First time feeding frozen Bloodworms

[Pepere]

At $10.00 for 3.5 ounces it sure wont be a frequent recurrence.

I had a can of Beef Barley condensed soup at .83 cents for my supper.

My Dwarf Gourami did not recognize it as food originally. He decided to try it after he saw the Cories going after it.

 

Green Neons swam around the tank chewing on one for quite some time.  Slow eating.

[Guppysnail]

On 6/19/2022 at 6:06 PM, Pepere said:

At $10.00 for 3.5 ounces it sure wont be a frequent recurrence.

I had a can of Beef Barley condensed soup at .83 cents for my supper.

This I relate to completely!

[Flumpweesel]

On 6/19/2022 at 11:06 PM, Pepere said:

$10.00 for 3.5 ounces

Ouch at that money my fish would have done without.

My Harlequins swim round like they have giant cigars whenever I feed bloodworm. 

[Brandon p]

If you want something a little easier on the wallet BBS are simple you can do a small  amount and it gives them something live to eat and protein packed. I can’t do the blood worms $$$

[dan12boy]

On 6/19/2022 at 8:10 PM, Brandon p said:

If you want something a little easier on the wallet BBS are simple you can do a small  amount and it gives them something live to eat and protein packed. I can’t do the blood worms $$$

What’s bbs? brine shrimp ?

[Torrey]

On 6/19/2022 at 4:06 PM, Pepere said:

At $10.00 for 3.5 ounces it sure wont be a frequent recurrence.

I had a can of Beef Barley condensed soup at .83 cents for my supper.

My Dwarf Gourami did not recognize it as food originally. He decided to try it after he saw the Cories going after it.

 

Green Neons swam around the tank chewing on one for quite some time.  Slow eating.

I'm pretty sure my fish eat better than me, lol.

Nothing is more entertaining to my spouse (who hates live foods, worms, and holes) than watching a baby endler swimming around the tank with a frozen spaghetti (name for it since worm is a non-sequitur in our home) almost 5x its length hanging out of its mouth while it evades the adult fish, lol. The antics of them eating live blackworms (skinnier, and longer "fish spaghetti") and watching two fish imitate "Lady & the Tramp", only to have another fish do a barrel roll in between to steal the "noodle" from below like a rocket, has nudged my Patient Spouse™ into Reluctant Nerm™ category.

I've decided the most cost effective live foods are the BBS (baby brine shrimp) as I can freeze what I don't feed immediately, blackworms as I can seed my substrate and they can reproduce for me, amphipods since I get them free on plants and they breed well for me, and mosquito larvae because they are free in the summer.

Otherwise, my fish get frozen foods. I am testing freezing mosquito larvae and seeing what the fish think since we finally got our monsoons and we'll have more wrigglers than the fish can eat. I don't particularly want any to get to adulthood, so I figured take care of two problems at once.

[gardenman]

Yeah, I just spent $18 on fish food and bought myself a $0.97 bag of generic chips. I've got $29+ worth of cat treats coming later today also. My animals all live better than I do. The most cost-effective "live-ish" food I've found are the freeze-dried tubifex worms when bought in bulk. I buy a pound of them every six months or so and they cost less than $40 for the pound of them. The fish love them. Unlike "live" food they don't die or go bad. 

[Pepere]

I have freeze dried blood worms, tubifex, daphnia and brine shrimp.

and I bought sinking wafers for the Cories and kuhli loaches

I also bought a brine shrimp hatchery and brine shrimp eggs from Aquarium Co Op.  .

 

I will be hatching a small batch later this week.

Frozen blood worms will likely be a once a year purchase. Package has 35 individual pods.. each pod gives two feedings.

[Brandon p]

@dan12boy yes baby brine. I make lots but I mused to make a small amount with a water bottle or a soda bottle(16oz) it super easy you can do it once a week a month everyday. If you have a bottle, airline, a drill or soldering iron, and one of the ups air pumps you can make it. You can get eggs from the co-op or others and you need non table salt(no iron die as it is commonly added to table salt to prevent goiters). I use the the salt co-op sells or aquarium, marine salt, and even the pink Himalayan salt. Rock also works. You put the salt and water and egg in and let the air go for 24-36 hours then live baby brine. I made it   sound hard. They sell eggs that will never hatch and the shells are removed that works as a change as well. For me live bbs is the best. I’m happy to ask questions or answer them.

more thane you will need but you could set it for 1 or 2

I have seen this one but looked like a twist on the basic idea

 

Cory’s video more for a bigger set up

 
last decapsulated eggs( sorry sub-Titles) I just soak for 5-10 mins and a I is a big syringe from tractor supply( no neddle) 

 

On 6/20/2022 at 4:16 AM, Torrey said:

I'm pretty sure my fish eat better than me, lol.

Nothing is more entertaining to my spouse (who hates live foods, worms, and holes) than watching a baby endler swimming around the tank with a frozen spaghetti (name for it since worm is a non-sequitur in our home) almost 5x its length hanging out of its mouth while it evades the adult fish, lol. The antics of them eating live blackworms (skinnier, and longer "fish spaghetti") and watching two fish imitate "Lady & the Tramp", only to have another fish do a barrel roll in between to steal the "noodle" from below like a rocket, has nudged my Patient Spouse™ into Reluctant Nerm™ category.

