feeding my fish

Question
1.i know peas are good for bettas but are they good for white clouds?

2.if they are, how do i feed them? raw or cooked?

3. what kinds of live foods can they eat that you can find in your garden(i heard they are quite expensive...)

4. do fish eat ants cause mine did...

5. if so, what kind of ants? any kind?

6. can you feed your fish earthworms?

7. HELP! my marbled betta (spot) ate the legs off a spider that fell in the tank while i was cleaning. he is fine and swimming well, eating good but he changed colors to electric blue... (i removed the rest of the spider he didn't eat)

8. THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP! YOUR A GREAT EXPERT!

Answer
Dear Amy,
Thanks so much for your interesting questions!
1.) Peas are fine for white clouds, all fish generally eagerly accept green peas and they are an excellent supplement to many fishes diet. They also help keep a fishes digestive tract healthy.

2.) I typically use frozen green peas. You must insure to thaw them out completely, pop them out of their shells and mash them up to insure your little fish can eat them. Canned peas are also fine. Treat them the same as frozen ones, minus thawing. I've just always used Frozen.

3.) What kinds of live foods White clouds eat? Many! Brine Shrimp, tubifex worms,      worms, and generally all manner of frozen or freeze dried foods. As long as the food is small enough for your White clouds mouths than it is suitable. Live food can get on the pricey side, but you can usually easily find frozen foods quite cheaply for a small package, freeze dried foods are usually quite inexpensive.

4.) I would imagine some fish would try eating ants. But my fish usually don't . I prefer not to offer ants to my fish because sometimes they may release an iritating substance (you know when an ant bites and leaves an iritated spot on your skin?) or they may pinch the fish! You'r fish are probably just fine though. I just usually don't feed feed ants to my aquatic creatures.

5.)If you can, an awesome food for most all manner of fish is mosquito larvae. You can get mosquito larvae by simply setting out a cup of clean water where mosquitoes can lay their eggs and larvae will hatch. Once you get wrigglers you can take a brine shrimp net and strain the wrigglers and then rinse them in some aquarium water before hand and then feed. Make sure you do not collect Mosquito larvae from polluted water.

6.) Certainly you can feed your fish earthworms! They must be large enough of course. You can gather earthworms from your garden as long as you INSURE no pesticides or chemicals are used in the land and it's good to rinse the earthworms well. They are really best for larger fish.

7.) I don't think Spot (hope that's your marbled betta's name) was badly affected by eating the spider legs. It sounds like it made him feel good. Live food always makes fish look and feel very good. It's good you removed the rest of the unfortunate spider, I am quite sure all spiders can bite so beware!

~*Well, I certainly hope this helps!!!

~Only my very best wishes and Happy fishkeeping!
Karen~