White Worms
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This is part of my White Worm Room. Because they cannot stand our high summer temperatures, I built a room that was enclosed with coolite for insulation. A refrigerator without a door was built-in at the rear with only the doorway in the room. The actual fridge door was put on the entry. This was sufficient to stop the temperatures rising too high. |
The boxes held a mixture of peanut shells and peat moss. Small sheets of glass were placed in several places on top of the mixture. Some cheese and dog biscuits were placed under each sheet. The white worms would come to feed under the glass, so were easily removed to feed the fish. You need to find someone with a starter culture to be able to begin.
Micro Worms Grow micro worms in plastic icecream containers. Add a paste of one minute oats to the container (6 to 12 mm thick). Add a starter culture. Put a glass cover on the container. After a week, the microworms will begin climbing up the side of the container. Scrape them off with a spatula and feed them to small fish. When the container begins to smell, save a culture, clean it out and start again.
Paramecium Paramecium are tiny single celled creatures which abound in ponds. Take an icecream container, put in a lettuce leaf, cover it with a layer of boiling water, let it cool, then fill up the container with water from an established pond. The few paramecium from this water will multiply rapidly as there are no predators. After 5 days, srain some of the water through a cloth (handkerchief). The paramecium are so small they will flow through the cloth while the lettuce leaf is retained. Por this water into the fry tank 5 times per day. Top up the container with more water and lettuce leaves. After another week, start another culture. (You need to have at least 3 cultures going at once to feed fry from 1 good hatching).
Brine Shrimp Buy brine
shrimp eggs from your Pet Store and keep unused closed and in the refrigerator.
Cut the base off a plastic softdrink bottle, drill a hole through the lid,
and poke some airline hose through the lid for 2 cm. Turn the bottle upside
down, make a wire handle to hold it on a nail, and loop the airline back
up higher than the bottle. Half fill the bottle with water, then add a
handfull of salt. (At least 1 tablespoon). Put in some eggs. A quarter
of a teaspoon is sufficient for several thousand fry, so don't put in too
much!). The air coming through the hose will circulate the eggs through
the water. After a day and a half at 27 degrees Celcius, the eggs are hatched.
(Hatching times depend on temperature). Turn off the air and let the eggs
settle. Some eggs will have air in them and float to the surface. Some
will sink below the 2 cm high hose entry. After 5 minutes the brine shrimp
will congregate above the hose. Put a handkerchief over a container, and
lower the hose into it so it starts to drain. The brine shrimp will be
caught in the handkerchief. Feed them to the fish, and return the water
to the bottle. Repeat a few hours later, then start the process again.
I have now updated my Brine Shrimp Page.
Discus, Mexican Walking Fish, Ancistrus Catfish, Albino Corydoras Catfish, Goldfish, Mystery Snails
