Live food for dummies

[CaptainBarnicles]

Ewwwww

 

[sharkweek178]

I harvested way too many grindal worms. But I used a pipette to feed them to the fish. So I didn't over feed. I just had more than I needed. Oh well, more where that came from and I know better for next time.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Trial and error!

 

[Magnum Man]

Got my starter cultures of both grindal & white worms today... circling the edge of that live foods whirlpool... I'll be using natural yogurt, on wheat bread, with nutritional yeast, like the video I watched... my plastic shoe boxes & everything I needed arrived today as well

 

[Beastije]

Hi, so I just read through your experiments, couple of things from my experiments. I do micro worms / walter worms on both oats or breadcrumbs and tank water. I feed them yeast weekly, collect them with a small paint brush and restart every month or so, they wont last longer. I like breadcrumbs more but have more oats at home, basically not much difference between worm behavior/yields.
Microworms are too small for most fish. Endlers and ember tetras yes, whitecloud minnows sometimes, rummynose tetras nope, no idea about corydoras, bolivian rams or any larger fish like gourami or paradise fish, big nope. Works wonders on fry though. I read that some fishkeepers would smear the worms with hands but this lead to catastrophic skin issues on the fingers, because hello, it is yeast bacteria environment, why would you do that to yourself. Q-tips or paintbrush which is reusable seems way safer to me.

For mosquitos, I have similar setup like you, this plastic tube in the yard, filled with water which turned green thanks to recent heatwaves. A frog even lives there, not my doing. I use either just fish net to collect large mosquito larvae, but recently I put to use my 4 size artemia sieve and filtered through this. This helped me with getting the debris out with the largest sized sieve and the other three sizes separated the mosquitos per size and helped me feed my fish. I always collect with net or the sieve to a container with tap water and then feed either with pipette or dump the water in ( given it is new water). I even have damselfly nymphs and fairly sure some bug larvae too. If it is small enough I will feed it, because the fish will eat it, no stress. Which btw leads me to discovering that there are tiny tiny mosquito larvae you would not usually net out or see, they are collected through the last smallest size of the sieves and they were a nice surprise for me, worked nice for the fry, not so nice for bottom feeding fish though, I had to introduce another fish to one of my tanks where larvae remained uneaten! )

Regarding hatching bbs, since I need small amounts only most of the time, I just hatch them in a small food container, thanks to these temps we are having on top of the tank instead of inside the tank as I used to, in 24 hours I have lower yield, sure, but no work, no airstone, no artificial 24 hour light. I just start the culture in the morning and collect the next morning. I filter them through the smallest sieve to tap water and even as is, they last most of the day till afternoon outside in the container alive, since I feed during the day and not all at once. I use barely half a liter of water and half a teaspoon of normal salt and half a teaspoon of epsom salt, given my water is usually soft.

And that is my story. I am contemplating looking into bloodworms cultures, for sterbai corydoras I would like to breed. I am so not ever getting my hands on grindal, that is just too much worm and too icky. Microworms are a breeze cause technically you see it is a worm, but it is so small it doesnt freak me out.

 

[sharkweek178]

The mosquito larvae are turning out to be a little more work than I expected. When I net them out of the bucket. there's always chunks of algae and other detritus that have to spend some time separating the larvae. But it's worth it.
I'm freezing some for winter. I want to freeze them in densely packed cubes. Almost like the frozen food cubes you get at the fish store. I tried yesterday. I poured the water with the larvae into a coffee filter and then tried to spoon them into a silicone ice cube tray. Made a mess of it. I'm sure it will still be edible for the fish when I thaw them out in a few months. I just have to refine my method here. And maybe lower my expectations that I'm not going to be able to make frozen cubes like the store bought ones at home.

 

[sharkweek178]

Got my starter cultures of both grindal & white worms today... circling the edge of that live foods whirlpool... I'll be using natural yogurt, on wheat bread, with nutritional yeast, like the video I watched... my plastic shoe boxes & everything I needed arrived today as well

I've been using dry kitten food for my grindals. It's easy to measure out (just count the pieces). And easy to remove any leftovers.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

The mosquito larvae are turning out to be a little more work than I expected. When I net them out of the bucket. there's always chunks of algae and other detritus that have to spend some time separating the larvae. But it's worth it.
I'm freezing some for winter. I want to freeze them in densely packed cubes. Almost like the frozen food cubes you get at the fish store. I tried yesterday. I poured the water with the larvae into a coffee filter and then tried to spoon them into a silicone ice cube tray. Made a mess of it. I'm sure it will still be edible for the fish when I thaw them out in a few months. I just have to refine my method here. And maybe lower my expectations that I'm not going to be able to make frozen cubes like the store bought ones at home.

Pour them into your cube tray then use your turkey baster to suck out the water through a fine mesh net or muslin cloth...top them up and repeat until you have a good concentration in each cube.

I agree it's a lot of work, I've moved my container so that it gets half shade and half sun so it's not so bad with algae. I just get a few bits of the decaying organics which I pippette our before feeding... just takes forever!

 

[sharkweek178]

Pour them into your cube tray then use your turkey baster to suck out the water through a fine mesh net or muslin cloth...top them up and repeat until you have a good concentration in each cube.

I agree it's a lot of work, I've moved my container so that it gets half shade and half sun so it's not so bad with algae. I just get a few bits of the decaying organics which I pippette our before feeding... just takes forever!

I'm getting a lot more use out of my brine shrimp net than I ever thought. I first got it to net corys. Now I use it to scoop larvae out of the bucket. And now this. Thanks!

 

[sharkweek178]

Regarding hatching bbs, since I need small amounts only most of the time, I just hatch them in a small food container, thanks to these temps we are having on top of the tank instead of inside the tank as I used to, in 24 hours I have lower yield, sure, but no work, no airstone, no artificial 24 hour light. I just start the culture in the morning and collect the next morning. I filter them through the smallest sieve to tap water and even as is, they last most of the day till afternoon outside in the container alive, since I feed during the day and not all at once. I use barely half a liter of water and half a teaspoon of normal salt and half a teaspoon of epsom salt, given my water is usually soft.

That's the ingenious thing about the hatchery I got. It separates them from the cysts by funneling them towards light.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

That's the ingenious thing about the hatchery I got. It separates them from the cysts by funneling them towards light.

I've bought the same one and it's excellent, no air pumps needed. I put it on top of the aquarium and direct a desk lamp over the opening. It heat from above and below and the cysts hatch super quick

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

From my harvest this morning...

Along with the mozzie larvae it appears I also now have bloodworms and another worm which I don't know the name of..

Bloodworm and...

Something else?

 

[GaryE]

My bought Daphnia pulex have taken off. I have them in screened tubs under some pines. They are fed a jug of green water daily, and I will start feeding them to fish tomorrow. It has taken about 3 weeks to get them going.
We are having a lousy, cold summer, hitting 20c on a good day. In the shade, they should be able to make it through any hot days, if indeed that ever happens. I've never seen so much fog in my life, and the rains have been constant visitors. So my results may not be yours...

My moina, bought with them, are quiet so far.

 

[sharkweek178]

From my harvest this morning...

View attachment 323016

Along with the mozzie larvae it appears I also now have bloodworms and another worm which I don't know the name of..

View attachment 323017
Bloodworm and...

View attachment 323018
Something else?

I get those too. I figure if it's small enough to go in a fish's mouth, then it's food.

 

[sharkweek178]