# Growing your own live feed!



## Reuben (21 Oct 2013)

I keep seeing people mention various ways in which you can 'culture' various small bugs to feed fish.

What different types of things are there?  Which are the most simple to do?  Which are the best/most nutritious for fish?

Has this all be covered before (I did search but couldn't find much)?  Is there a tutorial so I can have a go at this?

Thanks


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## Michael W (21 Oct 2013)

Some live food to consider:

White worms
Microworms
Daphnia
Mosquito Larvae
Brine shrimps
banana worms

I'm sure there are more much I have missed. Regarding the question about nutrients its really to do with what you feed to the culture. For example, things like brine shrimp will lose its nutritious value as they get older so what people tend to do is feed their brine shrimps with other food stuff such as spirilina and fish food etc prior to feeding their fish.

People culture different live foods for different needs, things like microworms are great for feeding fry such as betta fish fry as they have small mouths from personal experience I find small tetras will also love 'em. For growing out fish I have seen people use whiteworms, Daphina and Mosquito larvae, usually the larger type of live food. So it best to fidn out what you wan't to achieve then find out what food suits your need the most, not just its simplicity in culturing. 

Which are most simple food to culture? It depends but personally I find Microworms easy to culture, I've never tried but Mosquito larvae sounds as simple as putting water in a bucket with dead leaves outside. There are a lot of vids on youtube which provide great details on culturing your own live food for fish.

Outside of livefood I often see people make their own food for feeding fish, these may include the use of vegetables like spinach and meat like beef heart or white fish and prawns. The great thing about making your own food overall be it live or DIY is that you know what your feeding the fish and its possible nutrient content. DIY fish food allows you to feed fish and observe which types of food stuff mix they prefer to eat and eventually you can tailor the food to the fishes' needs and wants.  

Michael.


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## Reuben (21 Oct 2013)

Thanks for the info.  I just have tetras.  I was just wanting to give them something interesting to eat, and presume it is more 'natural' than dry flake.  Where do people get the first few Daphinia, microworm ect, to get started from?


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## Michael W (21 Oct 2013)

They usually just post a thread asking if anyone has any for sale, some will go to the pond for Daphnia.


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## Alastair (22 Oct 2013)

Im sending some banana/micro worms out shortly if anyone wants any


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## Rob P (22 Oct 2013)

Reuben said:


> Thanks for the info. I just have tetras. I was just wanting to give them something interesting to eat, and presume it is more 'natural' than dry flake. Where do people get the first few Daphinia, microworm ect, to get started from?


 
LFS such as MA sell bags of live food you could use to get started. I have a neighbours rain water butt on the boundry of our property, STUFFED full of daphnia and mosquito larvae so quite often out there late at night having a swish around  She's a very au naturel (not the nude type thank god!!), never uses chemicals on her garden etc so it's safe as.

You have BP's don't you? They love a bit of daphnia.


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## Aron_Dip (22 Oct 2013)

Alastair said:


> Im sending some banana/micro worms out shortly if anyone wants any


I'll take some please pal 

Sent from my HTC Desire C using Tapatalk


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## Alastair (22 Oct 2013)

Aron_Dip said:


> I'll take some please pal
> 
> Sent from my HTC Desire C using Tapatalk



Do you want some posting or do you want to take some back with you when you collect the signature??


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## Reuben (22 Oct 2013)

Alastair said:


> Im sending some banana/micro worms out shortly if anyone wants any


Oh, yes please!  How do I arrange payment etc?


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## Aron_Dip (22 Oct 2013)

Alastair said:


> Do you want some posting or do you want to take some back with you when you collect the signature??


I'll take some home with me mate, forgot I was popping up to yours haha

Sent from my HTC Desire C using Tapatalk


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## wijnands (5 Nov 2013)

Did some experimentation with my microworm cultures recently.

1. The brand of oats you use doesn't matter at all
2. Some recipes say sprinkle some dried yeast on top of the oatmeal. This does boost growth in the first 7-10 days but after that there's no difference anymore and cultures with yeast tend to go smelly a lot quicker.


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## Gill (5 Nov 2013)

For Micro Worms I also just use a slice of white bread, just wet it to make it damp and chuck it in the tub.


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## dw1305 (5 Nov 2013)

Hi all, 





wijnands said:


> This does boost growth in the first 7-10 days but after that there's no difference anymore and cultures with yeast tend to go smelly a lot quicker.


 You don't need to add any yeast to the Banana or micro-worm cultures, the yeast comes with the worms. The reason you get a boost in production is that the worms themselves actually eat the yeast, not the Oats. I now use whole oats for both Grindal and micro-worms, I grind the Oats up for the Grindals in a pestle and mortar. It is a lot cheaper buying "rolled oats" than the "instant oat cereal" that I used to use for the Grindal worms.

I now add a small amount of microworms (yeast really) to my Fruit-fly cultures as well, the advantage of this is that it stops them developing the "blue mould", and I now just use "weetabix" and banana as the media, and I don't need to sterilise the jars etc. It also gives you a spare "insurance" micro-worm culture.

cheers Darrel


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## NanoJames (5 Nov 2013)

Alastair said:


> Im sending some banana/micro worms out shortly if anyone wants any


 Are these still going Al? I would love some with the Crypts if that's possible?
Cheers


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## Danny Walton (31 Dec 2013)

If anyone is still looking i have Microworm, Banana work, Infusoria and daphnia cultures going.
I have these going all year round so if anyone ever needs any give me a shout


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## GHNelson (31 Dec 2013)

Hi Danny
I may have some of you later in the year.
hoggie


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## Danny Walton (31 Dec 2013)

Ok mate no problems 
I can post out too if the receiver covers cost of postage


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## GHNelson (31 Dec 2013)

No problem


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## eduard (23 Jan 2014)

I've got microworms and white worms if anyone want some.Will post at your cost,just let me know.


