Rob Posted April 19, 2002 Report Share Posted April 19, 2002 I'm curious as to what live foods other people feed to their fish. And do you culture your own life food. Because I'm a science geek and always had a facination with creepy crawlies I don't mind pottering around with culturing and collecting live foods. The live foods I culture at the moment are earthworms, whiteworms (though it's not going too well at the moment), grindal worms (mini-white worms, good for feeding to medium sized fry), microworms (for feeding to small fry), confused flour beetles (good for those surface feeders - in my case mainly hatchet fish), daphnia (used for conditioning breeders) and brine shrimp (newly hatched for feeding fry and also adults as a treat/conditioning food). I'm also considering getting wingless fruitfly, waxworms and mealworms. I've kept the fruitfly before but neglected them and they died out. Since my parents and sister live on farms I've also been known to go 'hunting' for fish food. This is usually waterboatmen/backswimmers, tubifex worms and bloodworms (if I can find them). The rainbowfish really like the waterboatmen and it's fun to watch, the waterboatmen swim alot faster than daphnia so there's more chasing of prey. You need to be careful with tubifex worms - make sure that they are really clean before feeding them. Other bits and pieces that I feed my fish are aphids (usually I carefully cut off the Puha stalk/rose stem and then shake it into the tank), caterpillars (usually just cabbage white or lupa types) and snails (some of my tanks have quite high populations of malaysian trumpet snails - these are too hard for most fish to eat but after I've 'tenderised' them with a rock it's no longer any problem). They also get weekly feedings of daphnia (at my LFS you can buy a litre of daphnia for $3 - I could never culture enough to feed it to the starving multitudes at this rate). My impression (based on other local club members) is that I'm a bit extreme in my growing/collecting of live foods - the fish don't seem to complain though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted April 19, 2002 Report Share Posted April 19, 2002 Hi Rob, I only keep earthworms and feeder fish. If memory serves correctly, you have an excellent knowledge of how to grow many different live food cultures. How about posting some articles into the 'Topics' section of the database. Many people would benifit from the information (especially me)! If you do want to do it, would it be too much to ask if you can add which types of fish each food is good for. Go on... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted April 19, 2002 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2002 OK Warren - I've posted an article on Wingless fruitfly to the topics section. I will attempt to write articles about other types as I have time and gain experience. Note that Cees reviews the articles before their being displayed so there may be a lag before the article is available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted April 20, 2002 Report Share Posted April 20, 2002 Hi Rob, Interesting article, Are live tubifex available over the counter in NZ? I was given to understand that there might be an odd registered supplier over here. These along with white worm, brine shrimp, and micro worm were our mainstay foods during the winter months in the UK, but in summer we would culture daphnia, (and other unwanteds) in a tub with some sheep or horse manure in, or if that failed we could always find a pond somewhere that was teeming with them, but the transporting of them home was the problem as we invariably got more than we needed and casualties were many, but the advent of the 12v pump made things a lot better.. We would put the tubifex in a tray and allow the tap to drip slowly on them for a couple of days before using, as most tubifex is found in sewage areas, but I can't think of a fish that didn't love them. Our white worm cultures were kept around 50-60F and were split at regular intervals just in case the culture spoiled, and the same applied to micro worms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted April 21, 2002 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2002 I haven't come across live tubifex worms for sale in NZ. The local shop sometimes gets them in their orders as a present from the fish wholesaler - these then seem to get given as presents to people who have, what I call, 'Preferred Customer' status. I usually (though this isn't that regularly) collect my own - the best time was when one of the drains on my parents farm had reduced to a single pool, there were tenis ball sized clumps of tubifex just wrapped around the plant stems (so no mud with them at all) - ended collecting a 2L container of them that was almost 100% worms. After rinsing I fed some out life and then froze the rest in icecube trays (I have a seperate set of ice cube trays for fish stuff only). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted April 21, 2002 Report Share Posted April 21, 2002 You have to know what you are doing when hunting for live foods in the streams and ponds, as you can get many visitors you didn't want. Many years ago, around the time the red Oscar arrived in the UK, I used to show fish, and among these were several Oscars around a foot (300mm) long. These big fella's took some keeping up with in the food dept, and runts and such were not always on hand. I thought of the local canal and went on a hunting expedition in the hope of finding something edible for my pride and joys. I returned with a large quantity of what the local kids called "Bomb-bellies" and now with a source of handy live food for my Oscars I happily fed them and watched their delight. The fish were in a nine footer, along with some large Tilapia's and a few other choice species. On turning on the light the following morning I discovered my prize fish covered in Argulus (The fish louse). PANIC.... Out with the books, and the only sure remedy at that time seemed to be potassium permanganate crystals. A quick calculation and in it went. The tank was left in darkness for three days, and the water at this time was a deep shade of violety purple. It got rid of the louse, and several days exposure to bright light and a few water changes and heavy filtration got rid of the purple, but my fish were never "flawless" again after that. Quite a shock I can tell you. Thanks for the post Rob. The old "tennis ball" of tubifex brings back a heap of memories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted April 22, 2002 Report Share Posted April 22, 2002 Thanks Rob, I'll anxiously await your next articles. It will be good to learn how to set up live food cultures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleatidium Posted April 30, 2002 Report Share Posted April 30, 2002 I had a go at breeding wingless Drosophila fruitfly and had trouble with my media going mouldy no matter how sterile I tried to be. I did however have one very successful colony that grew no mould. That was my first attempt actually, begginers luck I reckon. I am thinking of having a go using the simple banana method. I get mozzie larvae when available. I have a colony of meal worms also but at present I don't have any fish large enough to eat them. My girlfriends frog eats them sometimes though when flies are scarce. Once I did try to fed some earthworms to my fish but they were too large and escaped into the gravel. I thought I would suck them out dead when I gravel vacced the next day. However, I never saw them again until I found them alive and well some months later when I was disassembling my tank for transportation. My water must have been high enough in O2 for them to survive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted April 30, 2002 Report Share Posted April 30, 2002 When my kids were little they loved feeding earthworms to the goldfish as they stretched an amazing distance when a goldfish was pulling at each end! