# can i feed common house ants to my fish?



## jeremyTR (Mar 21, 2012)

I don't see why not. If you're talking about those little tiny ones.


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## rainbuilder (Sep 21, 2011)

As long as you don't have ant poison out or anything, they would be fine and probably pretty beneficial.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Most ants produce chemical defenses (poisons!) and they are at the least bad-tasting and could also potentially poison your fish.


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## babydragons (Mar 14, 2012)

Just so you know ants shouldn't sink. They can "walk" across the water. So you would pribably need to feed them slowly so they don't end up getting out of the tank


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## Phish (Apr 29, 2009)

I don't see the point in risking it tbh


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## caykuu (Jul 30, 2011)

Ants also have tiny pinchers and a harder exoskeleton.. I don't see the reason to risk it either. :x


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## SpecGrrl (Jul 26, 2012)

Ants often have Formica acid in their pincers iirc.

Not tasty.


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## tobystanton (Jun 27, 2012)

UGHH I used to feed my datnoids everything including mice, lizards, moths, whatever I could find around the house. Stopped doing it cause last year my baby ST (cost me 150$) got owned by an ant.


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## Unikorn (Jun 14, 2012)

Why don't you just remove the head before feeding?


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## jamesbaptista (Jul 20, 2012)

Don't fish eat ants and other insects in their natural habitat?


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

Most fish will eat all sorts of insects and many other things. Some bugs are clearly marked (like wasps) with bright colors and fish generally leave these alone. Some bugs are not so marked, but are not good for the fish. The fish seem to need to learn to avoid these bugs. 

I think ant larvae are safe, but I would not risk adult ants. 

I have fed:
Aphids (put the aphid covered leaf in the water so the aphids are under water, not on top. 
Worms- both earth worms and the larger night crawlers. Size according to the fish (smaller worms for mid-sized fish, medium sized worms for my largest fish. Leave the largest worms to reproduce in the garden)
Snails. These are the snails originally imported for escargots, then they escaped. Also called garden snails. I feed these to my largest Clown Loaches. 
Mosquito larvae: All my tanks get some when I can find them, but I generally do not keep standing water around.


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## rainbuilder (Sep 21, 2011)

jamesbaptista said:


> Don't fish eat ants and other insects in their natural habitat?


Yes, they do. However, if an ant has large pincers, you may want to remove them first because one latched onto the mouth of my black neon tetra and wouldn't let go. :icon_lol: Honestly if was funny to see but I had to remove him from its mouth and then drop him back in the tank to be eaten again. No harm done to the fish but it was probably not the best thing to happen... I feed mine fruit flies as well and they love them.

They shouldn't be poisonous to the fish if they're just regular house/carpenter ants. I would mostly be worried about an ant that hurt when it stung, like a fire ant.

As for the rest of your question, they won't do anything to the water and they would be shrimp safe because they would be confined to the top of the water.


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## TexasCichlid (Jul 12, 2011)

I would beware if any pesticides are used in your area.


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