Is Megaselia sp. a good live food for bettas?

[Lanpenn]

Although I haven't updated my betta's photos for months, he is okay.

Currently, I feed my Betta splendens, every weekend, with live adult brine shrimp (Artemia franciscana, from my successful culture I have maintained since March), sometimes I also substitute the shrimps for tiny black soldier fly larvae (Hermetia illucens), also from my compost cultures.

A few days ago, I made a small mosquito trap for trying to catch... bloodworms (Chironomidae). Instead, I got several aquatic larvae, which species is probably Megaselia sp.. Also, I'm seeing the common worms that appear in my tank (probably Dero sp.). These last ones I also don't know about their nutritional value, although my betta eats when it spots them.

I didn't take photos, but these larvae are similar to the ones I got in another homemade experiment (date format: dd/mm/yyyy):

Does anyone know if these larvae are okay for feeding my betta? Thanks for attention!

 

[fishtime!]

Hi, sorry I can't answer your question but I was wondering how you got your adult brine shrimp culture started? I use baby brine shrimp eggs and they hatch wonderfully but never grow to a significant size.

 

[Lanpenn]

I still do not know the exact formula (also because it does not exist and this year I suffered losses; for now, my culture is okay once again), but I basically use dechlorinated tap water, aragonite as substrate and a salinity of 30 g/L, but it is also possible to culture the shrimp in higher salinities. The size of my bucket is up to ten liters, but I do not care so much about the evaporation, since they are adapted to fluctuations.

For feeding, they liked the dried Spirulina powder and dried yeast, previously dissolved in freshwater and then distributed to the culture, until it got cloudy. If possible, is good to use an air pump, to help to get the food particles suspended. I am using a sponge filter, probably one of the first people to use this arrangement in an Artemia cultivation research.