Feeding live foods

Food, feeding and diet.
mattindevon
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I found a few random maggots under a piece of metal the other day. This was right next to the kitchen drain though so I resisted the temptation to chuck them in the aquarium. Probably too risky, either due to parasites or chemicals.
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Vale!
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A few pics of some live food cultures at Vale! Towers which may give ideas, depending of course on what's practicable for you ..

Springtails

I use a couple of containers I got from a reptile store. Gauze over the top ; reptile-type substrate on the bottom plus about half-an-inch of water (RO but rainwater or dechlorinated tap would do). Fed with ground-up fish food/flakes, spirulina and deactivated yeast - anything that's nutritious and will go mouldy, really!). Brilliant for top-feeding fish - Hatchets, when I kept them, and now Half-beaks, go mad for 'em. Other fish will stalk them, too. Alternative is flightless fruit flies but they were too much of a hassle to maintain.


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Microworms

Couple of modified food containers, plus a glass jar acting as a back-up. Gauze over the top as anti-fruit fly defence. Porage (however you spell it!) oats ; boiling water to make a 'wet' porage, sprinkle of dried yeast ; another gauze over the top of that (you can't see it in the pic I don't think - makes scraping the worms up very much easier). Reculture every few weeks when the porage is either almost consumed or drying out.


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Blackworms

Spare nano tank with a sponge filter, RO/rainwater (or as close as possible). Gravel on the bottom - something which they can bury their heads in at any rate. Fish granules/flake/kitchen veg/Repashy - that sort of stuff - as food. Beneficial to co-culture with snails and/or Daphnia.


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Whiteworms

Mine are in a wormery, though a bucket could be used so long as it's kept cool. Food is selected kitchen scraps (nothing that would attract fruit flies!). My whiteworms are just showing signs of recovery after the recent hot weather. They don't like acidic conditions either, so I add eggshells and/or coral sand every so often to try to prevent that. Normally they're distributed through the substrate ; I use white bread to attract bunches of them which I can then pick up with tweezers.


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PaulVerrall
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Vale! wrote: Wed Aug 19, 2020 18:10 pm A few pics of some live food cultures at Vale! Towers which may give ideas, depending of course on what's practicable for you ..

Springtails

I use a couple of containers I got from a reptile store. Gauze over the top ; reptile-type substrate on the bottom plus about half-an-inch of water (RO but rainwater or dechlorinated tap would do). Fed with ground-up fish food/flakes, spirulina and deactivated yeast - anything that's nutritious and will go mouldy, really!). Brilliant for top-feeding fish - Hatchets, when I kept them, and now Half-beaks, go mad for 'em. Other fish will stalk them, too. Alternative is flightless fruit flies but they were too much of a hassle to maintain.


Image


Image


Microworms

Couple of modified food containers, plus a glass jar acting as a back-up. Gauze over the top as anti-fruit fly defence. Porage (however you spell it!) oats ; boiling water to make a 'wet' porage, sprinkle of dried yeast ; another gauze over the top of that (you can't see it in the pic I don't think - makes scraping the worms up very much easier). Reculture every few weeks when the porage is either almost consumed or drying out.


Image


Blackworms

Spare nano tank with a sponge filter, RO/rainwater (or as close as possible). Gravel on the bottom - something which they can bury their heads in at any rate. Fish granules/flake/kitchen veg/Repashy - that sort of stuff - as food. Beneficial to co-culture with snails and/or Daphnia.


Image

Image


Whiteworms

Mine are in a wormery, though a bucket could be used so long as it's kept cool. Food is selected kitchen scraps (nothing that would attract fruit flies!). My whiteworms are just showing signs of recovery after the recent hot weather. They don't like acidic conditions either, so I add eggshells and/or coral sand every so often to try to prevent that. Normally they're distributed through the substrate ; I use white bread to attract bunches of them which I can then pick up with tweezers.


Image

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Totally amazing, puts my fishkeeping to shame!!!
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Martinspuddle
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I forgot @Vale! has more worms than me, sorry knowledge of raising live foods. :grin:
WARNING - DO NOT BREED, FEED OR PET THE PUDDLE! :dodgy2:
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plankton
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If you store the fresh from shops in the fridge make sure it isn't too cold. I think the longest you can store them is about a week, but I only buy enough for one feed when I see it, which isn't very often around here.
Unless you do what @Vale! does. ;)
Oh, and don't forget to rinse it in a net before putting in the tank to get rid of the water in the pouch/bag......
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PaulVerrall
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plankton wrote: Thu Aug 20, 2020 7:59 am If you store the fresh from shops in the fridge make sure it isn't too cold. I think the longest you can store them is about a week, but I only buy enough for one feed when I see it, which isn't very often around here.
Unless you do what @Vale! does. ;)
Oh, and don't forget to rinse it in a net before putting in the tank to get rid of the water in the pouch/bag......
Cool cheers, I'm hoping it comes before Monday
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jacksdad
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I tried a tray of whiteworms that I bought on ebay, they just died!
When we were kids my little sister used to call mossy larvae "Charlies" and she used to sit and watch them for ages :)
I suppose I could scoop up a netful and purge them in used tank water before feeding, would that be any use?
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Art
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Vale!
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[My pareidolia showed me a Whirling Dervish, or someone throwing a stick for a dog! Edit : it's a long-jumper landing in the sandpit, isn't it?!]

My 'pond' reaches that density of Daphnia for only two three weeks each year, during the warmest weather, but I keep a pretty good density for most of the year by feeding them.

Do you get a longer season of high 'Daphnia density' in Saxony?
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Ricrhys
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Thats impressive!! whats the least smelly/grim live culture to do, might try and get one going but it would have to get past the rest of the house.
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