Live food for dummies

[sharkweek178]

Another question about mosquito harvesting. The water in this bucket smells really bad now. It's this something I should be concerned with?

 

[connorlindeman]

I don't think so. I don't think that that does anything to them.

 

[Back in the fold]

Question about the mosquito larvae. I know you can freeze them for later. Can I also keep them in the fridge to slow down their growth without killing them?

@fish48 collects and freezes various live foods . Maybe he knows .

 

[Magnum Man]

been watching this thread, & starting to do some live foods... I just bought that new brine shrimp generator off Amazon...
I just started a set of Tanks for aquaculture... ( & just got 100 Blue Tilapia fingerlings...), part of that set up is an IBC tank for hydroponics for edible veggies, & growing some duckweed as a supplement to the Tilapia feed ( Tilapia eat duckweed )... my 1st attempt at duckweed was Lemna Minor ( common duckweed ) this came from the aquarium trade, & it sun burned to a crisp within 2 days of being outside, everything dead... so next I tried some Spirodela polyrhiza ( Giant Duckweed, that was grown outside ) no sunburn, it multiplies about the same, & is supposed to be of similar nutritional value... so any duckweeders out there, the giant Duckweed might actually be better than messing with the Lemna Minor

Giant Duckweed pictured here...

with some of my vegies


a close up...


anyway I started getting mosquito larvae in my tanks... the Tilapia will take care of them from the tanks that contain fish... but my Duckweed tank doesn't have any Tilapia in it ( or they would eat all the duckweed )... I have a few baby Bichirs in that tank to take care of the bugs

anyway, the reason for the post... I'm setting up a set of shelves in the basement corner behind my built in aquariums... & I’m thinking I could dedicate one shelf to growing live food... anyone have some recommendation for things to grow, that would be safe for the fish, relatively easy, & pretty low maintenance???, that growing in a cool & dark spot might be good although ( it’s not really very dark, because the aquarium lights light up the area behind my tanks, buy no sunlight there )

I watched a really good video on growing white worms yesterday… the guy had been doing it for over 10 years, off the same starter culture… look similar to Grendel worms, but bigger ( not suitable for fry, but should be good for adult smaller fish )

I'll have the brine shrimp generator,

 

[sharkweek178]

been watching this thread, & starting to do some live foods... I just bought that new brine shrimp generator off Amazon...
I just started a set of Tanks for aquaculture... ( & just got 100 Blue Tilapia fingerlings...), part of that set up is an IBC tank for hydroponics for edible veggies, & growing some duckweed as a supplement to the Tilapia feed ( Tilapia eat duckweed )... my 1st attempt at duckweed was Lemna Minor ( common duckweed ) this came from the aquarium trade, & it sun burned to a crisp within 2 days of being outside, everything dead... so next I tried some Spirodela polyrhiza ( Giant Duckweed, that was grown outside ) no sunburn, it multiplies about the same, & is supposed to be of similar nutritional value... so any duckweeders out there, the giant Duckweed might actually be better than messing with the Lemna Minor

Giant Duckweed pictured here...

with some of my vegies


a close up...


anyway I started getting mosquito larvae in my tanks... the Tilapia will take care of them from the tanks that contain fish... but my Duckweed tank doesn't have any Tilapia in it ( or they would eat all the duckweed )... I have a few baby Bichirs in that tank to take care of the bugs

anyway, reason for the post... I'm setting up a set of shelves in the basement corner behind my built in aquariums... thinking I could dedicate on shelf to growing live food... got some recommendation for things to grow, that would be safe for the fish, relatively easy, & pretty low maintenance???, that cool & dark might be good ( not very dark, because the aquarium lights light up the area behind my tanks

I'll have the brine shrimp generator,

I just ordered a starter culture of grindal worms. I'll post here how that goes.

 

[fish48]

Another question about mosquito harvesting. The water in this bucket smells really bad now. It's this something I should be concerned with?

