Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Is anybody else running cricket or cockroach colonies?

http://theroachguy.com/new_page_1.htm

Am I crazy for thinking running a colony or two of crickets would be a great way to supplement the mill made food to save some cash? (Of course not feeding them to the trout until they are big enough to handle the size of the cricket/roach).

i am really interested to see if anybody is raising crickets , i would like to give it a go ... but i dont know where to start

well that answers that question about crickets : http://www.wikihow.com/Raise-Your-Own-Crickets

and roaches - im not too keen on them though :s .
http://www.wikihow.com/Breed-Feeder-Roaches

Check out youtube, there are a lot of videos on how to raise crickets as well as cockroaches. User named tarantulaguy1976 has a serious cockroach colony going (claims over 6k roaches).

When I eventually get my BYAP system up and running I intend on running 2-3 colonies of crickets to supplement commercial feed just to save money on the fish food. (Maintenance for crickets is minimal as is the cost).

Fish love cockroaches.
My Dovii has caused some pretty big damage to himself and my tank scape trying to get to one that was on the wall behind the tank.

Crickets love fish food, everyone with a fish shed has hundreds of them, myself included.
They feed off the bits of pellet and flake that you tend to always drop a little bit of.
Get an old fish tank, put some sand on the bottom, a bit of water and feed them crushed aquaculture food. Easy

Any way you could make them self harvest as the BSLF do?

If you are in an area where there are roaches present - catch them, chuck them in a bin, feed and have an "escape" only big enough for a second generation of the inmates to elope through - and into FT/second container?

There are plenty of people that harvest their own roaches and crickets for their reptiles

Call me stupid, but isn't the whole idea about not having to buy expensive aquaculture food?

I dont consider aquaculture feed expensive, but maybe thats just me.

Same here.

I also found that when i was feeding my trout a bit of live food (blasted caterpillars!) then they would go off the pellets a bit... YMMV though.

Well feed them cornflakes then, breakfast oats, chicken starter powder, AP scraps, anything.
I was thinking aquaculture food for the added vitamins and minerals, but you could always add reptile vitamin powder to the food to gut load them with all the goodies.
They are crickets, they eat anything!

There's nothing wrong with throwing some supplementary food into your fish tank... but each fish species varies some what in terms of their requirement for protein and type....

Love it.. or hate it.... aquaculture pellet feeds have been designed over years... to deliver the right nutrient profile for each species....

And to do so... for optimal growth...

crushed dog buiscuits, they love it

Yeah... but I can't stand all the noise from them barking at night...