From: oleg@Veritas.COM (Oleg Kiselev)
Newsgroups: alt.aquaria,rec.aquaria,sci.aquaria
Subject: (LIVE FOODS) A brief guide to live foods you can culture at home
Date: 8 Oct 92 02:33:37 GMT
Reply-To: oleg@veritas.com (Oleg Kiselev)
Followup-To: alt.aquaria,rec.aquaria
Organization: Palo Alto Killifish Loft
X-Disclaimer: I speak for myself only unless explicitly indicated otherwise

The advantages of live foods over frozen and prepared foods are:  

1) the uneaten food will not immediately decay and load up 
   the filtration system,
	
2) foods can be raised in controlled conditions and be free of
   disease causing bacteria 
	
3) most importantly, fish LOVE grabbing things that try to run away

Here are some live foods you can easily culture at home, to the extend that
I and some people on the NET have had experience with them:

BABY BRINE SHRIMP  (Artemia spp., usually A. salina)
    Uses:	baby brine shrimp are a food of choice for the newly hatched
		fry of egg-layers and other small fish.
    Culturing:  To hatch brine shrimp, you need very little.  You can
		build a hatchery out of almost anything.  I used to
		use 1 gal plastic water/milk jugs, and now use 12 oz
		soda bottles; Richard Sexton used 2 liter soda bottles
		in a rack; stores sell "shrimpolators" and plastic
		hatching cones.  Everything works, but a container with
		a concave or conical bottom is the best because the
		water flow has no dead spots.  Add air tubing connected
		to a small pump, put a light over it and keep
		temperature around 85 degrees if you want the shrimp to
		hatch faster.  
		
		Ed Warner's book suggests 3.5 table spoons of uniodized
		salt per gallon of water.  He suggests using the
		cheapest salt available, like the water softenner salt
		at $3 for 50 lb.  SF Bay Brand recommends hardenning
		the water to improve hatching and shrimp survival, so
		adding some Epsom salt and a tiny pinch of baking soda
		may be a good idea.  

		To have the shrimp hatch and not die the water in the
		culture has to be vigorously turned over to keep the
		shrimp in suspension.  I do this by aerating the water
		just like everyone else.  I use a 12' length of rigid
		air tubing attached to a 3' tail of flexible tubing
		attached to an air pump.  The rigid section keeps the
		hose from slipping out of the container.  I do not use
		an airstone, mostly because airstones crud up and clog
		too often in this environment.

		To get nauplii (hatched brine shrimp) out, I turn off
		the air, put a piece of rigid air (1/8") tubing with
		2-3 ft of flex tubing attached into the culture, let
		the stuff settle.  The shrimp egg cases will collect on
		top of the water, the shrimp ought to sink to the
		bottom (if the water is not too saline).  Then I just
		siphon the millions of wriggling shrimp off into a brine
		shrimp (fine) net, dump the lot into a cup of water and
		use an eye dropper to dispense to the fish.

		The nauplii will live in the tank for up to 24 hours.

    Sources:	eggs can be bought in most aquarium and pet shops or mail
		order.  Because I use almost 1 tsp/day to feed my fish, I
		buy 1 lb cans, which comes out much less expensive than the
		tiny ampoules sold in stores.  I keep the cans in the freezer
		and hold what I need for 2-3 weeks in a small, tight-lid 
		jar.  

		Ed Warner insists that the eggs of brine shrimp need at
		least a year of incubation to become ready to hatch.  He
		goes on to say that a low yield from a newly opened can of
		shrimp eggs may be due to insufficient incubation time and
		that the best hatches come from the eggs that had been kept
		for a few years, with the eggs kept for 5 years in a vacuum
		packed airtight container giving perfect 100% hatch rates.


ADULT BRINE SHRIMP:
    Uses:	Just about all fish under 5" long will readily eat brine
		shrimp. 

