Guppies??

[Ozzy]

Yes I did feed guppies to my N.bical and N. ventricosa. Last summer I bought some guppies to live in my rain barrels. I put four guppies in each 55 gallon barrel. Next thing I knew I had hundreds of guppies. So I took some out and put them in a hugh sink I had. Some of those died. One of the guppies was pretty big, so I put it in my biggest N.bical pitcher. I put two medium sized guppies in two smaller pitchers of the bical. I had two tiny guppies so I put them in my N. ventricosa pitchers. The next day one of the bical pitchers started turning brown. Within a week all the pitchers with guppies was turning brown. After the pitchers have completely died I cut them off and I looked in side for the fish and there was no sign of the fish at all, even the bones were gone.
After thinking about it for a while, whatever killed the guppies may have killed the pitchers.

 

[Steve L]

I put a leach in  a big sanguinea pitcher once. The next morning the liquid in the pitcher was the color of weak coffee and the leach was mush. We have a native Michigan tree frog that reproduces in the greenhouses, Hylea versicolor I think. Anyway, I noticed a very foul smell coming from the huge truncata in the corner of the CP house and found a frog in one of those big pitchers. Nothing was left but hanging skin and bones. We also feed the plants quite a few big roaches and they seem to love it.

Steve LaWarre
Grand Rapids, MI

 

[Slyfi]

Roaches do go down well....most insects are good targets(except the really big ones that can crawl out) I have also feed my plant large scorpions and even a dead hawk moth once.......my picthers have tons of little exoskeletons in their bases....I also heave used 1/4 strength 20-20-20 fertilizer....tried milk but wasnt so sure it did much for the plant...it just had a mildly unplesant odor.....

And it it true...there is no magic food....conditions are everything....give a neph lots of light and the required humidity with the ocassional feeding and they grow like weeds.....well...mine do

 

[Guest]

Thanks for all the replys guys

I just found the topic interesting and wondered if people on this side of the world had tried it as well. Plus I'll soon have way too many guppies and need to find something to do with them...

 

[John_Duval]

Hello all.  Long time grower, first time poster.

 I found this topic particularlly interesting because there a few things to take in account when feeding a nep. living (or once living) organisms. First and foremost you don't want to feed them too much, as in the Ozzy's case above it might of been a bacteria in the fish that killed the bical but it might of just been too much fish as you did mention you fed it a "pretty big" guppie.

Another thing is that living tissue, like muscle (i.e protiens) has acids in it that eat away at itself after death which would add in plant digestion.  As far I can tell there is nothing wrong with trying it if you have pitchers and fish to burn.  I mean as Tony so negatively pointed out one of the "keys" to growing is observation. You only have a few variables that you can adjust in growing and what you feed is one of them, hence carnivorous plants.

So if you do try feeding guppies to a nep. make sure to keep a semi-controlled enviroment (i.e two plants, same-species, ect..) then you can produce valid results.  I would love to hear how it goes.

-John

 

[Jmenprkr]

i have heard of a mouse head (spect)

 

[Capslock]

Hey, Welcome John! It's good to "see a new face" around here. Be careful, this place is almost as addicting as the CPs!

Capslock

PS: Yes, Spec did feed a nep a mouse head.

 

[Ozzy]

Welcome to the forums John.
I did say that one of the guppies was huge. But I think I also said that the trap was hugh too. The trap was way bigger than the guppie. If the guppie was alive it could have probably swam around inside the trap before it died.
I'll agree that with the  N. ventricosa pitcher, the guppie could have been too big and caused the pitcher to rot, but with the bical the pitchers should have been able to handle something alot bigger.
I have a witness to the size of the pitchers. Death66 took these pics of the plants and one of the pitchers in question.