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Live food for dummies

CaptainBarnicles said:
So I just watched a few videos on culturing these...the dudes were using scourer pads! No soil or coconut fibre...and one guy dunked the pad into his fish tank to clean it! 😱 not to feed the fish but to rinse out the pad of all the muck it accumulates after a week 🤢

I'd like to have a go but I don't know if my stomach is strong enough
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Hmmm? I've been watching a lot of videos too. I saw some people using sponges. And that made sense on a certain level because at least a sponge would hold moisture to keep the worms from drying out. I don't understand a scouring pad though.
And that muck includes worm waste and uneaten food particles. Why would someone purposely add that to their tank?
I know this is all relative, but I actually find harvesting mosquito larvae to be more gross than grindal worm cultures. Granted mine are new. But my mosquito bucket smells disgusting. No odors from the worms. At least not yet. I've been replacing the kitten food I put in there for them to eat and spray it down to moisten it every day. I know you have to replace half the peat moss or coconut fiber or potting soil or whatever you use every few months because it fills up with waste. Maybe it will start to smell bad at some point when that stuff accumulates.
 
sharkweek178 said:
my mosquito bucket smells disgusting. .
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Change the water? I have buckets etc full of mozzie larvae. They never smell. I wouldn’t feed them to fish from stinky water.
 
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Ichthys said:
Change the water? I have buckets etc full of mozzie larvae. They never smell. I wouldn’t feed them to fish from stinky water.
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I was hesitant to do that because of how long it took the mosquitos to establish. But after the July 4th incident, I had to. So we'll see how it goes.
 
sharkweek178 said:
Hmmm? I've been watching a lot of videos too. I saw some people using sponges. And that made sense on a certain level because at least a sponge would hold moisture to keep the worms from drying out. I don't understand a scouring pad though.
And that muck includes worm waste and uneaten food particles. Why would someone purposely add that to their tank?
I know this is all relative, but I actually find harvesting mosquito larvae to be more gross than grindal worm cultures. Granted mine are new. But my mosquito bucket smells disgusting. No odors from the worms. At least not yet. I've been replacing the kitten food I put in there for them to eat and spray it down to moisten it every day. I know you have to replace half the peat moss or coconut fiber or potting soil or whatever you use every few months because it fills up with waste. Maybe it will start to smell bad at some point when that stuff accumulates.
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The green scouring pad from a sponge....maybe we've watched a few of the same videos. But yeah, totally disgusting the way he just dunked the pad straight into the tank, I was mortified! Ammonia spike, anyone?

I think I could give the pads a go...seems less messy and gross compared to the soil. You stack the pads, so you'd lift out the top pad with all your worms (🤢) then pour some tank water into your container with the rest of the pads and give everything a good rinse...like your filter sponge I guess?

Now what food would stink less? Cat and dog food reek...one guy was using readybrek...another was using instant mash potatoes...another dude was using bread 😳 all sounds horrid to be honest
 
CaptainBarnicles said:
The green scouring pad from a sponge....maybe we've watched a few of the same videos. But yeah, totally disgusting the way he just dunked the pad straight into the tank, I was mortified! Ammonia spike, anyone?

I think I could give the pads a go...seems less messy and gross compared to the soil. You stack the pads, so you'd lift out the top pad with all your worms (🤢) then pour some tank water into your container with the rest of the pads and give everything a good rinse...like your filter sponge I guess?

Now what food would stink less? Cat and dog food reek...one guy was using readybrek...another was using instant mash potatoes...another dude was using bread 😳 all sounds horrid to be honest
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I was thinking a metal scouring pad. Like steel wool.
The thing I like about using pieces of dry pet food as opposed to instant mashed potatoes or something like rice flour or flake fish food is that it's easy for me to take out the uneaten food to dispose.
 
sharkweek178 said:
I was thinking a metal scouring pad. Like steel wool.
The thing I like about using pieces of dry pet food as opposed to instant mashed potatoes or something like rice flour or flake fish food is that it's easy for me to take out the uneaten food to dispose.
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Well that wouldn't make a lot of sense would it? 🤣 a metal scouring pad!

