Cultivating Live Foods for Fish

[Rrwilson1223]

Started cultivating 3 different types of live food for my fish in the garage.

1. Hatching and raising live brine shrimp. Will gut load them with spirulina powder.
Took the hatched shrimp and placed in 2 separate buckets with aeration. From videos by David Ramsey on YT.
2. Tigger Pods - using spirulina powder and an old 7 gallon ATO tank that came with my RSR750. Got this idea from 40BNasty on YT.
3. White Worms - feeding worms bread with yogurt/nutritional yeast. 3 buckets split from original culture starter ordered by mail. Got this idea from PaulB and David Ramsey on YT.

It’s really just a big experiment for me since there is so much info being shared on here and YouTube. I’ll keep everyone updated as I go. So far, all 3 are coming together.

 

[Rrwilson1223]

Here is a video tour of my fish room where I show each of the cultivation types:

 

[CoralClasher]

Just need your own phytoplankton and you will be set!! Nice setup!!

 

[Rrwilson1223]

Just need your own phytoplankton and you will be set!! Nice setup!!

Haha, I’m definitely looking into that as well. My wife keeps looking at me funny as I show her all the cool new cultures. She just rolls her eyes and says, just keep it in the garage.

 

[Rrwilson1223]

Been a couple of weeks and the Tigger Pods are doing well. Here is a pic in the lighted section. Seems to be where they like to congregate.

 

[HockeyRooster]

Subscribed.

 

[Karen00]

Well done

Started cultivating 3 different types of live food for my fish in the garage.

1. Hatching and raising live brine shrimp. Will gut load them with spirulina powder.
Took the hatched shrimp and placed in 2 separate buckets with aeration. From videos by David Ramsey on YT.
2. Tigger Pods - using spirulina powder and an old 7 gallon ATO tank that came with my RSR750. Got this idea from 40BNasty on YT.
3. White Worms - feeding worms bread with yogurt/nutritional yeast. 3 buckets split from original culture starter ordered by mail. Got this idea from PaulB and David Ramsey on YT.

It’s really just a big experiment for me since there is so much info being shared on here and YouTube. I’ll keep everyone updated as I go. So far, all 3 are coming together.

Well done! I'm following along. Are the terrestrial worms actually called "white worms" or are they grindals?

 

[Rrwilson1223]

Well done

Well done! I'm following along. Are the terrestrial worms actually called "white worms" or are they grindals?

I’m unsure of the scientific name. But they are the ones described in Paul B’s post here:

Live White worms

I just fed my tank Clams, mysis, LRS and live whiteworms which I have aprox a million. I honestly have no idea how people stay in this hobby without feeding live worms. I have been using worms since they were invented by probably Ralph Nader a long time ago. ;Smuggrin Whiteworms stay alive...

www.reef2reef.com

They are surprisingly easy to care for. I split them into multiple buckets, wet the dirt and feed with bread/yogurt.

All my fish go crazy for them. I try to mix them in with other foods throughout the day. The survive in the water for quite a while. The wrasses hunt for them immediately as they hit the water.

 

[Karen00]

I’m unsure of the scientific name. But they are the ones described in Paul B’s post here:

Live White worms

I just fed my tank Clams, mysis, LRS and live whiteworms which I have aprox a million. I honestly have no idea how people stay in this hobby without feeding live worms. I have been using worms since they were invented by probably Ralph Nader a long time ago. ;Smuggrin Whiteworms stay alive...

www.reef2reef.com

They are surprisingly easy to care for. I split them into multiple buckets, wet the dirt and feed with bread/yogurt.

All my fish go crazy for them. I try to mix them in with other foods throughout the day. The survive in the water for quite a while. The wrasses hunt for them immediately as they hit the water.

Nice. Thanks for this!! Sometimes it's easier to care for terrestrial worms than live water foods. I'm trying to get things like pods going but it seems to be taking forever. Haha!

 

[Rrwilson1223]

Worms are still multiplying nicely. Despite my occasional cultivation for feeding some fish in QT. Really easy to care for. Even with temps being higher in the garage than I’d like.

The Pod culture is still taking off. I pulled some out a few days ago for my QT tanks. Changed 2.5 gallons yesterday. It’s pretty easy with the ATO drain on the bottom of the tank. I’ll have to explain that in more detail later.

The brine are still too small to feed. They are growing as I occasionally pull some out and look at them in a small cup. Will update when they grow a little larger.

 

[Rrwilson1223]

White worms are really taking off. This is in 70-80 degree temps in my garage. Doesn’t seem to faze them:

 

[TheGerm]

looking good rrwilson!

I used to culture banana worms and white worms for freshwater fish ~10yrs ago. I always wondered if it was a good idea for the reef, just never looked into it too deeply. Its good to see this here!

 

[Rrwilson1223]

looking good rrwilson!

I used to culture banana worms and white worms for freshwater fish ~10yrs ago. I always wondered if it was a good idea for the reef, just never looked into it too deeply. Its good to see this here!

I can’t take the credit for the original idea. Took it from one of Paul B’s threads. But the fish certainly aren’t complaining. My leopards especially like them. Along the Brine and Tigger Pods, I hope to add quite a bit of variety. Also fixing up some frozen clams here are there. And mixing it with Rod’s food.

 

[Rrwilson1223]

Some updates:

Brine Shrimp were transferred to a plastic bin to increase water volume. As you can see from the video, I’ve got various hatch sizes all together. Should be able to collect some and feed fish soon.

Tigger Pods population is definitely still growing. Pulled a couple of batches to seed some QT tanks last week but it didn’t even put a dent in their numbers.

White worms are still growing in number. I take all the ones crawling on the plastic and scoop them into water for the day. I slowly add some to each QT tank using a turkey baster.