[dr.tran]

Sorry I'm not sure if this is the right forum but they are invertebrates.

So close to a month ago I found some blood worms in a rain pale I kept outside. I wasn't sure if they were because they kinda looked like a leech. So I brought it inside and kept it in an enclosed tank. They molted and turned to adults and confirmed that they were midge fly. I know that they are non biting and don't even need to feed. So I let them fly around in this tank and they died in a few days. But I was left with this slimy mass that look like snail eggs.

In the past I failed terribly with bloodworms and I have been trying to find live bloodworms in NYC for a long time with no success. But on a whims, I throw it in a 5 gallon bucket with some dead mulberry tree leaves and a 2 algae wafters for good luck. I usually use the bucket to culture daphnia so I know it was already cycled. I put an air line tube in it and left it in the closet. I didn't really think it would work. I also put a net over it just in case.

Then this past month I was crazy busy and I only been netting out daphnia to feed my fish. I didn't really get a chance to look at the bucket because it was out of my way. My storage closet is very packed and its a pain to navigate through it.

Fast forward to today where I had a day off and I decide to clean up and start up my adult brine shrimp culture. So I wanted to clean out this bucket and start throwing in my BBS.

To my shock and surprise, hundreds of bloodworms!!! So what I learned is that they don't do well in light but need a dark room in order for them to feed and develop. I started going through the leaves and they all started to swim up to the top. Just hundreds of bloodworms! I was getting worried because my white worm culture started to lag but this will carry me through a few weeks.

Great googly moogly!!! This is my holy grail for live food cultures and it wasn't as hard as I thought it was. Finally I got F2 or is it F1? But holy! I have never been so excited over a culture before. lol

Pictures will come in a moment. I gotta clean up and harvest.

 

[dr.tran]

Ok maybe I over counted. lol I have more like 50. Theres still more in the bucket and I am trying to catch them all. Next time I gotta figure out a way to do this without leaves. It makes it harder to catch them all.

Thanks Robotponys. They are. I guess I use to baby them too much. But just some dead leaves and time. I can't wait for these to turn into adults and for me to see how much of a harvest can I get next time.

Yes finally a safe source for live blood worms. I have frozen but man this is so much cooler to do.

 

[dr.tran]

During the early summer and early fall I culture them outdoors in rubbermaid ponds, millions, they really like maple leaf to eat.

Also, somehow a midge must have made it into my vivarium, because there are now midge larvae in there too

I don't think they mind light though, my outdoor ponds are in full sun all day

Teach me master. lol.

In the last few years, I have been able to harvest bloodworms seasonally but its very few. I don't have to many midge flies here. That and I wanted a year round harvest. So I been experimenting on how to culture them indoors and trying to keep the generations going. I think I got it down now. We shall see in F3 generation. Still testing on weither temperature can cause them to mature early.

In either case, I hope to be able to harvest in the upcoming winter months

 

[dr.tran]

Oh and how do you harvest them without the muddy coat?

 

[dr.tran]

And to catch them i use a large fish net and scrape the side of my ponds starting at the bttom and moving straight up. For some reason they spend most of their time with their butts attached to the side.

Interesting. I usually find them in mud cocoons. I will watch my culture more carefully this time.

Grats Tran. Share your secrets!

I will when I have some. lol

 

[dr.tran]

Just found some bloodworm eggs. Looks like I'm going to have F3 generation. I know a local fish breeder who has a lot of tanks so it looks like I'm going to have some space for experimenting. lol

I'll update when I get this successful.

 

[dr.tran]

Is anyone good at identifying species of Chironomid? It turns out its some kind of green midge fly. But there are some that are brown. I thought they were mosquitoes but I think they are males. This morning I found my bucket swarming with blood worms again. I don't think they are F3 generation though. The eggs may have hatched but they shouldn't have grown to this size already. Perhaps some delayed bloodworms from F2?

 

[dr.tran]

Thanks

I'm trying to get a proper id on these guys. Had a few escapes. They can be pretty annoying.