fish food factory

[babyfish]

Here's a way to save you some money in the spring/summer/autumn. Culture your own fish food.

DAPHNIA
These are really easy to culture; all you need is a container (bucket/child’s paddling pool). Place this outside away from any windows as it will attract flying biting insects.
Over the next few weeks you need to throw all of your aquarium water from water changes into this, any dead or dying leaves from your aquarium plants may also be placed in here, you are trying to create a sort of bacterial soup. Good additions are bruised lettuce leaves, banana skins and surprisingly enough horse or cow manure, about a good 2 handfuls of this in a paddling pool. If necessary top up container with tap water or rain water.
After about a week all the organic matter will be breaking down; seeding the water with the micro-organisms that daphnia feed on. Now go to your local fish shop in the spring/summer and buy a bag of daphnia (about 50/60 pence) and add these to your pool/container, then leave for at least 2 weeks before harvesting with a coarse net, the coarse net allows the smaller daphnia to escape.
During the warm weather all the daphnia that are born are female and give birth to more females about every 10 days. Once the weather turns colder the daphnia will begin to give birth to males who then fertilize next years generation. The female daphnia then lay eggs which fall into the mud and lay dormant until the weather warms again. If you like you can save a few hundred daphnia and try to keep them indoors, like fish they require water changes regularly. If you keep them indoors it is best to feed them on powdered milk VERY SPARINGLY. Add them back to the outside container in spring.
Whilst netting your daphnia you may notice other creatures appearing; the black ones that hang from the surface are mosquito larvae, the red worm type things are midge larvae and the see through ones are glass worms. All of these can be fed to your fish with no worries at all, however if feeding fry it is best to leave out the glass worms as these can attack fry.
Do not let anyone persuade you to put fish in your container as they will soon consume all of the live food.
It is best to put your net of daphnia into a white bowl full of water for sorting before you feed them to your fish, this stops you putting in anything nasty, like snails.
If you have a problem with hair algae, treat it using barley straw as you don’t want your live food picking up any chemical residue from proprietary algae killers.
You can also freeze any surplus in icecube trays.
Have fun

 

[jams.alaskan]

OK babyfish, that is soooo cool. I'm going to do it as soon as the water around here changes from the hard stuff to liquid!

ALASKA

Anyone need manure? Got lots

 

[noelberg]

That is a great idea ... unfortunately I think if I try it I might get reported for having stagnant water - damn West Nile Virus!

 

[Inchworm]

Hi babyfish

That sounds like a good idea, but unfortunately, I live in an apartment.

I like the idea of raising live food, though. My kitchen is full of microworm cultures that I raise to feed my fry. They grow much faster on this than on store-bought fry food.

 

[maestro]

how do you culture the micoworm inchworm?

 

[babyfish]

Noelberg, would it be possible to stick an airstone connected to an airpump in your container, the insects will still be attracted to the water(have to admit I know nothing of West Nile virus).
Maestro, you culture microworms like this

Keep your microworms away from food and food preparation areas; if this isn’t possible then your draining board is the best place as this can be sterilized with boiling water after use. All cups, spoons and brushes are not to be used for anything other than the maintenance of your microworms.

CULTURING MICROWORMS
Ideal containers are margarine tubs with push on lids. You need to punch a few holes in the lid to allow your microworms to breathe. Your microworms feed on porridge oats(the kind you cook on cold winter mornings)mix some oats with warm water until the mixture is slightly drier than you would like to eat it, then carefully put 6-10mm in the bottom of your container being careful not to get any on the sides of the container. Using an old teaspoon (you won’t be using it in the kitchen again) spoon your starter culture onto the mix. Cover with the lid and leave in a warm place. The temperature should be no higher than 30degC. The warmer the culture the faster it multiplies. Top of your fishtank is ideal. After 2 days you should be able to see a shimmering movement on top of the culture(a bright light will help you see this) and a sort of creamy substance on the sides of the container, this creamy substance are your worms, literally thousands of them waiting to be fed to your baby fish!

