Establishing live food cultures

[Rafini]

Hello Aquaria Central. Recently I have been looking into developing a live food culture to enrich my fishes diets.
I can find several wiki how style guides but I would prefer some actual experience from other aquarists. Who knows maybe this thread will even be a reference for other people searching for information.

So I would like anyone with experience to post how exactly they cultured their live food, pictures would be great but good descriptions are fine.

As of right now I have several cycled aquariums with plants, gravel, moss etc. an abundance of UV lighting in my south facing Calgary back yard (sunniest place in Canada and one of the sunniest in North America)

Lets do this! Thanks everyone

 

[fishorama]

I used to culture white worms in my coolish basement (50s to low 60sF). Not hard, they lived in barely damp potting soil & eat rolled oats. I only remembered to feed them when I did laundry down there, oops. They might be a bit large for some of your fish.

A club friend grows microworms in oatmeal & tank water, I think. They sound easy at "room temps", maybe an airstone & light for "green water"? They seem a nice size for smaller fish & easier to harvest, they crawl up the 1lb size deli cups.

 

[myswtsins]

I grew microworms for awhile when I had way more fish. They are small as the name implies. Very easy to culture, so easy that I would forget about them. lol All you need is a starch source (oatmeal, wheat flour etc.), yeast (dry baking yeast is common), water, a container (clear sealable with holes in top is my preference) and a bit of starter worms. Put the starch in the bottom, add water and stir till completely moistened, sprinkle yeast on top, add some worms and close. After about a week you should see worms moving up the sides and you can start harvesting them. Putting some in the fridge slows them down and ensures you have some backup worms in case things go wrong.

I keep earth worms too but their bin got hit with pesticides so I stopped harvesting for my animals, still use them in the gardens though. I do it super lazy like. It's just a bin in the ground to keep them contained with peatmoss and soil and I throw some compost in there from time to time, I compost anyways and the composter is right next to the worms. But it's easy enough to just throw some coffee grounds, fruit and veggies leftovers etc in there.

Everyone has grown brine shrimp right? Sea monkeys at least!

I harvest mosquito larvae sometimes too. Easy to grow of course, just put a container of water outside and BOOM! Life! Just strain and feed. Just fed my fishes some yesterday and they loved it. I do inspect fairly well though cause some nymphs can hurt or kill the fish when they grow.

 

[Rafini]

thanks myswtsins, very informative!
I have a similar harvesting of dandelions in my backyard. the flowers and leaves are loved by my bearded dragon and red-foot tortoise. throughout the winter they have to make do with other goodies.

I was thinking of starting up some brine shrimp but the packaging is all imperial and I only know and have metric containers. I'll tackle that when I have some more free time.

Do you have any pictures of your microworm culture?

 

[Tifftastic]

We do the same with microworms in our lab, they're dead easy.

We also do parameceum. Its pretty similar.
1 litre jug of tank water
Thin layer of oats on the bottom and a bit of yeast (I think its half the packet)
They grow in a few days. But you can't screw the lid on to the jug or you'll suffocate them. Basically, you're making beer and letting things grow in it lol

 

[OrionGirl]

Depending on the size needed, vinegar eels are a very simple live culture to setup and maintain. Take a cup of water, a cup of unpasteurized apple cider vinegar and some slices of apple. If you can get ones from a local farmers market that aren't commercially processed first, great, but not necessary. Add to a jar and let sit in the dark. Vinegar eels are TINY, smaller than micro worms or banana worms. To harvest, strain a bit of the liquid through a coffee filter, rinse with tank water, then swish the filter around the tank. They will live in the water column for several days. Ideal for clown killi fry, gourami/paradisefish fry, etc.