Dark Posted November 24, 2005 Report Share Posted November 24, 2005 I was checking out my daphnia bins today in the late afternoon sun, amazed at the amount of daphnia swarming around mid-water as they do later in the day when i noticed something red wiggling around. upon closer inspection: links to larger image: 1600x1200 and i thought to myself... BLOODWORM! and it would appear, using this freeze dried stuff here as a comparison: links to larger image: 2272x1704 (yep...) that bloodworm indeed it was. So finally the mystery is solved. I never though i would be able to cultivate bloodworm in my own back yard. Of course i would need a back yard the size of texas to grow enough to feed my fish the way i use the frozen stuff i buy... Now for a little extra information for those less familiar with bloodworm: they are not worms, they are midge larvae. they (the larvae) live underwater and seem to like rotting leaf matter. And a little extra information about my daphnia: they are not for sale Anyway - is this a common thing for backyard bins or have i got a fluke on my hands? (i did only find one 'worm' as it was wriggling mid-water - i didn't bother looking much further) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted November 24, 2005 Report Share Posted November 24, 2005 Fairly common. I've caught a few in my pond while catching daphnia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HummingBird Posted November 24, 2005 Report Share Posted November 24, 2005 Yeah I get them in my daphnia containers too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billaney Posted November 24, 2005 Report Share Posted November 24, 2005 yep me too , was also worried when u first saw them but blood worm it is Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted November 24, 2005 Report Share Posted November 24, 2005 I've got them too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newtman Posted November 24, 2005 Report Share Posted November 24, 2005 yup and me ,they seem to grow in the most foul disgusting buckets of water,as i belive they feed on decaying plant matter ect..leaves you say,the bucket i have them most in gets heaps falling into it.,and its loaded with them sweetas for you ,a great live food to feed ur hungry fish!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted November 24, 2005 Report Share Posted November 24, 2005 I have quite a colony of tubifex in one of my turtle tanks I guess from feeding canadensis from the river. The turtles love white worm but don't go for that, yet years ago every petshop in town used to sell live tubifex and now you can't get it at all. Thats what comes from cleaning up the rivers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Posted November 24, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 24, 2005 ...and now you can't get it at all. Thats what comes from cleaning up the rivers. well...'cleaning' anyway... apparently the Hutt river has a nasty outbreak of 'blue green algae' at the moment... ...sweetas for you ,a great live food to feed ur hungry fish!! yep, i thought so too... until it was ignored completely! the fish then proved that it was hungry by eating a bunch of daphnia and some mozzy larvae... interesting though that lots of people have them... i wouldn't have thought so from all the conversations i've had about live food, although considering the yield i'm getting its really no wonder they slip peoples minds... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted November 24, 2005 Report Share Posted November 24, 2005 I don't know how you'd get large enough numbers to make them a viable source of live food. All I think most people get is a few stray ones. Not really enough to think about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Posted November 24, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 24, 2005 i think i have an idea... i found a midge fly in my house today and realise where i have seen them before - trout flys (for all of the 'formality' that common names have; we call them trout fly where i come from) And around this time of year you get swarms of them by the water, increasing towards new years' until it is almost impossible to drive a car alongside any body of water at night. i would bet that those flys used to be larvae... and i would bet that these places are where the sellers harvest them from. marshes and lakes, the further from civilisation the better... :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted November 24, 2005 Report Share Posted November 24, 2005 I'd imagine you'd need something along the lines of a small glasshouse or some kind of relatively sealed container to house them. That would keep your breeders from flying away and force them to lay their eggs in a trough or similar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted November 24, 2005 Report Share Posted November 24, 2005 I use to have to drive by Lake Ellesmere often with work and at certain times of the year it was like driving through a snow storm. They swarm like bees and when you drive through them they splatter all over the car and are very difficult to remove. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted November 24, 2005 Report Share Posted November 24, 2005 Funny, I was just looking at my "pond" - a large green water tank that I just added water lilly and WCMMs into - yesterday and saw one of them in there for the first time as well. Didn't bother trying to fish it out as the tank is quite green and full of creepy crawlies, but that's what the WCMMs are for. Suprisingly easy to raise your own live foods, but yeah, would take a LOT of tanks and harvesting just to equal one frozen block of food. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted November 24, 2005 Report Share Posted November 24, 2005 I have a friend with a very large pond full of goldfish which he has never fed and they will grow from about 25mm to 100mm in a season and I am pretty sure that is mainly what they are eating (as well as the adults emerging and laying eggs) They must be very good food value. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wok Posted November 24, 2005 Report Share Posted November 24, 2005 I hove found that the bloodworms love rotting whole bananas. from time to time I can net quite a large number of them.. but then again because of the rotting bananas I get more mozzie larvae as well and the daphnia numbers decrease. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Posted November 25, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 25, 2005 I hove found that the bloodworms love rotting whole bananas. from time to time I can net quite a large number of them.. but then again because of the rotting bananas I get more mozzie larvae as well and the daphnia numbers decrease. interesting that, i added banana, admittedly the skins only, and i got a huge influx of daphnia... of course my own experience extends to the skin of a single banana added one time only so i don't have a huge sample size to go from Apparently brine shrimp eggs are collected from around the edges of brine lakes (or wherever...) as part of their reproductive cycle involves the eggs being wind-borne. I would surmise that, resource consent available, other live foods are harvested in a similar fashion, and if the midge swarms are anything to go by... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted November 25, 2005 Report Share Posted November 25, 2005 The one time I used a banana skin, it formed a film on the surface and killed all my daphnia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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