they have live Daphnia... live Copepods... live Moina, packaged like this...
found a dealer of Hydralife Live foods, are these new, or have any of you tried them??? and which would be "best"
- Thread starter Magnum Man
- Start date
OP
OP
they would have to be shipped, so I expect expensive shipping... not sure if all are similar in ease of shipping, and survability... I don't see a fluid volume, or approximate count per bottle, but they ship free with any fish order, so that's a possibility...
www.aqua-imports.com
Hydralife Live Moina
Repashy Xylivore Formula Gel Diet is specially formulated for species of Plecos and other Loricariids whose diet in the wild includes
www.aqua-imports.com
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If you were set up to grow them, I would buy eggs. Buying adults like that might work, but with the size of your fishes and the numbers, it looks like each bottle would be one feeding.
Daphnia is no miracle food. It's a good one, but for me as a fish breeder, it doesn't do a lot. Mosquito larvae does, but Daphnia hasn't impressed me incredibly. I culture it as one of many good foods.
Feeding it like that would cost an arm and leg, and you'd have to order several bottles weekly.
If you can keep some troughs or large tubs indoors with ample light and green water supplies nearby (at say 15c for Daphnia pulex and 20c for moina) you can have enough for a steady supplement for a long time, for next to nothing. I think I paid $18cad for dried eggs that fed 30 tanks almost daily from May to October for 3 years.
Daphnia is no miracle food. It's a good one, but for me as a fish breeder, it doesn't do a lot. Mosquito larvae does, but Daphnia hasn't impressed me incredibly. I culture it as one of many good foods.
Feeding it like that would cost an arm and leg, and you'd have to order several bottles weekly.
If you can keep some troughs or large tubs indoors with ample light and green water supplies nearby (at say 15c for Daphnia pulex and 20c for moina) you can have enough for a steady supplement for a long time, for next to nothing. I think I paid $18cad for dried eggs that fed 30 tanks almost daily from May to October for 3 years.
OP
OP
I could breed mosquito larvae here ( seasonally ), maybe out by the pasture where the water source is... it's funny I don't see them sold as a frozen option... but I could work up to doing that myself... a while back, I bought 3 silicone 1/2 inch ice cube trays, ( they are actually smaller, I'm sure metric, maybe 8-10 mm ) I've been putting the left over Repashi in them, when I feed that, and putting those cubes in a zip lock bag, in the freezer, I could do the same with Mosquito larva, and while I'm not breeding anything yet, I could prepare foods prior... I would think mosquito larva too big for most fry though...
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OP
OP
I have a bunch of big shallow trays ( the top 4 inches cut off the totes tanks, I raise Tilapia in... I would just need to set up a quick 2 X 4 stand, to hold the trays, out by the pasture hydrant, or along where the Tilapia set up is... I had plans for them, to grow Duckweed for the Tilapia to eat, but could put them in 2 levels, the top for Duckweed, bottom for other live foods... these trays would be 42 inches X 48 inches, and approximately 4 inch's deep...
Most Tilapia for food are Oreochromis, and they are beloved (of farmers) because they eat vegetable matter. Live food, unneeded.
Mosquito larvae are too big for fry, but they create fry. If you are breeding adult fish and have the larvae, they feed breeders to prepare them. They also feed themselves and carry mosquito borne disease. I haven't seen them sold for ages. I used to buy dried black mosquito larvae, and that was a great food. It seems no longer produced - logical given the diseases culturing industrial quantities could spread. There are always a few that get airborne.
I used to fill medium ziplocks with larvae, squish the bag flat til the larvae were 1/8 of an inch thick and evenly distributed, then stack the bags flat in the freezer. I would get superb food for many months, and dead larvae don't bite. I never had any disease problems in the tanks I fed, and I bred a lot of Apistogramma species with that diet. Plus cheapskate me liked the price.
I used to go to an abandoned golf course that bordered a forest. The water hazards were teeming with mosquitoes.
Now, when mosquitoes get into my daphnia tubs, they go into the tanks. The fish welcome them.
