Producing Live Food

[Zante]

I see on eBay they sell these kits to grow your own live food.
Vinegar eels, micro worms, grindel worms, banana worms, daphnia, tubifex, etc...

I am quite tempted by the daphnia and tubifex kits in particular.

Is it worth the effort?

What about brine shrimp? Is it wort setting up a hatching tank and a growing tank, or is it just better to buy them from the LFS?

Anyone have experience to share?

 

[Plecc]

Sorry i cant really help you with, if its worth the trouble!

But I'm also quite interested with cultivating my own live food, i think tubiflex may be the way to go for my tanks.
Are the kits expensive? cant imagine there too much.

 

[OldMan47]

I keep live foods for my fish but find that tubifex are among the hardest of all to keep. On the other hand both microworms and vinegar eels are quite easy to care for. I have kept daphnia but unfortunately they can be lost easily by a need for proper feeding parameters. Yep I lost my daphnia culture after about 3 months by not having the ideal food for them.

 

[Zante]

Sorry i cant really help you with, if its worth the trouble!

But I'm also quite interested with cultivating my own live food, i think tubiflex may be the way to go for my tanks.
Are the kits expensive? cant imagine there too much.

Not really, that is why I was so interested. I mean, for daphnia in theory you coul go to a pond to start a culture, but getting a kit, you get all packaged nicely, and with instructions.

I bought a tubifex and a daphnia kit. Let's see how it goes.

If you're interested this is the seller.

http/myworld.ebay.co.uk/livefoodcultures/?_trksid=p4340.l2559

I keep live foods for my fish but find that tubifex are among the hardest of all to keep. On the other hand both microworms and vinegar eels are quite easy to care for. I have kept daphnia but unfortunately they can be lost easily by a need for proper feeding parameters. Yep I lost my daphnia culture after about 3 months by not having the ideal food for them.

If you're interested to start again the eBay seller above also sells erm... Food food

With the kit you get some tubifex or daphnia food (depending on the kit obviously) but he also sells the food separately.

I cannot vouch for it, I just ordered the kits yesterday. I will report once I do form my opinion on it.

 

[BigbruiserAl]

Here is my DIY brine shrimp if its of any help

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/374767-diy-brine-shrimp/page__p__3136080__fromsearch__1#entry3136080

 

[Dieses Madchen]

I hatch brine shrimp for my fry. It's really easy. I made a hatchery out of a air pump and a mason jar. As far as keeping the temperature up for faster hatch rates on the brine shrimp, everyone has their own methods. I have a spare 10g and heater that is half full of water that I have my jars set in while they hatch. Setting up a new batch takes about 5 minutes.

Is it worth it? I say yes because my fry are growing well and are very strong.

 

[Zante]

I hatch brine shrimp for my fry. It's really easy. I made a hatchery out of a air pump and a mason jar. As far as keeping the temperature up for faster hatch rates on the brine shrimp, everyone has their own methods. I have a spare 10g and heater that is half full of water that I have my jars set in while they hatch. Setting up a new batch takes about 5 minutes.

Is it worth it? I say yes because my fry are growing well and are very strong.

Yes, but I was talking about live food for adults.
There is no question that it is worth it for the fry

Here is my DIY brine shrimp if its of any help

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/374767-diy-brine-shrimp/page__p__3136080__fromsearch__1#entry3136080

Mmm... yeah, but still it's newly hatched brine shrimp.

I was reading about actually GROWING the brine shrimp to a larger size (like you see in fish shops as live food).
That seems to be not really worth it, unless you're producing vast quantities...

 

[Scott MacAdam]

I used to breed meal worms for my bearded dragon and I bet larger fish would go nuts for them. They are the larval form of a small beetle. Basically buy a cup of them and let them become beetles and breed and then seperate out the meal worms as you need. Only problem is the older they get the harder the shell. I wouldn't feed big ones unless it was a pretty large fish.

 

[Zante]

Ok,I had the cultures delivered today.

Instructions seem quite simple, cultures have arrived in good condition.

Will update with any interesting news.

 

[liamhuckle]

Ok,I had the cultures delivered today.

Instructions seem quite simple, cultures have arrived in good condition.

Will update with any interesting news.

Any update ?

 

[Geordiehc]

Iv got a huge culture of cyclops, the numbers they are reaching is mental, i made my own green water for them but the culture is on the window sill so the algae in the water is more than enough to feed them

 

[liamhuckle]

Iv got a huge culture of cyclops, the numbers they are reaching is mental, i made my own green water for them but the culture is on the window sill so the algae in the water is more than enough to feed them

So how would you go about starting and will most fish eat them ?

 

[Geordiehc]

Personally i would go to pundland or somewhere similar and get 1 of them cheap plastic containers, buy a cheap air pump, set it up and leave on windowsill for a week or 2, then buy the Daphnia or Cyclops and put them in the tank.

If the water doesnt turn green by the time you put them in, then put a small amount of actiavted yeast in, just enough for it to turn cloudy (i bought this from Sainsburys for like £1.60).

It will most liekly take a while to get a good culture going, iv had mine set up for about 2 months now and have a huge population but i made mistakes by overfeeding which made the water quality really bad.

 

[liamhuckle]

Personally i would go to pundland or somewhere similar and get 1 of them cheap plastic containers, buy a cheap air pump, set it up and leave on windowsill for a week or 2, then buy the Daphnia or Cyclops and put them in the tank.

If the water doesnt turn green by the time you put them in, then put a small amount of actiavted yeast in, just enough for it to turn cloudy (i bought this from Sainsburys for like £1.60).

It will most liekly take a while to get a good culture going, iv had mine set up for about 2 months now and have a huge population but i made mistakes by overfeeding which made the water quality really bad.

So is the air pump just to provide air into the container or into the water

 

[Geordiehc]

Personally i would go to pundland or somewhere similar and get 1 of them cheap plastic containers, buy a cheap air pump, set it up and leave on windowsill for a week or 2, then buy the Daphnia or Cyclops and put them in the tank.

If the water doesnt turn green by the time you put them in, then put a small amount of actiavted yeast in, just enough for it to turn cloudy (i bought this from Sainsburys for like £1.60).

It will most liekly take a while to get a good culture going, iv had mine set up for about 2 months now and have a huge population but i made mistakes by overfeeding which made the water quality really bad.

So is the air pump just to provide air into the container or into the water

into the water yeah, i think the cultures need the air, but also the water movement is good for the algae also