live food culture....

[Iain Sutherland]

hey folks, about 6-8 weeks ago i filled a dustbin with water and left in direct sun with grass cuttings. Since then i have added some straw ready for daphnia.
In that time i have quite a collection of random animals making it their home, the obvious one being mosquito's but am wondering if there is likely to be anything in there that shouldnt be fed to my fish??
There looks to be little black beetle shaped bugs, white worms, red worms and what looks like daphnia. Im hoping that my barbs will munch them all down as they love the mosquito's.
Also wondering if i should change some water from time to time, its very green and rife with life???

 

[pariahrob]

Interesting. I have an old bucket in the garden with some mosquitos larvae. This was a fluke but I'm guessing they would be good to feed my fish. Only problem is how do you get them from the bucket to the tank?

I'd say leave it as is? If you're finding things are living in it then it must be doing well. Nature doing it's thing.

 

[Iain Sutherland]

hey rob, just net them into a tub of aquarium water then fish out any bits. Colour on the fish is great since i started feeding and get a lot of spawning behavior.

Id guess you are right would just like to know if there is any danger of introducing a parasite??

 

[Sentral]

Some insect larvae can eat small fry and baby shrimp, but I've never had any issues. I doubt what you see includes daphnia, as it has to be introduced. I remember a guy at my LFS said there are daphnia 'spores' in the air! Lol...

 

[spyder]

I doubt what you see includes daphnia, as it has to be introduced. I remember a guy at my LFS said there are daphnia 'spores' in the air! Lol...

I thought daphnia could just turn up or more likely get introduced by other wildlife. Introducing them yourself will speed up the process.

 

[Iain Sutherland]

this is what the fish get a few times a week.. any id's?
mosquitoes.....

 

[Nathaniel Whiteside]

Red is bloodworm, there looks to be a brine shrimp lookalike in there too!

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Definitely Daphnia and Mosquito larvae, Blood-worm (also a type of mosquito, a "non biting midge") and I think another type of fly larvae (the rapidly moving, obviously segmented brown/dark brown larvae on the bottom). I get a lot of these as well, but I haven't managed to get a proper ID for them yet.

All good fish food.

cheers Darrel