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live foods

9K views 101 replies 15 participants last post by  kvang 
#1 ·
I seen that homemadepopcorn asked about live daphnia and was also interested in some sort of live food (other then blackworms, tubifex worms and brine shrimp) for fish. I've ordered vinegar eels, micro worms and grendal worms in the past but didn't keep up with them once fry out grew them. But rather than order online I would prefer to purchase a culture of live food locally.
 
#3 ·
This weather seems to be pretty good for micro bugs in large areas of water. I was in central park last weekend and grabbed a water bottle full of water from one of the lakes. I have no idea what bugs were in there. Although i dont think daphnia was there, other critters were.
I know that it might be dangerous if dragonfly larvae is in there, but I put the water in a container with only a few fish to see what happens. So far, the fish seems healthy and I dont see anymore bugs.

Bugs I would love a place for more live food as well.
 
#4 ·
I had a standing container with tank water and was able to get mosquito larvae. But I'm not trying to make that a habit. The fish loved it, but its too big of a food for fry. I may try and pick up some foods from the BAS meeting coming up.
 
#13 ·
one deli container of established grindal worms and springtail cultures. fresh medium mixed and food is $21 and $11 shipping. Also whiteworms and springtail cultures for $24 and $11 shipping. These are already established cultures apparently.
 
#15 ·
The daphnia moina cultures are not hard to keep. Depending on the container you are keeping them in, you may be doing a lot or very little maintenance.

I keep 2 2g cultures going, each of them must have ~400 individuals in them. I'd probably ask 10 for 75-100 with replacement guarantee for 2 weeks.
 
#16 ·
I have kept all kinds of live food cultures. Monia, daphnia, grindal worms, white worms, micro/banana/walter worms, vinegar fruit flies, infusoria, tubifex, blackworms and plant worms. Oh and springtails but that was an accident.

In the end it all depends on what your goal is and what fishes you keep. Tubifex worms hands down for me in terms of nutrition. Nothing makes a fish grow and breed faster than tubifex worms. Horrible to culture them though. Microworms are so easy and they keep your fry alive. But they don't really have much nutrion at all. I love daphnia/monia but nutrition all depends on what you feed your daphnia. Relatively good staple food though.

If time and space is a concern along with not being able to be consistante enough to maintain a culture, use golden pearls. Really its not bad at all. Even for fry raising. As long as its fresh, it will do the job.

If you are looking for live food cultures, let me know which ones and I can prepare one but otherwise I don't normally keep cultures large enough to sell anymore.
 
#17 ·
I find the grindal and white worms easy and low maintenance. Tubifex I like but they are dirty! Only food I've never cultured are the springtails. Heard they are good for fry and adults. Surface dwelling fish love them also.
 
#23 ·
Good job. I told you they were hardy and easy.

Hey, does anyone have suggestions for good live food cultures for larger fishes? I was going to get scuds, but my goldfish went and got bigger. She's nearly four inches already, and she might think they're too small to bother with. Would marmorkrebs be a good idea, or do they reproduce too quickly? I've only got one fish and I would not be feeding her live food every day.
White worms are great but for gold fishes, red wigglers. Great for compost making and fish feeding.
 
#21 ·
Hey, does anyone have suggestions for good live food cultures for larger fishes? I was going to get scuds, but my goldfish went and got bigger. She's nearly four inches already, and she might think they're too small to bother with. Would marmorkrebs be a good idea, or do they reproduce too quickly? I've only got one fish and I would not be feeding her live food every day.
 
#22 ·
Marmorkrebs don't breed that fast IME. They berried every month or two when I had them. If you're not going to feed live every day, you can start with one marmokreb. Just be careful since once you have berries, unless you cull the young, you're eventually going to have too many to count.
 
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