live foods > types & culture info

[cootwarm]

Hi All,

I think this is the appropiate forum for this question(s). I'm preparing a couple tanks for raising Apistos and I don't think it's too soon to make preparations for live food cultures.

Besides BBS & infusoria, what kinds of live foods (that are good for Apistos) can be cultured at home?

Which ones can starter cultures be found in my own local environment?
I can't remember for certain, but I think I read years ago that white worms can be aquired by burying a piece of potato in the ground for a week or so.

I'm aware of white worms, grindal worms, daphnia. Are there any others that Apistos enjoy?

I want to raise my Apisto's on a variety of foods, both live and dry. In the past I've found they grew faster on variety.
Is there much information about culturing live foods in Dr. Romers new Cichlid Atlas?

Thanks,
Michael

 

[farm41]

For me, daphnia are the easiest to keep going. I just feed them yeast and green water when I have it.

I also feed bbs and blackworms. I have tried culturing the blackworms, but it is a messy experience. If I had a place to setup a continous flow system, it might work.

Live food is always best, some of my apisto's won't eat anything but live food.

I haven't seen anything in Romers book on raising food.

 

[mk_ultra]

Try Vinegar Eels. They will be suspeneded in the water. Are idiot proof to culture ( I have a huge batch-lol). Except for extraction ( the only real pain) it is very easy and supposed great fry food.

 

[cootwarm]

live foods > types & culture info

I finally located the tiny bit of live food information that I have. It was in a very basic 90 page book, pub in 1980, about raising discus.

It was microworms that a culture can be aquired by burying a potato with a hole cut in it. But it mentions nothing about distinguishing the microworms from other vermin that may be attracted to the potato. Once the microworms are aquired, they can be cultured in oatmeal, same as whiteworms.

It says whiteworms are good, but they are fatty and should only be used a few times a week.
Are there any other limitations to the usage of any other live foods?
Are there any live foods that should be avoided completely(for Apistos)?

The Discus book mentions nothing about vinager worms or blackworms.
Can starter cultures of these be gathered from the local environment or purchased at LFS?

Michael

 

[Mike C]

I feed micro worms, grindal worms, white worms, blackworms and sometimes cut up earthworms. I obtained all the cultures except the earthworms on aquabid via The BugFarm.

 

[mk_ultra]

Same here. I got the vinegar eels on aqua bid. about 5 bucks free shipping

 

[Bissot_J]

lucky you

nobody in US want send any live food to canada....
Damn we are alone sometime.

anyway ,

i use , microworm, white worm , grindal,
i get daphnia, and something very similar to BBS but on fresh water in the field near my house.

i have to forgot mosquito larv this year in the montreal area they start put poduct in the water .


but i really want to try other live food .

 

[cootwarm]

live foods > types & culture info

Does anyone know any good websites that have information about how to culture a variety of live foods?

I was very suprised that I couldn't find anything when I did a GOOGLE search! Every site I checked out only mentioned live foods when discussing what to feed fish. There were a couple sites that sold live food cultures, but nothing about maintaining various cultures.


To Bissot_J,
I don't live too far from Montreal. I just located someone in my area that has cultures of microworms, whiteworms, and vinegar eels. I'm hoping to get a starter culture of each from him in the next couple weeks.

I was lucky enough to get in touch with a guy in Montreal that raises Apistos, who is coming to Burlington in June. I'm hoping to get a couple tanks set up this weekend and conditioned by then, because he is willing to bring me a couple Apisto trios! Perhaps we can arrange for him to bring you a culture(s) on his return trip. You might even know him as he is a member of the Montreal fish club.

I've raised other cichlids in the past, but these will be my first Apistos. Matter of fact, I've currently got a family of Salvini's, but they are still wigglers. So far so good, but I expect the real test will come tonight when they become free-swimming. We'll see if they retain their parental insticts then.

Michael

 

[Mike C]

these sites should help you with culturing:

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

http://home.clara.net/xenotoca/foods.htm

http://petfish.net/

 

[mk_ultra]

Bissot_J, let me know if you can't fingd a source for vinegar eels. I can work with you on it. Or anyone for that matter. We can trade for it- or something to that effect.

 

[cootwarm]

live foods > types & culture info

Hi Mike C,

Thanks for the websites. They're great! Exactly what I was looking for. I'm suprised my GOOGLE search didn't direct me to them. It was probably the way I worded my search criteria. They were probably there, just hidden amoungst the many other websites that my search turned up.

Thanks again,
Michael