Live food

EllRog · Jul 12, 2020

Hello guys,
So @Retired Viking has inspired me to collect my own mosquito larvae. (I've set up buckets of dechlorinated tap water, mixed with rain water in the garden. Is this right?)

I have my own brine shrimp hatchery that's been running for a while to feed up breeding pairs and their fry.

My question is, what else could I collect from the garden to feed my fish and how do I go about doing it?

The idea of free food is very appealing :rofl:

KevinZ · Jul 12, 2020

Try amazon frogbit in your pond/aquarium. You'll get a thousand of some sort of bugs. Dont know what people called it. Can't remember it

And using De-chlorinated water with some veggie and let it sit for about 1 week. You'll get the small thingy (smaller than daphnia) can't remember the name too. Lol sorry having a brain fart ATM. :rofl:

EDIT: I was talking about Infusoria & Aphid Bugs ! Oh godness me

EllRog · Jul 12, 2020

KevinZ said:
Try amazon frogbit in your pond/aquarium. You'll get a thousand of some sort of bugs. Dont know what people called it. Can't remember it

And using De-chlorinated water with some veggie and let it sit for about 1 week. You'll get the small thingy (smaller than daphnia) can't remember the name too. Lol sorry having a brain fart ATM.

thanks Kevin, I'll give it a go and try work out what it is you're talking about lol!
Can never have too many options for live food so thought I'd ask if there's more than just daphina that will turn up in the garden.

I've got rocks, in water, in a clear tub, in the sun to grow algae. (Saw that on another thread, would credit the member, but can't remember who it was) to feed critters that can be used as a live food. I read online that it's a good way of doing it.

I just like the idea of having live food naturally available in my garden lol

Retired Viking · Jul 12, 2020

I am glad I inspired someone :banana:

you want to put your buckets in the shade, that is suppose to work the best. Good luck, I put out two small plastic bins and already have some larvae. Watch out for dragon fly or mayfly nymphs

AbbeysDad · Jul 12, 2020

Contact Support

You might also consider culturing live foods (several posts on the blog) - a small investment for a starter culture yields large, long term rewards.

EllRog · Jul 12, 2020

Retired Viking said:
I am glad I inspired someoneyou want to put your buckets in the shade, that is suppose to work the best. Good luck, I put out two small plastic bins and already have some larvae. Watch out for dragon fly or mayfly nymphs

You did! Thanks for the tip, they're currently in the shadiest spot, so I'll keep them there.

Are dragon fly and may fly nymphs likely to settle there too then? I'll have to closely examine any harvest I get then, perhaps I'll share a photo for expert advice if I get lucky.
I never thought to attempt collecting my own mozzie larvae and I want to introduce more variety of live foods to the fish so thanks for the inspiration!

EllRog · Jul 12, 2020

AbbeysDad said:
Contact Support

Ahhh thank you! I'll have a trawl through this when doing my water changes later. Very kind!

Retired Viking · Jul 12, 2020

I have lots of tiny larvae swimming in the wife rainwater bin, I caught most of the big ones the last few days so have to wait until they get bigger. I froze 5 batches like these in the cup. I put them in small containers the size of a large coin and when frozen they go into a plastic bag.

EllRog · Jul 12, 2020

Retired Viking said:
I have lots of tiny larvae swimming in the wife rainwater bin, I caught most of the big ones the last few days so have to wait until they get bigger. I froze 5 batches like these in the cup. I put them in small containers the size of a large coin and when frozen they go into a plastic bag.

That's really cool, your fish will be getting a lovely treat. Thanks for the method and storage advice, I'll just follow how you do it as it's my first time at the rodeo lol

Retired Viking · Jul 12, 2020

It is new to me too but @Colin_T and some articles like the one @AbbeysDad posted helped a lot. My tetras really went wild eating the larvae. I had a damselfly larvae get into my shrimp tank and kill several shrimp before I found and killed the little @#@!###@@.

changed to damselfly

Colin_T · Jul 12, 2020

you don't need rain water for mozzie larvae. any free standing water will suffice, even salt water.

the following link has info on culturing live food for baby/ small fish

Back to Basics when Breeding Fish

STARTING OUT Make sure you have a pair, (1 male + 1 female). There is nothing worse than spending your hard-earned dollars buying a couple of fish to try and breed and ending up with a pair of fish of the same sex. Let's face it, to reproduce fish you need a male and a female. Two males won't do...

www.fishforums.net

EllRog · Jul 12, 2020

Retired Viking said:
It is new to me too but @Colin_T and some articles like the one @AbbeysDad posted helped a lot. My tetras really went wild eating the larvae. I had a mayfly larvae get into my shrimp tank and kill several shrimp before I found and killed the little @#@!###@@.

Blimey! I'll make sure to try and avoid that!

EllRog · Jul 12, 2020

Colin_T said:
you don't need rain water for mozzie larvae. any free standing water will suffice, even salt water.

the following link has info on culturing live food for baby/ small fish

Back to Basics when Breeding Fish

STARTING OUT Make sure you have a pair, (1 male + 1 female). There is nothing worse than spending your hard-earned dollars buying a couple of fish to try and breed and ending up with a pair of fish of the same sex. Let's face it, to reproduce fish you need a male and a female. Two males won't do...

www.fishforums.net

Thank you Colin. Seems as though I've got a bit of reading to do tonight!

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