Live food for dummies

[sharkweek178]

I am ready for my next phase of fishkeeping. Cultivating live foods. I think I'm going to start with vinegar eels and mosquito larvae.
I have micro fish so small foods are better. When it gets a little warmer, I'm going to put a 5 gallon bucket out to get mosquito larvae. I've been watching videos about cultivating vinegar eels. Maybe I'll try daphnia, brine shrimp or grindal worms. For now, mosquito larvae and vinegar eels seemed like the easiest to start with.

So any advice?

 

[Back in the fold]

Try Wingless Fruit Flies. Very easy. The only problem with them is it takes a lot to feed a lot of fish but I feed them mainly to one solitary male Betta and as an occasional treat to my other fish.
Mosquito larvae are really easy in the summer. All you have to do is set a bucket of water outside. Fish go totally nuts for mosquito larvae.
Any kind of worm takes a bit of fussing with and is easy too.
The all time easiest live food is freshly hatched brine shrimp. You would think they are too small but Neon Tetras and similar small fish go wild for them.

 

[sharkweek178]

Try Wingless Fruit Flies. Very easy. The only problem with them is it takes a lot to feed a lot of fish but I feed them mainly to one solitary male Betta and as an occasional treat to my other fish.
Mosquito larvae are really easy in the summer. All you have to do is set a bucket of water outside. Fish go totally nuts for mosquito larvae.
Any kind of worm takes a bit of fussing with and is easy too.
The all time easiest live food is freshly hatched brine shrimp. You would think they are too small but Neon Tetras and similar small fish go wild for them.

Do the wingless fruit flies sink? I want some to get to my corys.

 

[Back in the fold]

Do the wingless fruit flies sink? I'm want some to get to my corys.

No , they float like a cork and are best for surface feeding fish. For your Cory’s Grindal worms would be ideal. They sink like a brick and stay alive in water for several hours. Grindals are easy to culture in a small container of coconut coir or peat moss and tolerate warmer temperature better than White Worms.

 

[Back in the fold]

Check out the Master of Live Foods.

Fishguy's Place Home Page

 

[AbbeysDad]

Culturing/Collecting Live Foods

 

[sharkweek178]

Question about vinegar eels. What is the best kind of water to use? Declorinated tap water, distilled water, rainwater? I'm seeing different options. Or does it not matter very much?

 

[Colin_T]

Back to Basics when Breeding Fish

STARTING OUT Make sure you have a pair, (1 male + 1 female). There is nothing worse than spending your hard-earned dollars buying a couple of fish to try and breed and ending up with a pair of fish of the same sex. Let's face it, to reproduce fish you need a male and a female. Two males won't do...

www.fishforums.net

 

[Back in the fold]

Culturing/Collecting Live Foods

Wow ! Haven’t looked at your site since getting my new tablet. I can see all the stuff now. Very cool and very informative. For all who have not seen this it is well worth your while. I put this on speed dial because I will be referring to this often.

 

[sharkweek178]

There's an LFS that sells live foods. How much of a risk is that? For example, if they culture daphnia outside, could hydra get in there?

 

[Colin_T]

There's an LFS that sells live foods. How much of a risk is that? For example, if they culture daphnia outside, could hydra get in there?

There's a chance the daphnia will have hydra in, but there can be hydra on aquarium plants too. Hydra normally stick to hard objects and aren't often seen floating around the water column, so there is little chance of getting hydra from a daphnia culture, even if hydra are in the culture.

 

[sharkweek178]

I put the bucket out for mosquitoes yesterday. I looked in it this morning and there's something floating on top.

 

[sharkweek178]

And I just started a vinegar eel culture.

 

[sharkweek178]

I think I saw signs of life in my first vinegar eel culture.

 

[sharkweek178]

I ordered a brine shrimp hatchery too.