Originally Posted by
MultipleTankSyndrome
As such an economical and nutritious food, I would certainly want to incorporate mosquito larvae into the diet of my future discus. I just have some questions for those who have grown them that the research I have done has been unable to answer.
-I want to make frozen flatpacks of 454 grams like Hikari's frozen flatpacks of bloodworms, Mysis shrimp, etc. But to get a giant flatpack, I would need enough larvae of the right size collected at the same time, which I am not sure I can get.
In this video, at 2:56 I am guessing there are probably around 60-70 egg rafts in total from what I counted, and I seriously doubt I can collect 60-70 egg rafts a day, but at 4:30 the grown mosquito larvae don't look anywhere near a whole flatpack's worth. If anyone has attempted what I am doing, have you ever managed to get a Hikari flatpack worth from a single batch of larvae, and how many egg rafts would you say you needed?
-As I am a bit strained for rearing space, this is another thing I'd appreciate input on. Does the volume of the rearing container need to have enough surface area to let most or all of the larvae breathe at once, or can they get by with less area than that?
-Finally, I want to add some Vitachem to the larvae before freezing. I thought just adding some squirts in and freezing them would be fine, but I read the following product description by Hikari that gave me pause:
"Bio-Encapsulated With Multi-Vitamins
Vitamins in the animal not the water
Similar to gut loading
Guarantees your pet gets the vitamins"
Obviously I lack the ability to bio-encapsulate my own fish food, so I am concerned: would added Vitachem just wash off into the water before being eaten?
For context, and if it helps to answer the questions, I will go about this by leaving water containers in walking-distance woods, collecting any mosquito eggs on a daily basis, and rearing/preparing the larvae back at home.