    Culturing:  Don't bother.  The yields from the cultures are very low
		and it's easier to culture Daphnia and buy live brine shrimp
		in the pet shops.

		If you REALLY want to try them, get a large open top
		container (an aquarium, a garden tub, a baby wading pool),
		fill it with real or synthetic salt water and seed it with
		some green water and nutrients (fertilizer tabs or what have
		you) and wait for the water to turn yellow-green.  Throw in
		some baby brine shrimp or the adult shrimp you got in a pet
		shop and wait.  Adding small amounts of brewers yeast, 
		APR and other micro-foods will help promote the shrimp
		growth.  It helps to put the culture in a brightly indirectly
		lit place to promote microalgae growth.

    Sources:	See above.

DAPHNIA ("water fleas", tiny crustaceans of Daphnia pulex and D. magna spp.)
    Uses:       these crustaceans are probably the most ideal food for
		the smaller fresh water -- Daphnia do not die in the
		tank and will eat microscopic garbage while they live.
		They come in a variety of sizes -- from hardly visible
		to over 1/8".  This is a typical source of food for
		many fish in the wild.

    Culturing:  I have used everything from betta bowls to 32 gal
		trashcans.  I feed the small indoor cultures various
		algae scrapings and tank sludge, as well as deactivated
		brewers yeast, powdered milk and APR (artificial
		plankton stuff from OSI).  Green water works best and
		that's what I use in my outdoor cultures.  To make
		green water, I use a weak solution of Miracle Grow and
		chelated iron in dechlorinated water, seeded with the
		"pea soup" water I try to cultivate.  If you leave a
		water full of nutrients out in full sun, within weeks
		you will have green water from the airborne algae
		spores.

		I have read that blender-pulverized lettuce works great
		in small amounts, but never tried it.

		For a while now I have been seeding fry tanks and bowls
		with Daphnia -- the Daphnia eat the bacteria that may
		be hazardous to the fry and generally purify water and
		the fry will eat them as they get larger.

		Another thing I tried was dumping freshly hatched fry into
		Daphnia cultures (about 2 fry/liter) and not paying any
		attention to them for weeks.  It worked, but not as well as
		I hoped.  The fry kept in equivalent sized tanks and fed
		more intensively grew faster.

		Use a shrimp net or a fine fish net to catch Daphnia.

    Sources:	catch the Daphnia in a local lake (but beware of parasites
	        like Hydra and various carnivorous insects), get a clean 
		culture from a local aquarium club or mail order.

CYCLOPS
    Uses:       same as Daphnia, but predatory.  Can damage eggs
		and very young egg-layer fry.  Nauplii can be used like
		brine shrimp nauplii.

    Culturing:  as Daphnia (but less numerous per the same volume).

    Sources:    often comes with the culture of worms or as contaminants
		in Daphnia cultures.  Very hard to eradicate once they
		start breeding in the tank.  Also mail order and club
		auctions, as Daphnia.

MOSQUITO LARVAE:
    Uses:	most adult fish of smaller species love them.  As long as 
		fish are bigger than the larvae, they'll eat them.
		Aquatic larvae of flying insects is the main ingredient in
		the diet of many small fish in the wild.

    Culturing:  very simple.  Put a wide-mouth bucket or a barrel
		or a tub of water outside.  Throw in small amounts of
		evaporated milk or grass clippings in a nylon bag to
		seed the water with bacteria and promote the growth of
		infusoria, mosquito larvae's food sources; green water
		works well, too.  Some people even use manure!  If
		there are mosquitoes in your area, 2-3 weeks later you
		will have larva in your water.  I use a coarse fish net
		to scoop up the larva and feed them to the mid-water
		and top-feeding fish.

    Sources:    Wait for the little bloodsuckers to discover your bucket of
		evil-smelling bacterial soup, or go find "floats" of mosquito 
		eggs in a nearby lake or puddle.

