Raising live food

Beeman

Beeman

Members
I just finished reading the looong old thread about raising red wigglers. I have been growing more interested in providing live food to my fish. I keep mostly CA and SA cichlids in community tanks with various tetras. I am going to start a bin of white worms(thanks Christine) for my nano tank inhabitants and tetras. I am also interested in starting a bigger bin of the red wigglers. I saw on the afore mentioned thread that there is somewhere in western MD that supplies them. Where did those of you that ordered yours get them from? And lastly, I know my bigger cichlids love crickets. Any reservations about the ones sold as reptile food? Anyone tried raising them?
Anything other live foods easy to raise that I might consider?
 
msjinkzd

msjinkzd

invert junkie
hey Barry, you coming to this month's meeting? Mike Hellweg is speaking, and he wrote a kick butt book on culturing live foods. I will be bringing it with me to get it signed, and would be happyt o lety ou look through. Maybe there will be some for sale.
 
chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
Yep, I'll have my book there, too!

I'm pretty sure I got 2lbs of Uncle Jim's red wigglers (you can find them on Amazon) to start my bin. They arrived in great shape, and got to work much sooner than they were supposed to. Red wigglers freak out a little during shipping, so you need to ease them into feedings for the first few weeks.

I fed red wigglers to my heckelii and krobia tonight...they are so fun to watch! The dwarf cichlids even got lucky....there were a bunch of little worms hanging out under the lid of the worm bin....just the right size for the smaller guys.

Also, microworms are REALLY easy (Frank has them). I have a culture of vinegar eels, but I don't see the fry go as nuts over them as they do the microworms. I've also got a grindal worm culture (from Frank, too)....similar to white worms, but they like warmer temps. They also take a little more work than the white worms to maintain....but not too bad overall, since Frank gets you set up with everything you need.
 
chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
I've even tried to raise Franks daphnia on my own....total failure. And I toyed with the copepod idea....but I just don't have enough room.

Also, don't overlook a good booming population of cherry shrimp as an option, too. I've even left tanks to grow up a bunch of shrimp, then thrown in a pair of dwarf cichlids I want to fatten up. My Altos also love the shrimp.

And then there's the never-ending supply of pest snails. These get periodically harvested and given to my loaches, Ctenopoma, and convicts. I didn't realize what snail-eaters convicts were!
 
chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
Ooh another one I've toyed with getting....wingless fruit flies. But I already know (from working in a lab down the hall from the Drosophila people) that their culture media can be stinky. I suspect it's not as bad small-scale as an entire lab, though. Probably great food for hatchets, killies, etc.

I tried raising crickets a long time ago when I had lizards....it can be done, but they are another one that I don't like the smell of, and a lot of people have allergies to them.
 
verbal

verbal

CCA Members
I have started putting Red Cherry Shrimp and cichlid juvies(Malawi haps/peacoks) together. This works out well for two reasons. It gives a live food to the juvies(the tiny baby shrimp). Also for selling the shrimp it gives me a group of good sized shrimp to sell.

chriscoli said:
Also, don't overlook a good booming population of cherry shrimp as an option, too. I've even left tanks to grow up a bunch of shrimp, then thrown in a pair of dwarf cichlids I want to fatten up. My Altos also love the shrimp.
Click to expand...

I also do red wigglers in my detached garage. They are very easy and unlike a lot of live foods, survive a lot of neglect. They even made it through the winter last year, but I did move a small back-up culture into the house just in case.
 
Beeman

Beeman

Members
Lots of good advise. Many thanks to all. And yes, I will be at the meeting Rachel, and I'm eagerly waiting on your updated stock list.:D
 
golsama

golsama

Corresponding Secretary
I don't wash my red wigglers off either. I have numerous live cultures (mostly for my reptiles) but I do also feed some to my fish. My killies and bettas enjoy wingless fruitflies a lot as do my goodeids. I also keep two different colonies of feeder roaches (yeah you read that correctly); one dubia colony and one Madagascar hisser colony. The roaches have been a hit with almost all of my fish especially my convict species. Roaches are a lot more nutritious and easier to raise than crickets; not to mention quieter and roaches don't smell.

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Jmty

Jmty

Members
You are talking about regular domestic roaches(NOT HERE)curiosity how you keep them and you are not afraid they could escape like the gazillion in china???


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JasonC

JasonC

Members
chriscoli said:
I've even tried to raise Franks daphnia on my own....total failure.
Click to expand...

Failed at this too tool I really heeded the warning about only using aged water on them... Started drawing replacement water from another tank...one high in tannins...and it worked like a charm until I one day put a load of laundry in the wash then started cleaning the Daphnia tank...next day water was all bubbly and they were all dead. I also found a food blend on the net that really got the population booming...I'll see if I can find it again...

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golsama

golsama

Corresponding Secretary
I keep the roaches in large Rubbermaid bins. Neither species can survive long outside the bins because they are tropical species. They need higher temps than ambient room temp to breed and humidity. Also neither of the two species I keep can climb plastic so they are easily contained.

The first picture is of one of my roach bins.

The second is a picture of a fresh fruitfly culture. I'll be adding the flies tomorrow from an older one.

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dogofwar

dogofwar

CCA Members
I just give the red wigglers a quick rinse in the sink before feeding.

They're by far the easiest live food I've ever dealt with...

Matt
 
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