What live foods do you currently culture?

[brewmaster15]

From time to time I have raised all sorts of live foods. Meal worms, fruit flies, red wiggler compost worms, daphnia and white worms. Starting up a red wiggler culture again for my fish as a treat and for my Axolotls.

How about you guys... what do you culture?
Al

[LizStreithorst]

Only mosquito larvae right now. I also feed cull shrimp, but their genetics culture them. I just take advantage of the situation.

[CliffsDiscus]

No live food only BBS for whenever there are fry.

[wsantia1]

At the moment only BBS, microworms and vinegar eels for fry.

[pbhonl]

My fish get a feeding of white worms several times a week.

[CliffsDiscus]

My fish get a feeding of white worms several times a week.

How are you growing them out and what do you feed them?

[pbhonl]

How are you growing them out and what do you feed them?

I keep them in regular potting soil. Before use, I put the potting soil the freezer then thaw it to avoid pests. I keep four containers of worms in a 12 bottle wine cooler. The wine cooler is old now and won't go below 61F. 55F works better.

I have tried feeding everything over the years, and plain white bread works just as good as anything else I have tried.

People on the internet say that white worms are too fatty to be good food. I think that the problem is fish like them so much they will over eat white worms. I have raised a lot of fish on white worms. I feed more of them to juvenile fish than to adult fish.

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[Kymark]

I’ve been vermicomposting with red wrigglers for years. It’s a great source of free food for my discus. I take the worms from the compost bin into damp shredded paper for a couple of days, which gets most of the grit out of their digestive system. Then, chop and freeze (or feed directly).

[LizStreithorst]

I keep them in regular potting soil. Before use, I put the potting soil the freezer then thaw it to avoid pests. I keep four containers of worms in a 12 bottle wine cooler. The wine cooler is old now and won't go below 61F. 55F works better.

I have tried feeding everything over the years, and plain white bread works just as good as anything else I have tried.

People on the internet say that white worms are too fatty to be good food. I think that the problem is fish like them so much they will over eat white worms. I have raised a lot of fish on white worms. I feed more of them to juvenile fish than to adult fish.

DSC02145.JPG

I would love to be able to culture these, but all I have is a fridge and I imagine that 45 degrees is too low for them.

[CliffsDiscus]

I would love to be able to culture these, but all I have is a fridge and I imagine that 45 degrees is too low for them.

Liz, The White worm culture is really easy to manage, cheap just feed the bread, only problem would be the temperture.
For me I had 12 boxes of culture outside in my yard, they were in Styrofoam boxes one day I found holes on the side of the boxes
they were from rats eating the white worms so I dumped the whole culture.

[LizStreithorst]

Once I get a dime to my name I'll get a used wine cooler. They're not all that costly. Did you buy your culture on line? There are no fish clubs in my area...one of the disadvantages of living in the rural deep south.

[brewmaster15]

Liz, The White worm culture is really easy to manage, cheap just feed the bread, only problem would be the temperture.
For me I had 12 boxes of culture outside in my yard, they were in Styrofoam boxes one day I found holes on the side of the boxes
they were from rats eating the white worms so I dumped the whole culture.

Cliff I ran into something similar during my last round of red wiggler cultures. I had the boxes in my garage and mice got into them while I was away on vacation.... one box had a nest... all the worms crawled out of the box and died ..im guessing the mice just put too much ammonia into the box from their waste...