Food for fish and fry

[alia258]

Was hoping someone could give me the info on raising bbs and micro worms for the purpose of feeding my fish and fry, and anything else that I can grow to feed my fish ^^

 

[jetajockey]

There are a ton of writeups on it via google. With microworms you basically culture them with oatmeal and yeast, and bbs requires some sort of rig that circulates the eggs inside of a brine solution.

 

[bob mccoy]

go to angels plus .com look for bbs hatchery

 

[alia258]

Okay, thanks

 

[alia258]

Culturing bbs sounds harder than I thought it would, are there any other things I might culture that require less maintenance? And preferably don't need a heater? I'm fine with the whole salt and aeration, but the danger of letting them get too old and lose their nutrition and possibly be dangerous to the fish is a bit too much. Any thief ideas maybe? ^^

 

[alia258]

I heard there's worms you can culture, can you tell me about those?

 

[Aron]

Hey alia, I copied this over from when i answered someone else a while back, hope it helps.

The best/easiest way so far copied direct from source (included at bottom).

Culturing microworms

Microworms are an excellent food for small fry, and are one of the easiest live foods to culture.

Thanks to Tahia Reynaga for suppying the following detailed method.

Materials:

live starter culture
one transparent or semi-transparent container with a tight-fitting lid
nail or similar, to make holes in the lid
100% pure oats
pure tap water
active dry yeast
paper towel large enough to fully cover the container with surplus at the edges
plastic spoon
Procedure:

I prefer to use a container that is approximately 7x7 inches. Deli counters or salad bars often have good containers that are used for take-away meals. Chinese food delivery meals often come in similar plastic containers. Make sure you find one with a tight-fitting lid and transparent or semi-transparent sides.

Begin by poking some holes in the lid with a nail. The holes should be as wide as the nail. Make about nine holes for a 7x7 container. These holes will allow air to reach the culture. Rinse the lid and container in hot water several times to make sure it is as clean and sterile as possible.

Cook the oats for approximately five minutes, stirring the mixture the whole time. You will want the mixture to be thick but not dry. You should be able to pour it.

When the oatmeal has cooled enough to touch, pour it into the container. Remember that as it cools it will congeal, so you may need to stir in a bit more water to be able to pour it. In order to prevent any flies from entering the mixture, place the oatmeal in the refrigerator while it cools.

With your plastic spoon, take about three teaspoons or so of the culture and spread it onto the oatmeal, which should be cool to the touch, or at least room temperature. Make sure it is cool enough so that it will not kill the microworms. Spread the starter culture around on top of the oatmeal.

Dissolve a very small amount of yeast (just a few grains per culture) in a small amount of warm water. Pour this over the oatmeal. Place your paper towel on top of the container, and then secure the lid onto the container. The paper towel serves to keep out any fruit flies, which would otherwise lay lots of eggs in the culture/oatmeal mix.

Set the culture someplace warm, like on the hood of a fish tank, where the heat generated by the fluorescent lights will stimulate the microworms to breed. In a few hours, check to see if you can see any worms wriggling on the side of the container. Once the culture really takes off, you should set it somewhere cool in order to minimise the smell. When the culture starts to smell a lot, subculture it by taking a small portion and spreading it on freshly prepared oatmeal, as indicated in the above steps.

You can harvest your culture by using your finger, Q-tips, or any small tool that can scoop up the worms. If you take the worms from the sides of the container, you should be able to avoid any oatmeal. I like to rinse my worms by putting them into a small amount of water (tank water is fine). You can then use an eyedropper to feed them to your fry.

Web: www.thetropicaltank.co.uk

 

[alia258]

Thanks! Now where do I get the worms to start the culture? Do pet stores sell them? Like petco and petsmart? Or perhaps petland?

 

[jetajockey]

One much simpler alternative to the oats is just use quick oats, or instant oatmeal. My worms like the peaches and cream flavor =P

I've also used regular rolled oats and they've done fine also, since they are wet they eventually break down.


The best place to get a culture I've found is either from other hobbyists or on somewhere like aquabid. Theres some sellers on aquabid that have it down to a science and send it a lot cheaper than most fellow hobbyists could. I crashed my culture a while back (just forgot about it for a few months) and got a brand new one in 3 days from someone on aquabid for like 6 dollars or less.

Once you have a culture going you just have to maintain it once every few weeks to keep it active, it's probably the easiest fry food culture there is.

 

[alia258]

Just out of curiosity, but would you happen to be able to sell me some?

Also, is there anything else I can culture for my fish? I was thinking I might use bbs, but those are too much work, but I'd there's another saltwater critter I can culture for m fishes is gladly give it a shot! ^^ (I'm saying saltwater mostly because I want to avoid disease)

 

[jetajockey]

I could but it's cheaper and easier just to order one from aquabid. The person I got mine from also threw in a free starter of vinegar eels.

Just google vinegar eels, daphnia, grindal worms, and white worms. Vinegar eels are tiny, smaller than microworms, so they really aren't that good for livebearer fry. However grindal worms and white worms are pretty good and fairly easy to culture also if you have the time and effort to put into them.

 

[alia258]

I have the effort, but don't know about the time because I have school from (I get up at six and am very busy btw) 7:45-3:15. Would that be enough time?

 

[jetajockey]

For grindal and white worm cultures they just need routine attention. Microworms are much smaller but require less effort as the culture can go weeks without interaction and still be fine.

I kept grindal worms for a few months but had issues with it because I didn't check on it daily. I don't think I had it set up right either.