culturing live food..worms, Daphnia

[greenmaji]

I was wondering if there was a good resource online for live food cultures. sources to get live foods for raising for personal use. Daphnia is of particular interest to me.. black, micro, blood worms would be nice information as well. any information on cultivation of live food would be nice.. thanks in advance..

 

[krap101]

personally i think daphnia is the easiest. i got mine from the rock river and i just let it sit there for a couple months. and then try and feed them to my fish.

the only other thing is brine shrimp and thats it. (that ive kept)

 

[SerLunchbox]

Well, for Daphina, if you have green water, they will LOVE you for it. As for other items, why not start your own cultures? White worms look really simple to start if you ask me.

Blood worms are larvae of an insect if i am not mistaken.

 

[krap101]

i think their midgefly. it sometimes says mosquito, but im kinda breeding mosquito larvae right now and they look nothing like bloodworms. my fish love them, and they cant really get away with a high powered bubble stone . cant stay at the top, get pushed down and thats when all my fish catch them.
(i have a 50 gallon tub outside with water and old cycled sand (saving it there for pond) and i find lots of fish food in there. like an occasional bloodworm, mosquito larvae, and some other stuff. (i use a brine shrimp net)

 

[greenmaji]

Nice.. anyone have setups just for culturing live food?

 

[krap101]

i have a couple jars inside culturing daphnia

 

[Toirtis]

Bloodworms are chironomids...non-biting midgefly larvae....almost impossible to culture to any degree unless you have a lot of space.

Best home cultures are: microworms, grindalworms, whiteworms, red (composting) worms, vinegar eels, daphnia, and hatching brine shrimp nauplii.....all are easy and inexpensive to obtain, all can be cultured in very little space (except for the composting worms, which need a good-sized tub).

 

[greenmaji]

Toirtis.. could you define the size of this "good-size tub".. and I would like to know what would be best to put in this tub. TIA.

 

[Toirtis]

Toirtis.. could you define the size of this "good-size tub".. and I would like to know what would be best to put in this tub. TIA.

I would go with a Rubbermaid tub, something about 24"-28" long by 18" wide by 18"-22" deep. Here is an excellent article on culturing composting worms a neighbour of mine wrote:

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/Tiede_Earthworms.html

Aquaarticles has an excellent section on culturing almost all live foods, and on making prepared foods, too:

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/index.html#Feeding

 

[greenmaji]

Nice.. keep up the good work Toirtis!
knowing what to look for is very helpful, "vermiculture"

 

[Toirtis]

Nice.. keep up the good work Toirtis!
knowing what to look for is very helpful, "vermiculture"

Thanks. Look up "vermiculture" or "vermicomposting" in your local telephone directory, and fairly likely there will be a composting supply that sells worms by the pound.

For instance:

Mike McClearn
790 Sweeney Ridge RD.
Chaplin Ky 40012
(502)673-9119
E-mail horses4salenky@aol.com
Red Worms $12 a lb. plus shipping

Wiggly Worm Wranglers
Grayson, Ky. 41143 USA
email address wigglywormwranglers@hotmail.com
Phone number (606) 474-4319
We will gladly sell large or small quanities of composting or bait worms. We also sell informational books about composting and raising red worms.

THE WORM BARN
620 Elk Springs Rd
Oakland,KY 42159
Red Worms - $19.50 per pound
European Nightcrawlers - $34.00 per pound
All shipping charges PAID BY US>
thewormbarn@yahoo.com

 

[greenmaji]

Im in Richmond by the way.. if you were wondering

 

[Toirtis]

Im in Richmond by the way.. if you were wondering

Not really...not like the reference would really mean much to me as far as where in Kentucky you are...hell, I would have trouble pinpointing Kentucky on a map.....you Americans have just too damned many states.

 

[greenmaji]

yea.. Calgary isnt too hard to point out on a map.. but google maps work pretty good..LOL

 

[Toirtis]

yea.. Calgary isnt too hard to point out on a map.. but google maps work pretty good..LOL

Canada is easy....we are bigger than the US, but have only a quarter of the number of delineated territories....trust me, it makes domestic geography so much more a picnic in grade 3.