Aquariums: Aphids as self sustaining and in-tank live food / enrichment

During summer, with Medaka outdoor ponds and sometimes taking floaters inside, I got aphids in some of my indoor tanks.

At first I was kinda annoyed and tried to get rid of them. Which actually is quite tricky and you usually have to remove all floaters and leave the tank for a week or so. Just to make sure non survived floating on the water surface or the tank sides up top.

Learning and watching them more, I now kinda embrace them and keep them in some tanks as livestock and enrichment for the fish 😄.

Turns out they loooovvve frog bit, as you can see in the pic. And funnily enough, they don’t really seem to affect the growth much in a negative way. So the frog bit still looks really nice and you only see them when going up close.

In betta tanks and for other fish that like hunting at the surface, I just brush a few of them off and once they float on the surface they get noticed and snagged up.

I assume some wander off the leaves and onto the surface by themselves and get eaten continuously.

They do go on other floaters if they have to but don’t really seem to like or thrive on them. They will also colonize any submersed plants that show parts or grow out of the water. Like water sprite and other plants that tend to float right under / grow up to the surface.

Just be aware that obviously they can spread. Especially if the tank has no lid or is filled pretty high up.

No issue for me really, as my tanks are not all right next to each other and I have no house plants that will get colonized. Just keep it in mind so you don’t blame me if your plant collection gets infected 😅.

Just „food for thought“ if someone else wants to give this a try. It’s a super healthy, homegrown, pesticide and parasite free livefood that is totally self sustaining and you don’t even need a separate container or tank. And it works year round even if it gets really cold outside where you live.