Live food for dummies

[sharkweek178]

Yes , that’s a good idea . Vent your lid by covering a two inch square hole with fine cotton cloth if you haven’t already . You can go beyond that by storing your culture in a pillow case too . Mites are something else , they get in everywhere if you don’t watch it .

I cut holes in the lid and taped coffee filters over them so that air could get in without letting any little critters in. I might have to rethink that.

 

[sharkweek178]

found the best place to grow mosquito larva... we've been running over 100 degree heat index, & the outside doggie has his own kiddie pool to get drinks & wet in... apparent icky doggie water is great for raising mozzys in... I noticed 100's of them the other day, when I topped off his pool... pretty temped to go out and net them before they start flying

Why not?

 

[Colin_T]

One of my grindal worm cultures got mites in it. I'll probably dump it out in the back yard and start over with it, using worms from the other culture.

Some fish eat the mites. You can scrape the mites and to layer off the culture to reduce the numbers.

 

[Colin_T]

found the best place to grow mosquito larva... we've been running over 100 degree heat index, & the outside doggie has his own kiddie pool to get drinks & wet in... apparent icky doggie water is great for raising mozzys in... I noticed 100's of them the other day, when I topped off his pool... pretty temped to go out and net them before they start flying

You need to get the mozzie larvae out because it's illegal to deliberately culture mozzies due to the diseases they spread. If you don't need then straight away, freeze them in ice cube trays and use them later on.

 

[sharkweek178]

Yes , that’s a good idea . Vent your lid by covering a two inch square hole with fine cotton cloth if you haven’t already . You can go beyond that by storing your culture in a pillow case too . Mites are something else , they get in everywhere if you don’t watch it .

They got into my other culture too. I just dumped then out and cleaned the container with dish soap and water. I ordered a new grindal culture to start over with.
I think I know what the problem might have been. I fed my grindals dry kitten food. Easy to portion and easy to remove any uneaten pieces. However, I was never too cautious about storage. I just kept it in the bag and used a clothespin to keep it closed. Not exactly airtight. There were plenty of times I would forget to clip the bag. I didn't think the worms would mind if it was a little stale. But I found out that mites can get into the food that way. So I'm getting a new bag and keeping it in an airtight container.

 

[sharkweek178]

I ordered my new culture from the same merchant on Etsy I got the first one from. After I ordered, I got a message from her. She noticed that I had ordered the first one not too long ago so she messaged me asking if something was wrong with the culture and if she could help. That's good customer service.

 

[sharkweek178]

I've noticed something with my mosquito bins. Sometimes they just stop being productive. I wouldn't think the water gets too dirty. But after a while, the yield is barely worth the effort. So I remove the water. I don't dump the water in the yard since any mosquito eggs in there could possibly survive in grass. I take buckets of the water and dump it on concrete where they'll die. Anyways, I remove the water and replace it with fresh dechlorinated water. Old tank water if I happen to be doing a water change. And then I see mozzies again. I just did this yesterday. I put the usual mesh bag with grass clippings in the one. I put some milk in the water of the other to see what that does.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

OK so I've bitten the bullet.. I bought a grindal worm culture starter I'm already nervous. I feel stupid feeling so grossed out over these things...come on Cap...put your big girl pants on

 

[AlexT]

OK so I've bitten the bullet.. I bought a grindal worm culture starter I'm already nervous. I feel stupid feeling so grossed out over these things...come on Cap...put your big girl pants on

Get stuck in! All hands on deck

 

[Colin_T]

OK so I've bitten the bullet.. I bought a grindal worm culture starter I'm already nervous. I feel stupid feeling so grossed out over these things...come on Cap...put your big girl pants on

think of the wriggling worms crawling through all those bodies you dumped in the ocean after raiding their ships

hang on, are you a good captain or a pirate captain?

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

think of the wriggling worms crawling through all those bodies you dumped in the ocean after raiding their ships

hang on, are you a good captain or a pirate captain?

Definitely not one that dumps bodies....I do have a pet werewolf called Colin though, he does a good job of eating them all up

 

[Colin_T]

Definitely not one that dumps bodies....I do have a pet werewolf called Colin though, he does a good job of eating them all up

I don't eat people, they are too fatty. It's like eating a huge block of butter, not good for the arteries or waist line.

 

[sharkweek178]

OK so I've bitten the bullet.. I bought a grindal worm culture starter I'm already nervous. I feel stupid feeling so grossed out over these things...come on Cap...put your big girl pants on

It's not so bad. And the fish love it.

 

[sharkweek178]

I'm a little sad that I won't be able to feed mosquitos to my fish for much longer. I was never able to freeze too many and I had an issue with my fridge so I lost the few I did freeze. Next year I think I'll do things a little differently. Mostly in setting out more containers to collect them from. There's a good chance I'll have another tank going by then anyways and maybe I can even get a surplus going to freeze.
This is what I envision for my live foods in the future. The mosquito larvae or frozen mosquitos, grindal worms, baby brine shrimp and setting up a small tank to grow some out in, and I'd also like to set up a daphnia culture. And maybe wingless fruit flies. .

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

I'd like to try the fruit flies too...I had a lot of mosquito larvae and at one point over the summer I was feeding them twice a day every day! And that was just from the one tub. I tried growing out baby brine shrimp but the culture kept crashing after about 3-4 days, I'd like to keep trying at some point after a bit more research