cultured live fish foods?

[PhreekinSundewMan]

i been looking into culturing various live foods. but i have questions about the pproduction of a given type of culture


i have the following cultures at this point .

Red Wigglers
White worms (just now getting established)
vinagar eels
microworms
Black worms (in middle of getting established)

i keep about 12-15 tanks , i would like to have more live foods that are liked by adult fish guppy- to synodontis eupterus.

so far i am considering daphnia, grindal worms and scuds.

what i would like to know is with these differenet cultures i am considering, is about how long it would take for a culture to double in size, and any opinion you might have on ease of collecting any of these ?

on side note if any one has Daphnia, scuds or grindal worm cultures i'm looking for starters, willing to trade aquatic plants or starters of any of the cultures i have already,possibly some CP seeds too Please PM me if you have questions or comments.

 

[boxofrain]

Never underestimate the benefits of mosquito larvae.
If raising fish is the goal, I would streamline my cultures to the following.
Micro worm's
Blackworm's
mosquito's
and most importantly artemia (brine shrimp)

a good read if you can find a copy is
"the encyclopedia of live foods" by Charles O. Masters

 

[DragonsEye]

Hmm, but I would think maintaining an adult mosq pop would be a bit of a pain ... somewhat literally .....

Daphnia multiply quite rapidly if memory serves me. But it has been quite a while since I needed to access that "mental" material, so I can't give details unfortunately.

 

[MICKEY]

I have white worms and used to have grindels, white worms grow faster and larger, butm are heat sensitive they don't like temps over 80f,
if you have vinegar and micro worms you don't need to have grindels, they are just white worms that where selected for there smaller size,and have the same nutrition as white worms, I feed mine stale fish flakes
but they will eat almost any thing
pm me any questions you have

 

[amphirion]

Daphnia will do well if you can provide them with greenwater. But they can do fine with dissolved flour in their water. Scuds will eat dead leaves as well as detritus and fish flakes.

 

[requiemsong]

I agree with Boxo - you sound like you have too many different things going on all at once. Microworms and viniger eels I always found great for baby fish - black worms for larger ones.

Most of my larger fish were predators, so I was breeding guppies, platties and mollys for live food, which I did in smallish outdoor ponds.

*sigh* I really miss my fish.

 

[boxofrain]

beware of scuds....they are great for larger fishes with good grinding mouthparts, such as Cichlids. However, they can be problematic with some other fishes, as the fish can "choke" on the hard chitonous shells.
Earth worms have a simular issue, as the slime they create can choke smaller fishes.
Mosquitos are quite simple, by collecting egg ragfts and storing in the freezer until needed for fry. Simply drop some eggs into the tank and within 24 hours, you have newly hatched skeeter larvae that are small enough for very small fry. The skeeters develop quickly in the warm water of the tank and will soon accomodate even larger fry. These egg rafts can be collected at various locations and adults need not be kept at home.
In all the years of fishkeeping, I never had a larvae reach maturity in the tanks.

 

[Millipede]

These egg rafts can be collected at various locations and adults need not be kept at home.

where? that sounds like an interesting activity

 

[boxofrain]

where? that sounds like an interesting activity

any stagnant water.....a simple bucket with some old dry leaves added will bring them around. They will lay the eggs in any still water with a food source (microorganisms), that is what the dead leaves provide.