So you have to replace the food every day? I thought you left them to eat it all and just replace what's eaten?
 
CaptainBarnicles said:
Well that wouldn't make a lot of sense would it? 🤣 a metal scouring pad!
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Lol. In my defense, I had just gotten done doing some dishes using one of those.
CaptainBarnicles said:
So you have to replace the food every day? I thought you left them to eat it all and just replace what's eaten?
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What I've seen is that you only put in as much as they can eat in 24 hours. So when you check if there's some left over, you put in a little less. If it's all gone, you put in a little more.
Since I'm still in the some left over stage, I take it out to make sure it doesn't go moldy.
 
sharkweek178 said:
Lol. In my defense, I had just gotten done doing some dishes using one of those.

What I've seen is that you only put in as much as they can eat in 24 hours. So when you check if there's some left over, you put in a little less. If it's all gone, you put in a little more.
Since I'm still in the some left over stage, I take it out to make sure it doesn't go moldy.
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Ah...makes sense.

Well, I think I'm going to have to have a go 😬 I'm scared though, I'm not overly squeamish but these worms *shudders 🫣
I can deal with most things but these make me feel funny
 
Any meat food you put in a grindal worm culture is going to rot and stink the house out. Use a dry powdered baby cereal like Farex or any other brand. Sprinkle a thin layer over part of the peat and put the glass back on top of the cereal. Don't add anymore cereal until the original stuff is gone.

When you want to feed the worms to the fish, lift the glass up and rinse a section of the glass in the tank so the worms come off and float around the water. If you glue a small handle on the piece of glass, it's easier to lift up.

You only need to add water once every few weeks in warm weather and very rarely in cool weather. If the peat is dry to the touch, then add a bit but you don't want it wet.
 
It's roasting in Lincs today, so I thought I'd set me up a bucket for some mozzies and whatnot...I filled up a tub with some water and was collecting some brown leaves and sticks for some organics when I noticed Mr Barnicles' trailer. He's got it covered in tarpaulin and thw heavy rain we had the other night has left a bit of a puddle in it. It's stinky and got a load of I don't even know what in it but it's full of mozzie larvae....so I nabbed some! I pipetted some into a bit of clean tank water...I don't want the manky water they're living in to go into the tank if I can help it....I noticed some other little bugs...
20230707_135930.jpg
20230707_135941.jpg


There's 2, the big black things. Anyone know what they are? And can my fish eat them?
 
CaptainBarnicles said:
It's roasting in Lincs today, so I thought I'd set me up a bucket for some mozzies and whatnot...I filled up a tub with some water and was collecting some brown leaves and sticks for some organics when I noticed Mr Barnicles' trailer. He's got it covered in tarpaulin and thw heavy rain we had the other night has left a bit of a puddle in it. It's stinky and got a load of I don't even know what in it but it's full of mozzie larvae....so I nabbed some! I pipetted some into a bit of clean tank water...I don't want the manky water they're living in to go into the tank if I can help it....I noticed some other little bugs...
View attachment 322078View attachment 322079

There's 2, the big black things. Anyone know what they are? And can my fish eat them?
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I believe the big black things are mosquito pupae, the next stage of development after larvae. It's safe to feed them to fish. I've fed something similar looking to mine. But maybe some people with more experience can chime in here.
 
sharkweek178 said:
I believe the big black things are mosquito pupae, the next stage of development after larvae. It's safe to feed them to fish. I've fed something similar looking to mine. But maybe some people with more experience can chime in here.
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You are correct.
They tend to be a bit better at evading the fish and are also faster. It can be much harder for the fish to eat them because they are larger and seem tougher.
 
connorlindeman said:
You are correct.
They tend to be a bit better at evading the fish and are also faster. It can be much harder for the fish to eat them because they are larger and seem tougher.
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Not for Rainbows 😏

Ta very much 👍🏻 we'll let the feast begin....
 
Well that lasted all of 2 seconds 🧐

How would one go about harvesting on a bigger scale? The water they're in is really gross and I don't want it in my tank! How do I 'clean' them before I feed them?
 
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