (the smell the larvae make is quite distinctive and apparently attracts the adults). Maybe they were always there... just that I now know what to look for.

But it got very wet (poor drainage)... and then slimy and pretty smelly too. And it was so wet inside the box that the humidity meant the walls were wet (and not quite vertical). So the BSFL were climbing up the sides when very immature (not ready for harvesting).

I did read somewhere that you can get "crawl offs" (think that's immature BSFL exiting the farm) when it's hot... but our temps are well within their range... only high-mid 20s today.

So today I went to work on a worm farm ("worm cafe" the marketers call it)... which has great drainage. And the tray can be propped at an angle - but quite securely. I cut an exit hole at the top and I've rigged up some PVC pipe to catch the BSFL when they make a break for it. I wasn't sure if the very immature (small) BSFL would try to get through the many drainage holes in the base, so I put down some weedmat... you'll see that I've used coreflute to hold down the edges so that the BSFL can't get under it (which is what they did with version 1.

Will see how it goes... maybe the very high humidity was the thing working for me. If so, I'll just block up a lot of the drainage.

But a picture tells a thousand words so will do another post (from my phone because it's easier).