How to Harvest Mosquito Larvae

Annoying though they may be as adults, mosquitoes in their larval stage make excellent food for freshwater fish as long as they are not offered to the fish more than one feeding per week. African and South American Cichlids, and bettas in particular, will produce nothing short of a feeding frenzy in the rush to eat up every last mosquito larvae you place in your tank. Harvesting and rearing mosquito larvae is quite easy.

Things You'll Need

  • Bucket
  • Water
  • Sweet potato peels
  • Glass jars
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Instructions

    • 1

      Fill your bucket with water and place it in a shaded area. Place two or three potatoes' worth of peelings in the bucket, and then wait, checking on the bucket every day until the mosquito egg rafts appear.

    • 2

      Fill a glass jar with the water from the bucket. When the egg rafts appear, place them inside the jar and cap the lid. Watch carefully for when the mosquito larvae appear. You can add the mosquito rafts to the aquarium now in order to feed young fish, but pay careful attention to when they hatch into their larval swimming stage to remove the eggs themselves from the aquarium.

    • 3

      After the larvae have hatched, they can be added to the aquarium to feed fish that are mature, but be sure to feed them to the fish before the mosquito larvae have developed into flying mosquitoes.