Mosquito larvae are too big for fry, but they create fry. If you are breeding adult fish and have the larvae, they feed breeders to prepare them. They also feed themselves and carry mosquito borne disease. I haven't seen them sold for ages. I used to buy dried black mosquito larvae, and that was a great food. It seems no longer produced - logical given the diseases culturing industrial quantities could spread. There are always a few that get airborne.
I used to fill medium ziplocks with larvae, squish the bag flat til the larvae were 1/8 of an inch thick and evenly distributed, then stack the bags flat in the freezer. I would get superb food for many months, and dead larvae don't bite. I never had any disease problems in the tanks I fed, and I bred a lot of Apistogramma species with that diet. Plus cheapskate me liked the price.
I used to go to an abandoned golf course that bordered a forest. The water hazards were teeming with mosquitoes.
Now, when mosquitoes get into my daphnia tubs, they go into the tanks. The fish welcome them.
How about this on Amazon?
UTH Fish Food Black Mosquito Larvae 75 g. Tropical Fish Food Grow Faster & Color Enhancer Slow Sinking Like Pellets High Protein 74% for All Tropical Fish Feed & Small Fish Breeding Fish Care
$18.52 with 10 percent savings -10% $18.52
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That is a weird product, and if you read the reviews, a sketchy one. I liked freeze dried mosquito larvae, but that looks like a wet food. I'd be skeptical of buying from a company that sells cockfighting armour, given the justified illegality of that business. I'd run from the quality control issue.
Too bad.
Too bad.
TwoTankAmin
Fish Connoisseur
the above is from the Google AI.
Here is a limk to a commercial mosquito larvae
https://www.amazon.com/D-P-Mosquito-Tropical-Enhancer-Breeding/dp/B08Y7V4NCZ?th=1
From the pictures of some reviews. They fill a jar with mosquito larvae, put a tight cover on it, leave one day in the desert sun, then ship to customers.
Hydralife Does not state the density of population in their bottle.
If I understand correctly, It can be used as food... But it's sold as a fast colony starting product.
It's in a special nutritive gel to provide strong colony startup and should be used as such, if your paying the price.
If I understand correctly, It can be used as food... But it's sold as a fast colony starting product.
It's in a special nutritive gel to provide strong colony startup and should be used as such, if your paying the price.
A wee bag of daphnia eggs will also start a colony - several colonies. And it's not going to die in transit.
Outdoors, when it's still cool out, I would be feeding daphnia from eggs quickly. When I caught daphnia, I had to wait til they had produced eggs, then the eggs had hatched and started swarming before I could feed the adults to anything. In any case, you have to make certain the colony has 'taken'.
By buying eggs, you skip a stage.
I use a couple of 20 gallon tubs, I like 3, but I have to replace one next Spring. I do a figure 8 net sweep every third day and feed a lot of tanks. I think my best day was 50 tanks, and usually 30. As long as I rotate harvesting and don't fish carefully and get them all, the culture is ready again that week.
I have a 50 gallon rainwater collector that turns quite green, and I feed 2 litres of greenwater to each culture every day.
My green water crashed in August, so I have to buy eggs again after 3 years. I may have found a pond to collect a starter - I put out an appeal to the hikers, fishermen and hunters in our club and one steered me to a probable source.
By buying eggs, you skip a stage.
I use a couple of 20 gallon tubs, I like 3, but I have to replace one next Spring. I do a figure 8 net sweep every third day and feed a lot of tanks. I think my best day was 50 tanks, and usually 30. As long as I rotate harvesting and don't fish carefully and get them all, the culture is ready again that week.
I have a 50 gallon rainwater collector that turns quite green, and I feed 2 litres of greenwater to each culture every day.
My green water crashed in August, so I have to buy eggs again after 3 years. I may have found a pond to collect a starter - I put out an appeal to the hikers, fishermen and hunters in our club and one steered me to a probable source.
TwoTankAmin
Fish Connoisseur
Before you all decide about the UTH product you might want to look here. This is the page that came up when I entered
UTH Fish Food Black Mosquito Larvae reviews
UTH Fish Food Black Mosquito Larvae reviews
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