Many thanks. I'll look up daphnia breeding and maybe see if my lfs does some live to get me started.daphnia. mine lives in a 4 litre vase on the windowsill. no filter, no airstone I put in too much powdered algae yesterday for food and I think it's all died but in a few weeks some eggs will hatch, hopefully, and I'll get more. This has been going nearly a year. I started it a bag from the LFS.
Pandas like frozen bloodworm.
Very good idea. I wonder if you can mix a bag of each in a large container?This time of year stick a bucket of water outside and you'll end up with mosquito larvae in no time. I've a 5l bucket, only about half full as lacking rain atm and between those and a scoop out of a bag of daphnia from the LFS there is a nice colony of tasty stuff - I think I spotted a few blood worms too.
Cheers for the info. Ill just add the daphnia and let nature do the rest. I like the idea of harvesting lots of different types of live food at the same time.Mosquitos and blood worms are fly larvae so won't reproduce from the LFS bags... they'll hatch into flies. There are already plenty of flies about so if you leave a bucket laying around they'll introduce themselves.
Daphnia's whole life cycle is as a water creature so you can multiply those starting with a bag of live ones from your LFS or from dried eggs. They can all live mixed together in a large container though. If you want to keep them separate then you'd need to cover the daphnia container or you'll have mozzys in it whether you want them or not!
Never could get them to reproduce in large numbers. In real situations that is.Californian Blackworms
Having some buckets outside, with a bit of old leaves, wil indeed provide you with black mosquito larvae and some red ones, they will also hatch and go for your blood. My missus doesn't like that, she tips all of the buckets🙁
Daphnia can survive well in larger containers in the shade (they don't like heat) with some plant debris. Lot's of info on the web f.i.:
For indoor cultures can be set up for white worms ( enchytraea), grindal worms ( smaller, do wel in slightly warmer conditions) or micro worms ( good for fry). There are a few other small creatures that can be cultured.
The internet is your friend.
Many thanks Peaches. I was looking at a great vid last night on the vinegar wormsMicroworms/walterworm easy to culture with sliced bread or ready brek. Smells a bit. Gammarus little shrimp things (think I got that right) will breed in your tank if you introduce them*, vinegar eels a little more messy but not difficult. Brine shrimp are a bit more hard work but I used to do them for angelfish fry first food. You can have a big tub of water in the yard for blackworm larvae then just go out with a net and catch them. *good for when you go away, but more for adult fish.