Hellgramites

[ETH002]

Can I feed my tiger hellgramites?

 

[Kaysie]

Yikes! From the pictures I googled, no way! They've got some big nasty mouth parts.

 

[Jennewt]

To prevent all the other readers from having to google this, here's a good photo/description:
http://www.watersheds.org/nature/gallery2/pages/hellgramite.htm
I've sure never heard of them before, but I love the word hellgramite!

I agree with Kaysie, the mouthparts look potentially dangerous.

 

[richierich]

You do not want to feed tigers hellgrammites(dobson fly larva). while doing some aquatic entomology with our local fly fishing club i found a hellgrammite and picked it up - ouch i wount be doing that again. it literally hung onto my finger while i tried to shake it off. Not to mention besides the mandibles, the shell is hard and the back of the head is like a rock, so i dont think they would be particularly good for digestion. In general, these are the following common aqautic insects that I would rule out for feeding sals/newts:
1. Hellgrammites
2. Dragonfly larva
3. Damsel fly larva
4. water boatmen/backswimmer
5. Water scorpion

granted there are others but I find these are some of the more common and easier to find "dangerous" insects.

I have fed my newts cranefly larva - these look like a big white worm, and i have fed them caddisfly larva after carefuly opening the caddis case.