# are crickets good for mass



## tiran (Apr 27, 2007)

are crickets good to build mass on piranhas


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## huck (Mar 6, 2006)

Not sure if they will give them mass, but you have to "GUTLOAD" the crickets if not they are like eating lettuce.


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## NegativeSpin (Aug 1, 2007)

I think the Chitin(sp?) material that their exoskeleton is made of is similar to starch or cellulose. Since it has very little nitrogen in it it doesn't have all of the materials necessary to build amino acids then proteins then muscle.


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## Dawgz (Aug 18, 2005)

i used to feed my caribe freeze dried crickets. But he'd sh*t out most of the cricket later, so id assume that he didnt get much from the crickets. So i gave the bottle of remaining freeze dried crickets to a friend who has oscars.

I think a better bet for u is to feed them Freeze Dried Krill, Silversides, shrimp and some catfish here and there.

IF u feed them silversides, u can pack the silversides with nutritional pellets like those omega vitamin pellets or carnivourous pellets u see at the LFS for oscars and cichlids and wat not.


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## ryno8er (Mar 22, 2008)

id stay away from crickets b/c they make one hell of a mess in your tank. i had legs and heads everywhere but it was entertaining.


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## Piranha Dan (Nov 11, 2007)

I usually give mine live crickets once a week (feeders bought from LFS). Not sure if they 'build mass' but my Reds love them. ryno8er's right they do make a bit of a mess, but nothing a few minutes of netting can't clean up.


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## TobiasRieper (Mar 14, 2008)

I used to feed my red bellies feeders that were stuffed silly with carnivor sticks, they are 40% protien. That got them pretty chunky.


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## LGHT (Nov 9, 2005)

TobiasRieper said:


> I used to feed my red bellies feeders that were stuffed silly with carnivor sticks, they are 40% protien. That got them pretty chunky.


I do the same thing, but I feed my feeders mysis shrimp. They get really fat and then go into the P's tank. Not sure why, but my p's wont eat mysis directly.


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## Buckman (Jan 10, 2007)

mine love mysis! and you cant beat 69% crude protein!


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

Crickets are an awesome food for your fish!
They're absolutely packed with protein.

It's also very fortunate that crickets love to eat flake fish food, so you can gutload them with a top grade color-enhancing flake.


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## NegativeSpin (Aug 1, 2007)

http://www.grubco.com/Nutritional_Information.cfm

This website gives the nutritional value of crickets. It appears they have 21% by mass of protein which is good but you can double that with pellets.


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## TobiasRieper (Mar 14, 2008)

Iv read somewhere that most insects (including crickets) have more protien per wieght than meat does.


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