Live food production?

[Noddy65]

Further to my previous post I thought it might be nice to start a thread on different peoples live food production...

Heres my contribution:
Microworms
Ive used 2 techniques.
The first was to microwave some Supermarket porridge (one cup porridge to one cup water) in a 2 litre ice cream container. Wait for the mix to cool, sprinkle some brewers or bread yeast on top and place a teaspooon or two of the microworm culture in there. The ice cream container lid has some holes melted in the top with a hot nail. This can last a few weeks before it goes off (and in off I mean rotten).
The second is to cut the crust off some whitebread, place in a 2 litre ice cream container as before, moisten slighlty and sprinkle with yeast as before. Then inoculate the culture. New bread can be added as production declines, interestingly this mix doesnt seem to go off as quickly as the porridge mix.

Mike

[fishgeek]

seems strange mike that you find your microwaved oats go rotten

microwaving them should reduce the bacterial load and prevent your culture from spoiling
i do this and only get sligt fungal problems/overgrowths when i am ot clen with the spooning of old culture into new media

i also harvest whiteworms/grindalworms and earthworms, these i started following guides as you will find all over the internet, i now have rubbish bins with soil and composting househod scrapes with white worm and earthworms going fine as back ups

you guys in aus will probably have more luck with grindals as they like the warmer weather

daphnia are really easy to culture, my first production was an old bathtub outside catching sun, water from tanks went into it whenever it needed extra and it caught sun so algal blooms
daphnia once in there went wild and fish subsequently feasted
again warmer weather may mean you guys will want the water covered by fly screen so that no mosquitoe's breeding in it, the fish will eat the larva though the adults will eat you


am presemtly trying to get rotifers going as i find brine shrimp need too much attention

andrew

[parkap]

Howdy All,

At the moment I only do brine shrimp. Am keen to try mosquito larvae though. Steph's given me some easy tips, but so far I just can't pull my finger out to do anything about it.

I use a 100ltr tub for my grow out tank for the BBS. (Did anyone see the doco on SBS on Sunday night about the brine shrimp/artemia industry - very interesting.) I run four bottles to hatch the BBS, siphon them out each night and then redo for about 3-4 days in a row. This gives a very good populaton to grow out. I raise them for 2 weeks then feed them to the fish once or twice a week. The tub usually lasts for 4 weeks or so.

Then clean and restart.

p.

[Noddy65]

How do you guys set up your tubs etc.
Salt concentration, airation etc?
I like teh daphnia idea...might have to find as pot to hide a tub outside (the wife will go mental if she thinks the fish are moving outside now as well). Is there a minimum size tub?

Mike

[parkap]

For my BBS, I use 2kg of sea salt in the 100 ltr tub and 20 grams in my hatching bottles, ie. they're all about 1 ltr in size.

For aeration I have a four way gang valve with individual hoses going into each bottle. The flow rate is about in a mid-range, enought o ensure most of the eggs circulate. I tie the hoses around a single river pebble each to weight them down. In the grow out tub, I've got a single hose line set in the middle on the bottom. The flow rate is fairly high but that's alright in such a big tub.

p.

[parkap]

BTW, here's a great link on live food rearing. Look under the Feeding & Raising Rainbowfishes heading. (I can't remember who referred me onto this site - sorry.)

http://members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Contents.htm

[Noddy65]

hehehehe...I think it was me?

Mike

[parkap]

Thanks Mike. Thought it might have been one of a few people from that other forum. But they seem to have deleted all links to external sites from old posts, so I couldn't find the original post even after about an hour or two or searching today.

p.

[Grae]

I collect mozzie rafts and hatch them inside the shed in sealed glass jars.
Live food and very small

Graeme

[fishgeek]

are you guys growing the brine shrip on?
i thought the egg was the nutritios we were trying to get into fish, and by growing them you are allowing the shrimp to use this nutrition


mike if you are going with daphnia outdoors any size container will work
a water butt is what i have now
we had to get rid of the old bathtub , pity that as the large surface area caught more sun and grew better algae

i tend to go for lower effort live foods
over here the daphnia grow really well through summer then dissappear for the colder weather to return the next summer

i tend now just to feed my brine shrimp decapsulated egg's mixed with some microworm

andrew