BLACK WORMS:
    Uses:	these disgusting, bacteria-infested stinkers are among the
		best sources of protein for the fish and are an excellent
		conditioning food for breeding preparation.

		WARNING: frequent feedings will cause the fish to become fat
		and impair breeding.  Also, diseases are far more likely on a
		steady diet of worms.

		ANOTHER WARNING: if you have gravel in your tank, worms will
		burrow into it and hide, fouling up the tank.

    Culturing:	May not be worth it.  Worms will live on the bottom of a tank,
		eating scum and breeding.  I fed them banana peels.  Filter
		water intensively.  Collect them by sieving gravel with worms
		through a net.  Messy, laborious and there are easier
		sources of protein.

    Sources:	most aquarium shops have these uglies.

    (Tubifex are even uglier and stinkier and if you know what's good for you
    you will not attempt to raise them.  It *is* possible, but consider --
    they live in sewage, eating human shit, carrying hepatitis....  Ugh!)

GRINDAL WORMS (very small worms):
    Uses:	these worms are small (up to 1/2") and can feed a variety 
		of small fishes.  Because of the way they are raised,
		they are totally disease free.  They do not burrow as
		readily as other worms and live in the water for a few
		days.  Great for bottom feeders and any fish fast
		enough to grab food sinking to the bottom or smart
		enough to look for it (i.e. just about all fish).

    Culturing:	get a plastic shoe box (I get mine at Target on sale for $1),
		fill it with sterile potting soil and peat moss mix (50-50),
		or just potting soil, get it moist, perhaps nuke it in the
		microwave oven for 5 minutes to thoroughly sterilize it, let
		it cool, dump a small starter culture of worms into it
		and sprinkle some high protein cereal powder (Gerber, for
		instance) every time you see all of it gone -- and watch them
		breed!  Put a piece of glass on the soil and the worms will
		crawl on it.  I wash the worms off the glass into a cup with 
		clean water and use a large medicine dropper (1 tsp) to
		dispense.  If you use troughs to place food, the glass will be
		free of potentially water-clouding soil.  One healthy culture
		produces enough for me to feed about 100 small fish.

		Remember to keep the culture moist but not soaked and
		soupy.  Spray it with dechlorinated water now and then.
		
		Cultures like this often get over-run with mites and/or
		gnats.  Both pests can be fed to the fish and are readily
		eaten, but soon become a nuisance.  Should this happen, 
		take some worms and keep them in a cup of water for 3-4
		hours.  This will drown the infestation and you can use the
		worms as a new starter culture.  I have had some spotty luck
		salvaging the old infested cultures, but it's occasionally 
		worth the effort.

		If the worms are not growing well, try adjusting the soil's
		pH by mixing a bit of baking soda into it to neutralize the
		peat's acidity.

		An interesting technique of culturing worms is used by some
		German killi breeders.  They use open-celled foam that sits
		in a tray filled with water and is covered by a piece of
		glass.  This method is cleaner than the soil/peat one.

    Sources:	friends, local aquarium clubs and mail order.
	
WHITE WORMS (small worms):
    Uses:	these worms are up to 1" long and are good for feeding 
		fish under 3"-4" long.

    Culturing:	Similar to Grindal worms, but these worms fair very badly
		at high temperatures.  Keep them under 70F.  They will eat
		the same foods as Grindals, but a number of sources suggest
		that white bread soaked in milk is a very good food for
		these worms.  

		Keep these worms in complete darkness.  They will come out
		of the soil and coat the bread, devouring it shortly and
		clustering in a writhing mass.  Pluck this mass of worms 
		off the soil and use it to feed the fish.  The worms will 
		hide in the soil as soon as the light strikes them, so be
		swift about grabbing them!

    Sources:	same as Grindals.

EARTHWORMS:
    Uses:	feeding of medium and large fish (over 4" long).

