Live fish food living in my planted tank?

[digitallinh]

Is this possible, if so what type of critter can I introduce into my tank that can be part of the ecosystem?

I have some dario dario that I'm keeping in a 29g with a couple dozen CPDs ,and I have no idea if they are eating my frozen food. So my idea is to introduce some type of critter that will live/reproduce in my tank that provides a natural sustaining food source for the dario. Is this possible?

Thanks in advance.

[MartyMA]

I have a similar setup minus the CPDs. I have a colony of RCS in the tank. While I like the RCS just fine, the main reason they are in there is to provide some live food in the form of baby shrimp for the darios. I also feed live microworms to the darios daily. It is very difficult to figure out if darios are taking frozen or dried food. You really have to watch them closely. I know you probably love your CPDs but I suspect that they get most of the food. You might want to give the darios there own little world to live in.

[Darkblade48]

I would also suggest shrimp of some kind. The babies will be food, while if you have enough adults (i.e. have enough hiding spots), will provide a constant supply of babies.

[digitallinh]

I thought about shrimp, but wanted something more in the line of bug/insect/worm. Googling around I'm not sure I've read about people who let worms live in their tanks.. And if its even possible. I like cherries,but they always take over my tanks like little roaches!

[chunkychun]

live blackworms will live in your substrate. it maybe difficult to set up a sustaining colony as they get eaten up pretty fast

[AW0L]

I had my tank set up 40 gallons for three months with eco complete and laterite substrate for over 3 months before adding fish i fillled it with plants black worms, scuds, and some kind of small snail i dont know what they look like tiny mts snails but dont grow bigger then pencil tip. Let them populate with lots of ground cover plants moss vals. Originally set up for rainbow pipefish but wasnt able to get a hold of them so just put scarlet badis in. They feed off the scuds not so much the black worms. Scuds reproduce fast. But my fish po is small 7 total. Havent fed the tank in 6 months scuds eat the dead plant mattet and they get eatten.

[LB79]

I use amphipods (Amphipoda hyalella). My fish are crazy about them. They live everywhere. Filter, plants, substrate... and apparently they're really yummy.

[devilduck]

I think small prey hitchhike in with plants, stone, wood. Try taking a couple of plants out of your tank and leave them in a mason jar by a window for a few weeks. You'll find that without constant predation of fish you'll have lots of different creature swimming the the water.

[digitallinh]

Awesome, thanks everyone for your input.

I'm taking a job that will have me out of town 3 weeks out of the month and don't want to have to take my tank down

[digitallinh]

Quick question, so all I would need to do is buy some amphipods or scuds and just dump them in my tank (probably at night) and let nature take course?

[somewhatshocked]

Yep, let nature take its course.

Though... as mentioned above? Your critters could potentially eat up all of your live foods pretty quickly.

I've never been able to keep a constant supply of anything in any tank. Regardless of the fish, they've always cleaned up pods quickly, shrimplets quickly, worms, et al.

[digitallinh]

Thanks for the advice, I will try it for a month or so and see what happens. Will probably have to give the badis away since they won't enjoy the auto feeder :/

[Spanosilvio]

Does anyone have any start colture of any of theese?

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2

[somewhatshocked]

Spanosilvio: You could try looking in the Canadian section of the forum.

Other than that, you can also check Aquabid or your local sales sites.