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted April 30, 2002 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2002 I mainly feed earth worms to the tank with catfish and rainbows in it. I normally cut them into roughly bite sized pieces using a pair of sissors. I just know Caryl got an image of Rob very carefully cutting individual worms up into premeasured pieces - no that's not the way I do it - its "writhing mass in the bottom of the bowl hacked to pieces with sissors". Once they're bite size more of the fish eat them and they're a bit slower so don't disappear into the gravel so quickly On occasion I put whole worms in, mainly to see just how greedy the rainbows are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted April 30, 2002 Report Share Posted April 30, 2002 I use Earth Worms to promote activity in the large cichlid tank. If you throw in a handful of fairly large ones you should see the scrap that errupts! Also feed them to the Borneo Tiger (Datniodes quadrifasciatus) - the bigger the better as far as he's concerned. They have to wiggle before he will munch them however as he will not eat dead food. I tried for 2 weeks once to get him to eat standard frozen foods, but no-way. He'd rather starve. When I finally did put in a live worm, I nearly lost my fingers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benny Posted May 3, 2002 Report Share Posted May 3, 2002 Warren How big is your siamese tiger? I recently got one and have had great trouble in getting him to eat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted May 5, 2002 Report Share Posted May 5, 2002 It is a young adult - exactly 280mm (11 inches) long. It still has a lot of growing to do. What are you feeding yours? I feed live goldfish (feeder goldfish), carp, worms and live shrimp. It will sometimes take beefheart strips if I wiggle them. It is very stuborn about taking dead food. It is not even interested in dead fish! Its not through trying. I have treid several time not feeding it for up to 2 weeks but it still won't accept dead food. Maybe I need to wait longer still! Juvenile Borneo's seem to like reject baby guppies and live shrimp too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benny Posted May 5, 2002 Report Share Posted May 5, 2002 I have been trying to feed him frozen bloodworms and cichlid tucker(made by biosupplies) with no luck so far. Currently he is only 3", but I saw him 'yawn' yesterday and his mouth opens out into a drawbridge! I would say already he would be able to eat a fish larger than 1". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benny Posted May 5, 2002 Report Share Posted May 5, 2002 and by the way warren, how fast do they grow if they are fed well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted May 6, 2002 Report Share Posted May 6, 2002 They are fairly slow growers. It will take 3-4 years to reach 280mm size. Maybe faster depending on how much it is fed and what it is fed. I have seen ones much bigger than mine that are the same age. Mine came from the same place that had the larger ones. It was in the same tank as the bigger ones and was probably just slower to the food or it got bullied a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benny Posted May 7, 2002 Report Share Posted May 7, 2002 do you know how to sex siamese tigers? I would love to try and breed them one day and make a fortune, seeing that I paid $120 for my 3 inch juvenile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted May 7, 2002 Report Share Posted May 7, 2002 You put a bunch of them together and when they pair off, one of them is probably a male and the other is probably a female! Really, I don't know. Maybe someone else can help? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midas Posted May 8, 2002 Report Share Posted May 8, 2002 A question to those who culture earth worms for their fish. I am trying to start up a earth worm culture as a food source for my growing central americans (Midas, Texus, Jag, etc). I have read several books on home worm compsting etc and I think I have learnt all I can from them and the rest will have to come from experience. My question is what worm species do you use to feed your fish and where did you get them from? The most common compsting worm here in NZ seems to be the tiger worm (E.fetida). However, I have read that these worms can excrete a yellow substance that is repulsive to fish and requires the worms to be purged in damp cornflour before feeding them to remove the yellow stuff. Do you know if this is true ? Also, the rarer of the two composting worm species. the red worm (L.rubellus), is apparently the better fish food. The only problem is it seems hard to come by as it is the least efficient composter of the two worms, so is not kept in any large numbers by many worm farmers. I have managed to dig around in the garden and find around 50 red worms, but this number will take a long time to develop into a culture that I can feed from. Does anyone have any experience in this matter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted May 8, 2002 Report Share Posted May 8, 2002 I set up a culture using dirt, food scraps and newspapers in a large wooden box. I got the worms off the lawn. Wait until a cool evening (not cold) when there is a light dew on the grass. About 1 hour after it goes dark worms pop about 1/2 to 3/4 out of the ground and sit on the grass. Using a torch to see, you can walk along the grass and pick them up. You have to be quick though. They can sense either the light or the heat from the light and quickly zoom back into the ground. I collected about 500 worms in one night. I went over the back fence into the school. The rugby field had a plentiful supply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted May 8, 2002 Report Share Posted May 8, 2002 The worm desired by most worm farmers I believe is the tiger worm. It's striped, or so my mates are, but I don't know if the fish will eat them. A couple of heavy hessian sacks or a piece of old carpet thoroughly soaked and laid on the lawn or garden usually brings heaps of worms especially if you place a bit of food in the way of old veges under the sack. Keep the sacks wet and the food supply going and you should get heaps of red wrigglers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted May 9, 2002 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2002 I set up my worm culture using some commercial compost (ie a bag of it from the Warehouse), feed food scraps and newspaper - they supposedly need a mix of nitrogen containing and carbon containing foods. Also I'll occasionally sprinkle over some garden lime - to sweeten (ie increase the pH) of the mix. Similar to Warren, I collected earthworms. Yes it does seem that fish are less partial to the tiger worms, the few that have found their way into my culture still get eaten though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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