    Culturing:	Here is an excerpt from an article posted by Steve Bartling
		(bartling@neptune.amd.com) over 2 years ago.
	>To raise earthworms cheaply and easily :
	>
	>
	>1) build a box out of wood ( any size is fine, a bigger box
	>   = more worms ) ( apt dwellers can make do with a 1' x 1' x 8" box)
	>
	>   a) attach the top with two cheap hinges 
	>   b) drill/cut two 2-inch holes in the front of the box
	>      in such a way as to line up the bottom of the hole
	>      with the bottom of the inside of the box
	>   c) paint the box with any outdoor rated, oil based paint.
	>   d) place a small piece of fine plastic screen against
	>      holes that were drilled/cut. Make sure that you place
	>      the screen on the inside of the box. Firmly nail the
	>      screen into place. The screen will allow the box to drain,
	>      but will not allow the worms to escape.
	>
	>The box is now complete.
	>
	>2) prepare the box for worms
	>
	>   a) buy enough peat moss from a garden supply store or nursery
	>      to fill up the box ( remember the peat moss will compact
	>      after it gets soaking wet )
	>   b) place the peat moss in the box and completely soak the
	>      peat moss ( stir it up until you are sure it is uniformly
	>      wet ). 
	>   c) get 6 bricks
	>   d) place one brick at each front corner and two bricks at each
	>      rear corner so that the box slopes forward and can drain
	>      from the holes.
	>   e) place a pan under the holes to catch the future runoff
	>      ( unless you place the box outside ). Note, after worms
	>      are growing, the runoff is great for plants.
	>
	>3) Now, for the worms 
	>
	>   a) go buy three or four boxes of the smallest worms that
	>      you can find at a fish and tackle shop.
	>   b) put the worms in the box
	>   c) buy some corn meal ( a small bag will last forever !! )
	>      This is all the worms need for adequate nutrition.
	>   d) every three or four days, sprinkle a LIGHT layer of corn
	>      meal on top of the peat moss. Note : before you apply
	>      each new layer, use a small, tined garden hand tool to
	>      stir up the peat moss and to mix the corn meal left over
	>      from the previous feeding into the peat moss.
	>   e) Wait about a month, and you will discover that you have
	>      literally millions of worms ranging in size from 
	>      tiny little young worms to fully adult worms. The baby
	>      worms can be used for small fish and very young fish, while
	>      the larger worms will easily satify the live food 
	>      requirements of even the most ravenous large fish.
	>   f) this is an infinitely renewable resource !!! You can
	>      not possibly feed your fish enough worms to reduce
	>      or even dent the supply. I have been keeping worms
	>      for fishing and for fish food for 17 years, TRUST ME !!
	>   g) the peat moss must be kept damp by periodic watering.
	>      Don't over water !! Do not allow it to dry out !! The
	>      worms will die QUICKLY if the peat moss dries out.
	>      Fortunately, peat moss retains water very well, and
	>      watering is rarely needed. 
	>   h) The worms must not be allowed to freeze. The worms and the
	>      worm box will not smell and can be kept in garages or closets
	>      during the winter. The worms do not like being baked in
	>      the full evening sun in the summer ( you will kill them ).
	>      Place them in a shady location if they are left outside.
	>   i) keep the lid closed, worms like it dark.
	>
	>4) Other uses for Earthworms !
	>
	>   a) potted plants love earthworms !!
	>   b) gardens love earthworms !!
	>   c) lawns love earthworms !!
	>   d) fish love earthworms !!
	>   e) Gorbeshev loves earthworms !! 
	>      Well, maybe not :-)
	>      

    Sources: your back yard, bait shops, gardening shops, aquarium clubs.

INFUSORIA (microscopic aquatic protozoans)
    Uses:	feeding of newly hatched fry.
    Culturing:	I use green water (i.e. natural algae growth) and banana
		peal.  Others use yeast, drops of milk, boiled lettuce,
		other plant material, alfalfa pellets, etc.

		I feed by using an eye dropper to just add the critters to
		the fry jars.

