lots of live food

[aspen]

i was browsing old posts and found a link posted by matt (farm41). this place has tons of info about different live foods and sell cultures.

http://www.livefoodcultures.com/microworms.html

have fun.

rick

 

[farm41]

There is also the Live Foods mailing list for lots of info too. The list is pretty slow, but the info is good.

 

[Cichlids1]

Speaking of live foods, these caught my eye

http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?foodl&1055303359

but before I start dropping cash, has anyone ever tried these 'Microfex' worms? According to the text in the auction, they are a smaller relative of the tubifex. If they can be cultured as easy as depicted and have any nutritional value, might be a good alternative. Any experiences or knowledge of these worms?


Ken

 

[aspen]

ken, i would guess there are thousands of worm like critters that you can get your fish to eat. many are easy to culture. maybe these are the best. but 25 bucks for a starter culture? sounds a little steep, (opportunistic) to me.

rick

 

[Cichlids1]

Rick,

My thoughts exactly. But, just in case these things are some super-secret uber-food, I figured I'd ask around

 

[jvanrompu]

They are commonly called California Blackworms, alot of pet shop are now selling them as tubifex, but they are a different worm.

If you check on the web that $ amount should get you a pound of them.

As far as culturing them, I have not tried it but most posts and literature say they are difficult to culture. Figuratively you can culture tubifex at home but it is not easy to get the right setup and what a smell. Production is also extremely low.

Best bet is to buy them as you need them.
I have had some problems with them, one batch one time wiped out three tanks of fish, fish died within 3-4 hours after eating the worms, they were washed and cleaned, I think they also harbor similar bacteria as do tubifex.

Thanks

John

 

[aspen]

i paid 12.50 can (9 bucks u.s.) last week for 1/2 pound of cbw's and they were shipped in bulk from cal to detroit, then picked up and driven to toronto. if these are cbw's that is a severe rip-off. surely you should call cbw's by their right name, no?

a cbw culture is iffy at best, if you believe the people who have tried it with limited success. i am going to try it with mine. i only want them as a spawning aid. the fish go nuts for them, but i want my discus and dwarfs to eat dry and frozen. i don't want any picky eaters, which you may get if you start feeding them every day.

there are lots of local places which will sell you cbw's, but i have heard too many horror stories about getting bad worms and killing all of the fish. i got mine from a good place. these guys are risky from the local petstore, imo.

rick

 

[Cichlids1]

I always have a pound or two blackworms in the refridgerator. The ones I mentioned in the previous looked different. Smaller, different color. I've tried to culture the blackworms but it seems to be a very slow process. Much easier to just have them shipped to me

With all the rain we've had in South Central Ohio these last few weeks, I've started collecting small earthworms as they venture across the sidewalk and driveway. They fish are loving them. I was a bit apprehensive about feeding a 3" worm to a 2" fish, but they don't seem to mind. A couple of the apistos and westies have really colored up. The S. tinanti have bellies that are so full, they now tilt instead of resting flat on the bottom. And the C. regani will practically do tricks to get me to drop another worm in the tank. I might have to convert a busted fishbox into a worm container to have some available throughout the year.

 

[aspen]

earthworms seem to be good food. i throw one into my discus tank, and let them fight over it. lots of fun.

rick

 

[jvanrompu]

earthworms

You can go one step further and propogate them.
Buy a lb or 1/2 lb of red wrigglers from a reputable
vermipost outfit and just culture them the same as white worms.
You will have more than enough worms that you won't know what to do with them in a few weeks.

YOu can also use them to compost your kitchen scraps.
What a by product, free baby worms.

Thnaks

John

 

[cootwarm]

I tried conditioning my Cichlasoma Salvini's on earthworms once. They typically laid from 300 to 600 eggs, but when they were conditioned with earthworms they laid more than 1200 eggs! Must be a lot of nutrition in those worms!

Michael