Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

dipped my hand into the bucket of trout pellets thismorning and pulled up ...

a conglomerated lump of mushed food , with mold on the outside , filled with icky , wriggling ... MAGGOTS !!!

ahhh , I HATE maggots . almost as much as I hate cockroaches . Apparently my trout do too - they didnt eat ANY !

I transferred all the food from the bag it came in ( Which had a brick on top holding it closed / keeping rabbits out ) , into a new big pet food bucket . seems as though some moisture or water got in , trickled to the bottom , then some flies got in OR there was eggs in the food already from sitting pretty mcuh in the open .
There were big chunks of mushed up ( probably through a maggots bum ) pellets crawling with the buggers . I tried feeding them to the trout but they werent interested , so I spread it bit by bit onto a stretched piece of shadecloth and picked them out ( a fair amount of the maggots work theor way through the shadecloth onto the ground underneath )

so , uh ...

check your fish food regularly people , it might be crawling with maggots

my only thought was to freeze all my food in my dads bait freezer , but that requires a walk every day to go get food for the fishes

Recommended procedure if fish feed gets moldy ... dump it.. don't feed it...

Yours has gone beyond moldy... I wouldn't use it Boris... except maybe for the chocks or the rabbits...

Now the maggots... those you could probably feed to the fish....

the mold was only in concentrated lumps , not on any of the other food , and was the only stuff that had maggots in or near it .
I reckon the mold came after the maggots had eaten the wet food ( easier for them to fit in their mouthes ? )

Ive sifted through the remaining food and checked it all ( trst me , it took 2 hours or more ) and Im happy feeding the rest to the fish . I'll be checking it before every feeding though to make sure its good

the maggots I threw in ( live ones wriggling / live ones wriggling with food / dead ones / dead ones with food ) and the trout just ignored them and went for the food - the maggots , presumably dead , now sit on the bottom of the tank taunting me with their uselessness

They generally recommend not feeding any feed that has gone bad.
This includes;
beyond 6 months of the manufacture date,
Moldy,
Infested (maggots, ants, other bugs)
or Rancid (if you can tell that by smell)

Since it is really difficult to keep feed in a bag or any sort of non sealed bin free of moisture or ants around here, I've had to deal with some amount of ants in my fish feed, but they are mostly just stealing crumbs of it. We had a bag of catfish feed that got filled with ants and I got all bit up when I went to scoop some out. I have learned not to leave open bags of feed. All feed must transfer into some sort of sealable feed bin now as soon as the bag gets opened.

I did notice that there had been an awful odor around my system at one time. I eventually found out what it was, a glob of fish food had built up on the edge of the tank and was wet and full of maggots (it was not a big glob, less than a handfull.) Now I'm more careful about cleaning up food that doesn't make it into the fish.

Thanks for that info Boris and TC, I haven't had the problem but I just reviewed my food storing to ensure it doesn't in the future

Some climates, locations or seasons may have very different storage needs than others. My particular situation means that storage must be done very carefully.

Here is one type of container I've found that works for me.
http://www.petblvd.com/cgi-bin/pb/GPI14280.html?mv_session_id=7DB93zmG&id=7DB93zmG


or another version
http://www.petblvd.com/cgi-bin/pb/GPI14360.html

I found that the lids of the bottom ones don't screw back on as well when stacked though.

Five gallon buckets food grade with good lids will work too if you secure the lids well. These are probably cheaper to come by but won't hold a whole large bag of feed in one container.

Yeah, I've scrounged up a 60 litre(16 gallon) food grade round container with lid - should hold a full bag easily and keep out nasties

I find it intrigueing that the trout don't like maggots,

Been a mad keen angler and spending a number of years course fishing breeding my own maggots as it was the preferred bait, maybe it was the feed source ( i used rotting chicken fillets to feed and breed the maggots).

Cheers
Ron

I use old chlorine drums because they have a good seal for moisture. Have to wash them out. I just left them in the pool for a month before I cleaned them. Keep the fish food in a bag inside. Holds 40kgs.

i use a 60 litre bin from B with a lid, $10 bargain

the trout probably dont go for the maggots as they dont recognize them as food. Food to them is litle round pellets dropped in by the great god from above