I've decided the most cost effective live foods are the BBS (baby brine shrimp) as I can freeze what I don't feed immediately, blackworms as I can seed my substrate and they can reproduce for me, amphipods since I get them free on plants and they breed well for me, and mosquito larvae because they are free in the summer.

Otherwise, my fish get frozen foods. I am testing freezing mosquito larvae and seeing what the fish think since we finally got our monsoons and we'll have more wrigglers than the fish can eat. I don't particularly want any to get to adulthood, so I figured take care of two problems at once.

I love mosquito larvae my fish love them. I think lots ot people over look them. I’m pretty sure all my pets eat better than me. I used think the dog was best feed but I’m pretty sure the fish past the dog.

Edited June 20, 2022 by Brandon p

[Brandon p]

On 6/20/2022 at 9:21 AM, Pepere said:

I have freeze dried blood worms, tubifex, daphnia and brine shrimp.

and I bought sinking wafers for the Cories and kuhli loaches

I also bought a brine shrimp hatchery and brine shrimp eggs from Aquarium Co Op.  .

 

I will be hatching a small batch later this week.

Frozen blood worms will likely be a once a year purchase. Package has 35 individual pods.. each pod gives two feedings.

Have to thought of raising blood worms. I don’t but know my friends do and say it’s not hard. Translation: it more work than I want to do.

[dan12boy]

On 6/20/2022 at 1:21 PM, Brandon p said:

@dan12boy yes baby brine. I make lots but I mused to make a small amount with a water bottle or a soda bottle(16oz) it super easy you can do it once a week a month everyday. If you have a bottle, airline, a drill or soldering iron, and one of the ups air pumps you can make it. You can get eggs from the co-op or others and you need non table salt(no iron die as it is commonly added to table salt to prevent goiters). I use the the salt co-op sells or aquarium, marine salt, and even the pink Himalayan salt. Rock also works. You put the salt and water and egg in and let the air go for 24-36 hours then live baby brine. I made it   sound hard. They sell eggs that will never hatch and the shells are removed that works as a change as well. For me live bbs is the best. I’m happy to ask questions or answer them.

more thane you will need but you could set it for 1 or 2

I have seen this one but looked like a twist on the basic idea

 

Cory’s video more for a bigger set up

 
last decapsulated eggs( sorry sub-Titles) I just soak for 5-10 mins and a I is a big syringe from tractor supply( no neddle) 

 

I love mosquito larvae my fish love them. I think lots ot people over look them. I’m pretty sure all my pets eat better than me. I used think the dog was best feed but I’m pretty sure the fish past the dog.

Wow thank you for the info! I made my own hatchery from a liter bottle but what I don’t know how to do is taking out all the eggs floating up top flawlessly. That’s the only reason I’d by the ziss hatchery.

[Brandon p]

On 6/20/2022 at 3:10 PM, dan12boy said:

Wow thank you for the info! I made my own hatchery from a liter bottle but what I don’t know how to do is taking out all the eggs floating up top flawlessly. That’s the only reason I’d by the ziss hatchery.

I have two ziss love them. If you get the co-op eggs it makes and hatchery easy. The will float in and one but if the ziss is what you like and works great. I try to give people the lower cost option first. I added the Cory video because I do believe that it shows the ziss week and the eggs they sell. I sometimes use other eggs because I’m as far as you can be form co-op so I get some at the local place. The floating hatched eggs makes life so much easier. I hope this does end bad for me but hatch rates to me are similar but co-op are the way to go. 

[Torrey]

On 6/20/2022 at 1:10 PM, dan12boy said:

Wow thank you for the info! I made my own hatchery from a liter bottle but what I don’t know how to do is taking out all the eggs floating up top flawlessly. That’s the only reason I’d by the ziss hatchery.

Put the light at the bottom. To draw all the bbs to the bottom

When I first got serious about hatching, I was working at a teaching hospital and got some of the IV plastic control clamps (which fit air tubing perfectly). Use a soldering iron in the bottle cap to make a hole just big enough for airline tubing. Find a clamp to keep airline tubing from leaking. Keep sealed until all the live bbs are at the bottom, and shells are at the top.

Open the tubing and let her fill another container like in Cory's video. Close the line when you are gettimg mostly water and no more bbs... before the shells are at the bottom.

Another option is in the second video, create a hole out the side for the airline tube to come out of the "support" base bottle. Cut the line long enough it can be clamped on the side of the bottle, above the water line. Use a connector to run the air through the tube. Disconnect the air from this tube when you turn on the light. You nowuse the "air tube" to drain the bbs from the set up.

If you use the last method (cheapest) be sure to rinse the tubing well (unscrew the cap from your bottle, and rinse until no bbs or debris are left inside). I recommend setting up an extra cap and tubing, to ensure it is well cleaned (ie: running 2 soda bottles: one bottle is actively hatching, one bottle just got set up. When active hatch is drained, rinse bottle and put the "spare" cleaned and dried cap with tubing on, rinse the cap and tubing you just took off it and hange up to dry, until next bottle is ready to be harvested)

[Pepere]

Well, all of the Fish have memory…

They all instantly recognized a tasty treat when I placed Bloodworms in the tank today.

Totally different excited response… much more so that to freeze dried foods and flakes.

And I will have a third feeding for tomorrow.