Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all,

Ok - I have mentioned this in my own system thread here viewtopic.php?f=18&t=3402&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=55 - but figured it might deserve a thread of its own.

I am exploring the use of flies caught in a trap as potential suplimentary food for fish in AP systems.

As I see it - many people have compost heaps or are breeding BSF Larvae to feed their fish.

These compost piles also attract regular flies - and we all know they are nasty little BUGG#RS for spreading disease etc.

So - my thought is that while our compost bins are attracting these pests then perhaps we can catch them easily and feed them to ou fish?

I am interested to hear of simple ways to catch flies and other insects (cockroachers?) that keep them alive until fed to the fish.

Also interested to find any info on the nutritional value of flies and other insects - and if there are any negative issues like disease for the fish that we should be concerned about.

Seems like a fairly natural thing for a fish to eat in the wild - so why not in AP systems? Also gets rid of nasty pests for us humans.

Here are a couple of links for fly traps to start the ball rolling.

I have been looking at ways to trap the flies to feed to the Perch - and found this.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... :IT&ih=024

Or the bigger version here.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... :IT&ih=024

Video of it working here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7HmgTgt1JA&NR=1

and here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96cns3aj ... re=related

Once you have may trapped just empty it under the surface of the tank water so that they drown and feed the fish.

Article on inscts as fish food http://cabiblog.typepad.com/hand_picked ... tein_.html

I autopsied some ducks yesterday and laid out the organs separately.
The flies found the liver and blood most attractive, so I loaded my trap with a small piece of liver ... it works quite well.

While I liked the sachet baits at the shop they cost money and did not work as well as liver.
I also tried sugars and yeast etc and these also did not stack up either.

I anticipate I will bait over the water of my fish pond with some complicated trap to aid my fish as well.

Hope this helps,

It was also said that porous bricks boiled with liver whenever wet will attract flies for years!

We do not use pesticides.

Every grasshopper and caterpillar we catch goes to the fish. Most of the roaches that get caught go to the fish.

DO NOT feed bugs to your fish or chooks if you are in the habit of using pesticides, roach baits or the like.

If you want to catch anything that is attracted to light at night. Just run some large diameter flexible tubing next to the light and attach a fan to the other end (above the tank). It should suck anything tha comes near and shoot them out onto the water's surface. You could have it come on with a light sensitive switch. Free high protein food for very little power/cost/effort.

You could do the same with using bait for flies during the day but have the fan come on with a timer to give the odor time to attract flies.

Some people simply put a bug zapper over the tank. Others have had good success with a simple clip light shining on the tank. Just make sure you have it plugged into a CGFI outlet so as not to electrocute your fish or self.

i have been having great results from simply having a light on the edge of the tank with some observation and correction of how the light sits and what color bulb to use, i have found a clear bulb where you can see the coil works very well. Florescent compact lights did well also, but seemed to attacked more little black smell bugs with a white butt, fish didnt seem to like them at all. After smelling one i knew why.