Harvesting Live Food

[BigC]

I'm interested in hearing from anyone who has harvested live food from a wild source, that you use when season permits to feed your aquarium fish. Particularly from our friends in the US. Where do you go? What do you catch? and what makeshift/modified equipment do you use? I know this is a risky business using this kind of foodstuff, and should always be adopted with caution. But I was just curious to hear of peoples expeditions to catch different food to supplement their fishes diet. We have a small man-made lake near where I live and behind the lake there is a sump with a rather large valve, to drain the lake, the sump is absolutely teeming with Daphnia during the summer months..
Anybody have any similar experiences they'd like to share.

 

[Mr Miagi]

LOL, this is probably not what ur aftre but every summer when there is huge rain fall in the Conservation Park and the farms up the road i go and harvest the mosquito larvae. My gouramis love em!

I use a long broom handle with a seeve attached with some wire! Basic but it does the tric.

 

[BigC]

Yeah!
That's exactly what I mean....
Any more

 

[Raechal]

Don't want to steal your thread, but I was also wondering if you could take some live plants from local lakes and stuff and use them in your aquarium as long as you rinsed them with a dilluted bleach sollution do you think it would be safe? I saw some awesome plants in the lake near my boyfriend's apartment and I wanted to put them in my aquarium, but didn't want to risk the chance of getting a disease or parasite into my tank.

I've never caught anything out of the wild to feed my fish, don't know what I could catch lol.

 

[charmd2]

Raechal, Yes wild plants are ok. Make sure your bleach solution is REALLY weak though. 1:40 I think. Ask in the plant section to be sure, or it could kill them.

 

[Raechal]

Raechal, Yes wild plants are ok. Make sure your bleach solution is REALLY weak though. 1:40 I think. Ask in the plant section to be sure, or it could kill them.

Yea, I would only use VERY little bleach and a lot of water. I'll do some research as well. Thanks a lot.

 

[BigC]

Any more on the livefood, collecting...

 

[Raechal]

Any more on the livefood, collecting...

I will go down to the lake today. If I find anything worth feeding to my fish, I'll try to catch it if I manage not to fall in myself.

 

[Kinda Fishey]

Hey Big C
I use skeeter larva, in the summer. I use a fine net in a small pond here on my place. also from various pots of waterI leave out and bait with grass clippings.
I have tried gammaras wild caught from South Fla. waterways. I always worried about introducing problems. The small killies I kept didn't seem to like them.
I sure envy your daphnia pond. I need to find one in my area.
I like your avatar. D. georgiae, right??
Do you keep them , in Ireland ?, I would like to try them, but cool water tanks are a problem in my warm area. Any advice, appreciated.
Good Luck KF

 

[digital_run]

I sometimes (when im really bored) get a shovel and try to find earthworms...my fish love em and why buy em when i have a whole bunch in my back yard ...Also any poor unsuspecting bug that crosses my path usually ends up in the tank as a snack.

 

[Gourami Lover88]

Here in Texas I have daphina year round and misquitios larve from mid spring to late fall. We just have a few 55gal barrles that we keep filled with water for gardening and they get filled up fast with all kinds of fish food.

 

[BigC]

Diapteron Georgiae is spot on Kinda Fishey. Have kept them in the past along with D. Fulgens, kept them in a natural setup though as I found collecting eggs did not work for me, the eggs alway fungussed for some reason, maybe there was something on my fingertips transferred to the egg. Kept them in a small tank 18x10x10 no substrate added floating plants(Salvinia) and some dark green floating mops, which were long enough to reach the bottom of the tank ( the females need to be given plenty of protection). In there I placed 2 males and about 6 females, I used rainwater which I collected from my fish-house roof which was very soft I mixed this with a little bit of tapwater to get the proper parameters. They are not very prolific and a female may only produce around a dozen eggs per week. There will be natural Infusoria in the tank so their first food was already in abundance. Any I seen I fished out using a meat baster. They are one of the most time consuming species I've kept & water quality is paramount closely followed by foodstuffs. These fish will not accept dry or frozen goods to any degree. I had my own cultures of Infusoria, Newly Hatched Brineshrimp, Microworm, Grindalworm, Whiteworm & Fruitfly, and any other creepy crawly small enough to be consumed from the garden.
Problems are not over when rearing the fry, the males are very aggressive and fight constantly, so having plenty of spare tanks around is essential.
Not a fish for the beginner is the old addage...

 

[Kinda Fishey]

Big C
Thanks for the info. Sounds like the males rough up the females. right ?
Do the males fight each other ?.
You seem to be having better luck with these fish than most folks I talk to .
Water temp seems to be a big factor. If I may ask, what temp to you keep their tank?.

Gourami Lover88
Do you introduce the daphnia to the water, or do they occur naturally??
Thanks All KF

 

[BigC]

In answer to the questions above, The females can take quite a battering thats why there were so many in the breeding tank, coupled with extra thick, long spawning mops aforded the females as much protection as possible.. My fish house was space heated and ranged between 20 degrees and 24 degrees C, depending which shelf they were on, generally though they should be kept a bit cooler. One other point they only ever recieved natural daylight via a window. The males do not tolerate each other that well especially juveniles.

Don't understand the last part of the question about Daphnia, do you mean Infusoria. Please re-phrase.

 

[Kinda Fishey]

Thanks Big C.
Gotta try these fish, just have to find a good way to cool the water
.
Gourami Lover 88 in Texas said he colllected Daphinia, and mosquito larvae from 55 gal drums. I was trying to find if he inrtroduced the original daphinia.

Thanks All KF