# Feeding RBP Live Crickets



## readingbabelfish (Jan 16, 2003)

I get crickets at my local pet shop for my tarantula. I usually only feed my p's pellets and granule fish food. So I thought I would give them a treat and try tossing in some crickets. Occasionally they have eaten earthworms and love them. Everytime I feed them I turn off my wet/dry system, so the water level drops and they know its feeding time. Also, the p's are used to coming to to surface for pellets. So I tossed a live cricket in, and the tiger barbs went nuts. I have the original 11 tiger barbs I cycled the tank with in there too. Amazingly, only a few tigers have had fin nips, sometimes the barbs actually go after the p's! Anyway, the p's are about 2.5 months old and the largest is about 3.5 inches and the smallest about 2 inches. The barbs went to the top to see what the cricket was all about, and the p's know that when the barbs go to the surface, its usually feeding time. So the big p's went up there and were too scared to bite, but the smaller p's went right up and grabbed it and tore it up. This got the bigger p's thinking and as I tossed them in, all the p's would come up to get some. All in all I fed 9 crickets to the p's and some pellets. I think they had a blast and it was pretty darn cool seeing it. Are there any problems with feeding crickets to my p's?


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## jman785 (May 8, 2005)

I don't see any problem with it. It seems natural for a fish to eat bugs...


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## No0dles (Dec 16, 2003)

yeah crickets aren't a bad. i feed my rbps farm raised crickets every now and then.

yeah crickets aren't a bad. i feed my rbps farm raised crickets every now and then.


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## blbig50 (Jan 1, 2009)

That's very interesting, I might have to give that a try and see if they like it.


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## Guest (May 13, 2009)

HA! I did this before and I have just one piece of advice. Dont chuck all 12 in at once! I did and those buggars can swim...and crawl out of your tank. I heard chirping and it drove me nuts, so there I am at 2am with a flashlight hunting the little buggars down. Next time I will squish them before placing them in my tank. My P's still enjoyed them


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## No0dles (Dec 16, 2003)

ksls said:


> HA! I did this before and I have just one piece of advice. Dont chuck all 12 in at once! I did and those buggars can swim...and crawl out of your tank. I heard chirping and it drove me nuts, so there I am at 2am with a flashlight hunting the little buggars down. Next time I will squish them before placing them in my tank. My P's still enjoyed them


hahahaha cant say that's ever happened to me before but we have this cricket at my work and it stays in the customers lobby behind the snack machine in the wall and that chirp would DRIVE ME NUTS if i had to stay in there for longer than 5 minutes haha


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

Yeah, I've fed mine live crickets before... they love 'em.
They're also very good for them.
They're packed with protein.

If you really wanna get the best 'Bang for your feeding buck' with these guys, feed them some high grade flake fish food right before tossing them in.
Crickets LOVE flake fish food, and will devour it.

Filling the bellies of your feeders (in this case the crickets) with a nutritious food is called "Gutloading."
That way, your piranhas get both the benefit of the nutrition from the crickets, as well as all the food in their "Guts!"


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## No0dles (Dec 16, 2003)

make sure you feed them farm raised crickets only though you dont wanna feed them wild caught crickets from your back yard


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## Ibanez247 (Nov 9, 2006)

Any bug is packed with protien so yeah good for the reds. Those tiger barbs wont last too much longer. I found that aggresive fish get eaten faster than community type of fish. Probably cause the aggresive ones get too close hehe. As P man said feeding crickets with the flake food is great. MY old roomate had a lizard and fed it crickets. He use to have to buy calcium powder and coat them before feeding. Not sure how that would work in a tank but I wouldnt think it would hurt. Now Im going to have to try some crickets.


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