A bucket of smelly water will attract mosquitoes. my way to start up a culture and speed things up is to put a bucket of fish tank water and add old microworm culture I put the bucket just outside by the Fish House door , within 24 hrs I get mosquito rafts I have add as many as 80 rafts in a day each mosquito raft can produce up to 200 larvae I also have 12 daphnia water butts all containing mosquito larvae, mosquitoes will breed in any volume of water when I set up jars of paramecium which I keep in the Fish House I often find mosquito larvae in with then

 

[fish48]

Question about the mosquito larvae. I know you can freeze them for later. Can I also keep them in the fridge to slow down their growth without killing them?

if you put mosquito larvae in the fridge it will help to slow down the growth

 

[sharkweek178]

A bucket of smelly water will attract mosquitoes. my way to start up a culture and speed things up is to put a bucket of fish tank water and add old microworm culture I put the bucket just outside by the Fish House door , within 24 hrs I get mosquito rafts I have add as many as 80 rafts in a day each mosquito raft can produce up to 200 larvae I also have 12 daphnia water butts all containing mosquito larvae, mosquitoes will breed in any volume of water when I set up jars of paramecium which I keep in the Fish House I often find mosquito larvae in with then

Interesting. I always have plenty of old tank water every week. And I'm starting some grindal worm cultures soon.
I'm pondering an outdoor set up to harvest daphina too. I'll probably end up doing that inside. I don't live alone and even though I'm certain that having a mosquito bucket actually reduces the overall number of mosquitos (because otherwise, they would lay their eggs somewhere else where they would become full grown mosquitoes instead of getting harvested and eaten before that can happen), this is using up some good will and trust on the part of the other people who live here. I'm doing my part by checking it every day for any wrigglers or pupae.
Plus the daphnia harvesting, I think I would like to do that year round.

if you put mosquito larvae in the fridge it will help to slow down the growth

Good to know. Sometimes, I net out some larvae but it's not enough to feed all the fish. It would be nice to feed them all at once.

 

[fish48]

I just ordered a starter culture of grindal worms. I'll post here how that goes.

a very good food for young fry and fish keep my culture in Irish Moss peat although it's very difficult to get these days i feed my grindall worms on ready Brek and have been doing so for 30 years

 

[sharkweek178]

a very good food for young fry and fish keep my culture in Irish Moss peat although it's very difficult to get these days i feed my grindall worms on ready Brek and have been doing so for 30 years

I have some coconut fiber and some peat moss. I'll make a culture with each and see what works. I also got some kitten food to feed them.

 

[sharkweek178]

a very good food for young fry and fish keep my culture in Irish Moss peat although it's very difficult to get these days i feed my grindall worms on ready Brek and have been doing so for 30 years

I'm not keeping fry but all my fish are micro fish. The biggest fish I have is a platy.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Grindal worms I thought about having a go at those but when I took one look at a picture no thanks heeeeeeebie-jeebies almost as bad as plecos

 

[Magnum Man]

Well... you guys are a bad influence... so, I'm making the leap... I bought a Brine shrimp hatchery, & eggs, & have a starter culture of both Grindal & white worms coming, & putting together a shelf unit in the corner of my work area behind my tanks, to store packaged foods & grow live ones... I don't have fry, & not really intending on breeding anything soon... ( hmmm... planning on trying to breed some Tilapia over the winter... they are algae eaters, but wonder if the fry would eat Grindal worms too??? )... so the white worms seem a little more practical... I'm kind of worried about my baby Bichirs, after they eat all the Mosquito larvae growing in my aquaculture tank outside... I've tried dropping in a few pellets of various sorts, & they are all going uneaten... thought about growing some common guppies as feeders for them, but saw a group buy, of Mosquito fish that were quite a bit cheaper, & they would likely eat the hiding Mosquito larvae that the Bichirs haven't found, & provide a food source... anyway, I watched a video, of how this guy raises these white worms, & learned a little more about them... this guy has been doing it for more than 10 years off the same culture, maybe the Bichirs can be trained to eat them... & I'm hoping to train my picky angel fish to eat them instead of only baby bladder snails

was a lot of good info, maybe its someone from here???

https://www.fishlaboratory.com/fish/white-worm-culture-enchytraeus-albidus/

at the end is the video I watched

Captain... I get the heebie jeebies thing... I think I can handle the worms... the Vinegar eels give me a little case of that...

 

[Back in the fold]

@Magnum Man I have had really good luck with Grindal’s for three years now . White worms need cooler room temps which I can’t always provide so I went with Grindal’s . Before that I was just a flakes and frozen brine shrimp guy that hatched out baby brine for fry . Everybody really should feed at least one kind of live food . I look at it this way . Lizards , snakes and all your other reptiles and amphibians absolutely NEED live food . Fish , being cold blooded as well , aren’t that much different . They really respond well to live food . Live fruit flies are another easy live food that I do and the fish like them because they can hunt them on the surface . Kind of brings out the little monster in them .

 

[sharkweek178]

After I try out grindal worms, I might find a space for a 5 gallon tank to cultivate daphnia. I would really like something insect based that's somewhat consistent. And that I can have year round.