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Hi I hope you're doing good ! So I noticed in my daphnia culture that right now, even tho I still have females giving birth, today I noticed a female or two with a single dark spot in their back. Is it just an embryo or a male egg and I should be concerned ? Thanks ! (It's a 10g tank and I do weekly 25% waterchange) -
Background info: I feed my fish 4 or 5 times a week, and they get almost exclusively live foods. If my cultures are low or for whatever other reasons then I will either skip a day or give them freeze dried bloodworms. I culture algae to feed my otos. My black neon tetras will try to eat anything that moves, so I don't worry much about the specifics with what to culture for them. But without realizing it my pygmy cories end up eating less than my other fishes. I feed them sinking pellets but even the smallest ones I can find barely fit in their mouths. so, I culture daphnia for my pygmy cories, as this seems to be the only live food they can eat. Otherwise I will make up repashy gel food. The issue with daphnia, however, is they don't sink, but rather swim and move, and then my black neons eat them first. So, tl;dr - is there a sinking live food that is small enough to fit in a pygmy cories mouth? I culture pot worms, but this is a slow process and can only harvest some once or twice a month. Sometimes I've given small earthworms, but even the smallest ones seem a tad too big. Any advice? -
Hi I hope you're doing good ! So I have a 10 gallon tank to culture daphnias and blackworms. I feed them once every other day or so with chlorella powder and algae wafers. I also do weekly 25% waterchanges. The problem I have is that I have a lot of cyanobacteria growing in the tank. What should I do ? I know there's products that exist to kill it, but I'm afraid with the critters I have in the tank. Is there a way to safely dispose of the cyanobacteria ? My culture seem healthy. But I read that in the long term, it could hurt the daphnia. I also don't want to infect or hurt my other fish tanks. -
I've been working on non refrigerated blackworms in a long term culture for many months now. Two options seem to work well for me to feed a few times a week. I feed either a few pellets or a few algae wafers every other day. I pour out the spring water and refill each version with fresh spring water weekly. Option A 3" of sprig water with chunks of coral and 2x2 squares of scrubber pads for easier harvesting My testers : Carinotetraodon travancoricus (WC) Option B 3" of sprig water with chunks of coral and a filter bag of crushed coral for easier harvesting. If i shake the bag the worms segment making new blackworms by division. I havr noticed in this set up they often concentrate to the bottom of the coral bag- 2 replies
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I have been culturing these guys along with my earthworms for the longest time. I use em in my compost bin, they're very helpful. Could I use some as a live food? They're pretty small, especially the younger ones, so I figured my pygmy cories would be able to eat them successfully! Are they safe for my fish as a live food? -
On the Live Food Cultures Facebook group there has been a lot of people talking about making vinegar eel culture in a way that's more similar to microworms (with an oatmeal medium). These are the instructions I used as a basis: https://thekillifish.net/vinegar_eel_culture/ http://fishguysplace.com/livefood.html#hdve The sandpaper was from something I read in a book that roughing up the edges makes it easier for worms to climb. I'm using ACO dense poly pads ripped on half for the air hole. Now that I'm posting this is clear to see that the container is not clear which may be annoying for trying to see them climb up. Something else to try may be to get two identical containers and do vinegar in one and oats in the other.- 15 replies
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I've had a couple of seemingly healthy black worm cultures crash on me. I finally got some new ones and I'm trying to prevent another crash. I have some theories and some questions (at the bottom) I think my setup is pretty good: room temperature, 2.5gallons with a sponge filter, and daily 10% water changes. The water parameters are consistently good. (The photo is my temporary quarantine/leach removal container) I have two theories for the cause of the crashes: Leaches and parasites. Leaches The basis for the leach theory is that with the last crash, the worms vanished and I was left with lots and lots of leaches (which came in with the black worms originally). Then, I left the culture alone without changing anything. In a few weeks the leaches were all gone. I surmise that the leaches starved to death in the absence of the worms. So, I'm thoroughly picking through the worms to remove leaches. Parasites The parasite theory comes from this passage in a research paper I found (Lumbriculus is the genus black worms belong to): "Ectoparasites can sometimes be associated with Lumbriculus obtained commercially or from natural habitats; their levels can get to a point where survival of the worms is jeopardized and the cultures crash. However, these ectoparasites can be removed by treating cultures with 0.6% sodium chloride in spring water. The EPA lab (Duluth, MN) found that salt provokes release of ectoparasites from the surface of the worms." It's from here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8667080/ There's no reference given the for EPA lab's finding, which is annoying. Questions Any other suggestions to prevent crashes? Has anyone tried treating black worms with salt? Any suggestions on what process to use? (e.g., how long to treat them) Thanks -
Anyone culture their own black worms? I need advice on where to source, how to start, how to maintain! I’ve got pea puffers and want to add more live foods to their diet but looking for the easiest options. -
I just got a daphnia culture. I only have two 20 gallon tanks to use right now. What do I feed them and how do I maintain the cultures ?