HARVESTING YOUR WORMS
There are two ways of doing this both involve a paintbrush (kids/artist’s type)
1) Gently wipe your brush around the sides of the container, being very careful not to touch the oat mix (this will foul the water) and then swish in the tank with the fry.
2) Repeat the above step but this time rinse your brush in a small cup of (tank) water and pour the resulting mix into the tank(s), this method prevents diseases being spread from tank to tank. Your microworms do not carry any diseases.
Be sure to write the date your culture was started on the side of the container as after 4-6 weeks your culture will start to die off, it will darken and produce fewer worms. This is the time to restart your culture, simply prepare the porridge mix as before and place SMALL amounts of your old culture onto the mix to start all over again. The old culture can now be thrown away.
And finally a word of advice DO NOT OPEN your cultures in the living room, they have a strong yeasty, cheesy smell to them(a lot like very smelly feet) and a whiff of this is likely to make your wife/husband/child/pet start threatening divorce proceedings! A well ventilated area is recommended.
Good luck !

 

[Doggfather]

when culturing daphnia, just make sure to pick out the dragonfly larve that will most likely end up in the bucket

 

[Bettaman]

Better way of harvesting microworms get a piece of strong paper kitchen towel make it moist and lay it on top of the culture,just in the middle not all over, after a day it will be covered with the tiny blighter's probably more than you can feed in one go, and just dip it into the fry tank you can take any culture medium off the back before you dip it, heypresto loads of worms

 

[SirMinion]

Excuse my ignorance, but I've never heard of microworms. Exactly what are they and where would I get the starter culture?

 

[fishdudein]

When I was a kid, we lived in a new housing addition that bordered on farmland. There was a low-lying pasture there that used to get flooded every spring and I would put on a pair of old rubber boots, grab my bucket and net and have the time of my life catching fairy shrimp. The flooded ground was literally covered with them. Frogs, ducks, herons...everything flocked to this spot to feed on these shrimp, and it happened every year. I would make several trips to fill my buckets, and after taking my catch home I would keep them for several months in outdoor tanks. Just pop out to the backyard, scoop a net through one of the tanks and I had some of the happiest fish in town. YUMYUM Anyway, what got me started on this was the daphnia. Invariably I would bring home daphnia mixed in with my shrimp, they were much hardier than the shrimp were so I usually had a constant supply whenever I needed them. And yes, you have to be careful doing this, as there ARE "other" things in the water, things you DON'T want to turn loose in your tanks Overall, it was absolutely worth the time and effort to get these, both shrimp and daphnia. Many excellent teenage memories of being ankle deep in freezing cold water--stuff only a fishaholic would appreciate. Sadly, my "happy hunting grounds" are now part of a golf course

 

[Inchworm]

I keep 6 cultures going. Three for using and 3 that are growing and multiplying. Since I have a lot of fry, I grow them in shoe boxes. I don't sterilize my equipment, but I only keep the cultures going for 2-3 weeks before using them to start new cultures. That way I avoid the unpleasant smell. Mine have a smell more like mild vinegar. It's there, but I don't find it bad.

Here's a link with lots of information about them:

http/www.livefoodcultures.com/microworms.html

This is the place where I bought my original culture and I was very happy with their service.

 

[Inchworm]

I just found a very interesting link that has lots of good information about culturing microworms and thought I'd add it to this thread. I hope you might find it helpful.

http/www.waynesthisandthat.com/microworms.htm

 

[wuvmybetta]

Wayne's this and that is one of my favorite websites,Inchy

Microworms are easy, I have 3 cultures going at the moment. The betta fry like them but they prefer baby brine shrimp, those aren't as easy as the worms

 

[Inchworm]

Hi wuv

I'm happy to hear that you got your microworm cultures going.

Since I took the gouramis and other big fish out of my 55 gallon tank to make more room for corys, my one remaining guppy gave birth twice and I was able to catch most of the fry. I put them in the cory fry tanks and they eat the microworms too. They love them and I've never seen them grow so fast.

I would think microworms would be great food for many other kinds of fry too! Does anyone feed them to other fry? If so, what kind?