    Sources:	old tank water, friends, mail order.

MICROWORMS (Nematodes)
    Uses:	these microscopic worms are good for feeding newly hatched fry 
		and the smallest fish.
    Culturing:  Get some Oatmeal pablum or Gerber high-protein cerial
		mixed with enough water to form a paste, put it in a
		dish.  Add some live yeast (Fleishman's) or a generous
		portion of deactivated brewers yeast (the latter method
		does not create nearly as smelly a culture as the
		active yeast!).  Seed with a small quantity of
		Nematodes.  In about a week, start "harvesting" the
		Nematodes off the sides of the dish (I use a Q-tip or a
		brush) or place a flat piece of plastic or wood onto
		the culture and scrape the worms off with a razor when
		they become numerous (you can use a piece of a popsicle
		stick as this "collection platform").  Wash them out in
		a glass of clean water, dump them into the tank.
		Remember to keep the culture wet and when it starts
		turning dark and intolerably stinky, clone it to a
		clean container being careful not to transfer any of
		the fouled substrate -- just the Nematodes that had
		climbed up the walls of the container.

    Sources:	friends, clubs, mail order.

FRUIT FLIES, WINGLESS and FLIGHTLESS (Drosophila species):
    Uses:	The fruit flies are the closest analog to the natural diet
   		for most killifish and many other small fish.  

    Culturing:	I use 1/2 gal fruit juice bottles.  The media is a mail
		order instant mush that seems to be some sort of
		instant mashed potatoes substance that smells like pure
		starch mixed with fungicides.  I use enough to get a
		1/4-1/2" layer of media at the bottom of the bottle and
		add enough water to get it to a sourcream-like
		consistency.  It should be dense enough to not run when you
		tilt the bottle.  Next I place a 2 layer roll of plastic
		"bug screen" mesh into the bottle, so the flies and
		maggots have somewhere to climb out of the wet goo --
		it seems to help their survival.  I dump in a few fruit
		flies, perhaps a dozen.  Finally, the bottle is
		stoppered with a wad of filter floss, so my flies can't
		get out and the wild fruit flies and other critters
		can't get in.

		2 weeks later I have newly hatched fruit flies ready to
		be fed to the fish.  The culture keeps producing for 2
		months or so and should be "cloned" after some 6 weeks
		of operation.  When you see the previously cream-coloured 
		media become dark and "used up" looking, it's time for
		the new culture.  It's probably easier and safer to
		clone the culture every 4-6 weeks and be ready for the
		eventual crash of the old culture.

		To feed the fish, I sharply shake the bottle to knock the
		flies away from the stopper, open a fish tank cover, open
		the bottle, turn it up side down and give it a few taps,
		shaking out a dozen or more flies every shake.  The media
		gets thick enough by then to not drip out.  

		CAUTION!  These flies are wingless/flightless, but not
		legless.  They will walk up the sides of the tank, crawl out
		through the cracks and head straight for your kitchen and
		the bunch of grapes you left out.  They may be fish food,
		but they are still fruit flies.  Feed them to fish in small
		doses.

		There are several different strains of usable fruit flies.
		Some are smaller than 1/8", others are over 3/16".  Some are
		completely wingless or have vestigial stubby wings (wingless),
		others have the wings that are so large that they are useless
		(flightless).  The flies I have now are the huge, flightless
		kind.

		CAUTION!  The "wingless" fruit flies will sprout functional
		wings if they are kept at high temperatures, so keep the
		culture cool.  One advice I have encountered: open the jar
		outdoors, let the winged flies fly away, then make sure the
		rest pupate at a cooler temperature.

    Sources:	Same as everything else, friends, clubs, mail order.
-- 
"Eight years is too long for anyone to go without skills or purpose." 
							-- George H. W. Bush

Oleg Kiselev                                             oleg@veritas.com
Newsgroups: alt.aquaria