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I'm thinking about giving vinegar eels a try but the infusoria culture made the house smell and "Honey, I want to try breeding tiny worms to feed to the fish. By the way the pantry will small like rancid vinegar now." Seems like a hard sell. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/vinegar-eels
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Hi guys! I'm currently getting more and more into live food culturing (other than hatching baby brine shrimp which I also do of course) for my fish and fry (infusoria, green water, moina, vinegar eels etc) and I've recently discovered a new method for culturing vinegar eels and I was wondering if anyone else had heard or tried it? So I have my vinegar eels in the usual raw cider vinegar/water and apple slices mix that all the guides suggest. The method I've seen recently is more like the typical micro/banana/walter culturing, done in a wet oats or mash potato medium only instead of using water you use the cider vinegar/water mix that we normally use for vinegar eels. The results I've seen pictures of seems good, much much higher culture density than the usual method and they start crawling up the sides just like the other worms making it really easy to harvest. Now I know it loses some of the advantages of the usual method - it's more maintenance, more prone to crashing, maybe more smell etc however the main reason I like vinegar eels is because of their size and the way they congregate at the surface of the water (for my ricefish fry) and the fact they can live a fairly long time in an aquarium so it's harder to overfeed and pollute the water. Has anyone else tried this method? If so what I'd love to know is do the vinegar eels, once fed to a tank, still swim near the surface of the water and most importantly - do they still survive a long time? Slightly concerned that using this method could mean the vinegar eels are acclimated to 'terrestial' life and won't survive long in the water thus losing their main benefit (for me anyway). Obviously I'm no biologist and have no idea if it even works that way or if I'm worried for no reason. Anyone have any thoughts or insight? Edit: pic for reference- 6 replies
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BLACKWORMS Setting up a dedicated tank to try and breed blackworms. Hopefully this will be a good learning experience and hopefully it works. I’ve heard a lot about culture crashes and the smell that goes along with it. Definitely will try to avoid that. I purchased 4oz of blackworms from my LFS yesterday and had to keep them in refrigerator overnight. When I got them home I did a water change with spring water with minerals added back in. Then placed in refrigerator for the night. Today I set up a 3 1/2G tank little less than 1/2 full with same spring water. It has the filter built in to side of tank, slotted openings allow water to go through an ACO coarse sponge in the collection area. Water is then pumped to top of tank and flows through a spout back into tank. Will be adding a air stone to help with surface agitation and fragmentation. I will not be heating this tank, my other no heater tank runs at 68F and this should run close to the same. (Will monitor) Placed a very thin layer of gravel. Then added a vallisneria and some PSO to help with nitrates, both placed with weights. I am hoping some worms will be sucked through the filter system to hopefully be divided during their trip. Also hoping not to many go through at a time to cause clogging. Or get built up over time, will need to keep a close eye on that. I did a small feeding in each tank I plan on feeding these too and as you can guess they absolutely loved them. This will be my first experience cultivating live food. Will also in the near future be trying vinegar eels, daphnia, and mosquito larvae. I will also try my hand at infusoria if needed, hopefully enough is naturally occurring (is that right? Maybe breeding? Cultivating?) in my 125G. Will start feeding tonight, light dusting of krill flake. Will try to alternate foods krill flake, spirulina pellets, vegetable, and fruit. Feedings will be every 2-3 days. As I keep a close eye on water parameters I will change 75%-ish water weekly. Would appreciate any advice or tips or point out anything I missed.- 30 replies
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Hey all: I've dabbled unsuccessfully with daphnia in the past, and I'm looking forward to trying again pretty soon. But I'm getting into a little "analysis paralysis" while trying to pick a strain. What is your experience with regard to ideal sizes for breeding? My biggest fish are full-sized congo tetras and my smallest are juvenile multies, rummy-nose tetras, and pea puffers. What's your thinking on the most optimal all-around daphnia strain for these circumstances? If hardiness is a factor, that would make a difference for me too. 🙂 Thanks!
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