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Live food

Mattant1984

Mattant1984

Member
Joined
13 Jun 2022
Messages
473
Location
Canterbury Kent
Hi all,
Ive never cultured my own live food before but always wanted to give it a go.
I only have a small tank with ember tetras and male guppies so don't need a lot and what ever tyre of food I go with needs to be small.
What would you suggest to be the easiest type to start with??

Many thanks
 
microworms are super easy, order a cheap ebay culture, then all you need at its most basic is oats and yeast.

Add oats and water until relatively mushy, add sprinkle of yeast and starter culture. You can then periodically add more oats, and/or start fresh cultures in whatever small plastic container you have on hand.

FYI you will need an airhole to allow the worms to breathe, a lot of people stuff filter foam in the hole to allow air circulation while keeping out flies, pests etc
 
I'd say grindal worms were easiest. I have a tupperware tub with damp coir and just throw in a few cat or dog biscuits or algae waffers when the previous ones have disappeared. It's been going 18 months like that with zero other maintenance.

I have microworms too - they are a little more maintenance ... I've reset the cultures a few times.

Daphnia is more maintenance as you need to run a tank and getting the balence right to not get boom & bust is a art.
 
Thanks for all your help guys, think I'll look into grindal worms, micro worms or possibly banana worms.
From what I've looked at they all seem fairly easy.
 
Mattant1984 said:
Thanks guys I will have a look into these, another one I did wonder about was daphnia.
Is this a lot more difficult??
Click to expand...
Daphnia is pretty easy in summer, just a large container of water in direct sun so you get green water and add daphnia. Some supplement feeding of spirulina may be needed. You will also naturally get mosquito larvae which is an excellent feed.
 
Don't forget the humble baby brine shrimp. They are super easy to cultivate and you don't have to keep them going. You don't need a fancy setup or even air line to hatch a few (it's easier with air). This is a no moving parts commercial hatcher that works for tiny small amounts but it's the sort of thing you can diy with just an ice cream tub and a torch to help separate the eggs (or just get decapsulated eggs).
 
mort said:
Don't forget the humble baby brine shrimp. They are super easy to cultivate and you don't have to keep them going. You don't need a fancy setup or even air line to hatch a few (it's easier with air). This is a no moving parts commercial hatcher that works for tiny small amounts but it's the sort of thing you can diy with just an ice cream tub and a torch to help separate the eggs (or just get decapsulated eggs).
Click to expand...
So is this something you can keep running and just add more eggs when needed ??
 
Mattant1984 said:
So is this something you can keep running and just add more eggs when needed ??
Click to expand...

For me not really. I guess you could if you had enough water volume but I've used the hobby hatcher and whilst it's fine if you only need a small amount of food, it really needs to be reset each time because the water gets fouled after each hatch. I prefer a proper hatcher but as an added treat for your fish it is a no faff method.

Although not live food you can feed the decapsulated eggs as a dry food which is almost the same benefit without any faff. This is the first listing I found but I'm sure I've used the seller before
www.ebay.co.uk

Decapsulated Brine Shrimp Eggs Tropical Fish Food Aquarama® Premium Grade [ 10g] | eBay

They are used as a DIRECT FEED to smaller fish/Fry/Juveniles and are brine shrimp (Artemia) which have the outer shell removed to provide particularly beneficial feeding. Supplied as pictured 10g size.
www.ebay.co.uk
 
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