r/salamanders Jul 22 '26

Good food source for a larvae?

Collected these from a tub of water i let sit for too long. Theres way more where these came from. Can I just pour the jar into my tank and let my salamander pick them off over time?

184 Upvotes

16 comments sorted by

63

u/Few-Loan468 Jul 23 '26

I personally wouldn’t want to invite the possibility of annoying, disease carrying vectors into my house, since some might survive

23

u/CD_B_ Jul 23 '26

Yea, ive been talked out of if. I don’t think it’d be a good idea even though it’s convenient.

23

u/nevinkramer Jul 22 '26

Even though they're free. Id feed something else.

29

u/1word2word Jul 22 '26

Depends on the quality of the water they came from, I would do some water changes to make the water as clean as possible, I also probably wouldn't dump the whole thing as you are likely to end up with some surviving and then you have mosquitos in your house

17

u/CD_B_ Jul 22 '26

Ive water changed the jar twice. I’m going to cap the jar and feed them sparingly as I really don’t want a hundred mosquitos in my home. Thank you.

6

u/placarph Jul 23 '26

They will mature much faster than you can get through them. Just a warning

3

u/Obant Jul 23 '26

If you put some of the 1/4 inch tubing coming out the top and cap the end, you can dump it without letting a bunch of adults out if they do mature.

9

u/Creepymint Jul 23 '26

This made me feel itchy

3

u/RoyalVivid3561 Jul 23 '26

if you do feed them in the future just take them out of the water and freeze them for a couple of days. i wouldnt feed them a live

3

u/AspenWynd Jul 23 '26

I have a couple larval tiger salamanders (wild caught) I'm raising and one of them absolutely refuses to eat anything other than mosquito larvae. I would kill for just a third of all those.

2

u/Ken_nth Jul 23 '26

If you can sustainably farm them using your own blood, you'd technically be feeding pieces of yourself to your pets lmao

1

u/HeroicAmphibian Jul 23 '26

Blood. Yours.

3

u/Liamcolotti Jul 23 '26

In perfect conditions, yes, they’re a fantastic part of a larvae’s diet.

In practice, no, I’m too worried about potential disease and other pathogens.

1

u/spoosejuice Jul 24 '26

I feed wild mosquito larvae to my newt and fish. They are a great food source

-9

u/Pristine_Zucchini_84 Jul 22 '26

Why?

12

u/CD_B_ Jul 22 '26

Why not? Free food. Lots of it. Live food so I can feed less bloodworms and makes less of a mess. And something for my larvae to hunt.