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## Bellaaquatics (28 Jan 2014)

Tubifex could also be cultured.. Fish are loving it..

But it quite complicated to do so


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## killi69 (7 Feb 2014)

Catch your own culture! I went to local pond last weekend and was amazed at the amount of daphnia and cyclops i could catch with my little fishnet even at this time of the year. Much easier to catch daphnia if you can!


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## Reuben (4 Mar 2014)

So I got a culture of micro worms going.  But the fish were not interested! Not sure why but the obvious explanation looked like the worms were way too small to be of interest?...

Have I got this wrong or do 'smallish' tetras not eat these worms...

Perplexed...


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## NC10 (4 Mar 2014)

The micro, walter and banana worms are normally just used for fry. They're absolutely tiny, so I'm guessing even the smallest tetra won't notice it or waste it's time even bothering. Unless of course it's a baby tetra


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## BigTom (4 Mar 2014)

I've never seen anything smallish not go mad for microworms. All my fish love them, up to and including my 3" peacock gobies.


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## Fern (5 Mar 2014)

I keep a couple of containers of vinegar eels on the go, and have daphnia in the summer.  Micro worms etc give me the heebie jeebies!


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## NC10 (5 Mar 2014)

@Tom - I tried mine with them and they just weren't interested 

@Fern - Just done a quick search for the eels because I'd never come across them before. They look to be pretty much the same thing. The micro/Walter/banana worms are just nematodes too, like the vinegar eels.


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## Edvet (5 Mar 2014)

I am gonna pick up Walterworms, bananaworms and microworms tomorrow and i have some  Lumbriculus coming in this week.
Now i need to find a spot where i can harvest Daphnia (i did put some in our pond but that is not a very good one)


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## Fern (5 Mar 2014)

NC10 said:


> The micro/Walter/banana worms are just nematodes too, like the vinegar eels


Yeah, but I think what puts me off, is the way you keep them. I like eating bread and oats (course I would, I'm Scottish ), Don't like vinegar


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## NC10 (5 Mar 2014)

lol Pretty sure you wouldn't want to eat the porridge after giving it a quick sniff


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## John P Coates (5 Mar 2014)

Hi Reuben,

For £1.25, you can get a bag of live Daphnia from Maidenhead Aquatics. There are lots of sites on the Net showing you how to keep the culture growing and bearing offspring. I feed mine on a weak solution of bakers' yeast and they thrive on it. Absolutely fascinating using a magnifying glass to watch them swimming around. My tetras love 'em!

JPC


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## Reuben (7 Mar 2014)

Mmm well it's definitely a 'no go' with the micro worms.  They just aren't interested, not sure why, I'm starting to feel quite tempted to have a nibble at them myself - what's wrong with these fish!




John P Coates said:


> There are lots of sites on the Net showing you how to keep the culture growing and bearing offspring


Can you point me to a good one?




killi69 said:


> Catch your own culture! I went to local pond last weekend and was amazed at the amount of daphnia and cyclops i could catch with my little fishnet even at this time of the year



What did you do then?  Just wave a net about in the water? dredge?  What is all that stuff in the buckets? All Daphnia?




BigTom said:


> I've never seen anything smallish not go mad for microworms


I'd say Cardinal and black phantom tetra where pretty small, same for harlequin rasbora?  Maybe they just prefer the dried food now....


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## killi69 (8 Mar 2014)

Reuben said:


> What did you do then?  Just wave a net about in the water? dredge?  What is all that stuff in the buckets? All Daphnia?



Yes, only daphnia and some cyclops. I just use a fine aquarium fish net.  Dont dredge! You obviously dont want all the muck and anyway, if a pond contains daphnia or cyclops they will be free swimming and not among the litter at the bottom. The best method is to gently make a round '8' patterned trailing movement in the water which will create a slow current that will gently bring up daphnia swimming at any lower levels than your net can reach. Keep a good look out as after a while other debris might start to come upwards as well and then you just move up a couple of meters and start again.

It only takes me 5 minutes or so, even at this time of the year, before i have caught more than enough for one or two weeks and probably 100x or more of what you buy in one little bag at the lfs.

Recently i cut off the bottom 'loop' of the fish net and bring along a bamboo stick with me, as well as an empty 4 pint plastic milk bottle and a plastic jug as can be seen on the photo.  At the waterside, i screw the net into the pole, fill the jug up with some pond water and spend a few minutes catching daphnia as described above. Empty net into jug, poor jug contents into bottle, and everything apart from pole fits neatly back into a bag. So all done nice and quickly. It is worth walking around and having a look at different parts of the pond as concentrations of daphnia do differ. In my pond some parts contain masses of large daphnia while somewhere else i catch much smaller ones together with cyclops.  I keep the daphnia in a large bucket of rainwater. Happy dipping!

Regards, Andre


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## killi69 (8 Mar 2014)

Apart from daphnia, i also treat my fish once a week or so to freshly hatched brine shrimp and earthworms. Hatching brine shrimp is really simple and most fish, certainly the smaller tetra sized ones, love it. The brine shrimp eggs do cost a bit but you only use very small amounts at a time so its live food at a minimum cost and no on-going culturing hassles. Just make sure you feed all the baby shrimp as soon as they have hatched as their nutritional value decreases after they hatch.

Earthworms- outside in garden i leave out a couple of plastic sheets and old mats.  I collect worms from underneath. The worms get chopped up and grinded. The more you grind the smaller the pieces of flesh left. I then rinse everything through a sieve which is necessary as this gets rid of the earth which was previously inside the worms. A bit yukky but yet another way to provide excellent 'live' food for the fish without the need to maintain any cultures.


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