Culturing Live Foods For Fish

Hi Folks,

I'd be interested in getting a feel for how many people culture their own live foods for fish. And what do you culture? I have raised artemia (brine shrimp) in the past for feeding German Blue Ram fry. I am now having some success at keeping a daphnia culture going. It's so easy to rely exclusively on flake, granules, wafers, etc. and I certainly fall into that trap. But, in their natural habitat, fish eat insects, worms, protozoa, etc.

So - what have you got growing in that glass jar or pop bottle in your fish room (or bathroom, kitchen, etc.)?

JPC

I too use frozen food, though I have cultured microworms in the past for feeding fry.

I always failed miserably with brine shrimps 

I'm afraid I rely on the convenience of frozen food now... I did have a little pest snail tub for my dwarf puffs at one point.

I'd be interested to know your method for the daphnia?

Good Morning, Matt

Firstly, I should add that I also use frozen foods. Although bloodworm is well-accepted by the fish, frozen daphnia is a dead loss - literally! And with many small-mouthed fish, I wanted a reliable source of small food.

In order to culture the daphnia, I bought a bag of live daphnia from my LFS. Having closely (with magnifier/microscope) inspected the contents of the bag for any stray species, a clean culture was added to a clear glass beaker. This was topped up with water from one of my tanks. As I use remineralized RO water, I was off to a good start. Daphnia are very sensitive to heavy metals including copper and other toxins. I keep the culture water gently aerated. No heater is necessary at normal room temperatures. The beaker receives lots of natural daylight but is out of direct sunlight.

As for feeding Daphnia, I believe some people use powdered yeast. But I use something called Roti Rich produced by Florida Aqua Farms. I use it because I happen to have a bottle sitting in the fridge from a previous project. It's expensive stuff and probably overkill. I have a hunch that Liquifry No.1 (?) would do the job. Or, maybe, 'green water'. A couple of drops lasts up to six hours. You'll know when it's time to add a couple more drops as the water will go clear. I think that's it. If I remember anything else, I will add it as time goes by.

JPC

No heater is necessary at normal room temperatures.

  !!

I can't believe that I wrote those fateful words just two weeks before the heatwave hit the UK. And it was too much for the Daphnia (Magna). I lost the lot! When the temperature gets above 25C, Daphnia Magna don't like it - even with aeration of the water they inhabit. So, two days ago, I switched to cultivating Moina macrocopa, which are happy when temperature is around 30C. I'll probably start a separate thread about these amazing critters.

JPC