Live Feeds Topics

[Reef Nutrition]

Hey everyone,

Chad Clayton here. I am gearing up to present at the Ocean State Reef Aquarium Society's annual event in April. I am going to discuss live feeds and how they are applied to aquariums (also a little about aquaculture). I have a lot of information from past experiences on brine shrimp, mysids, copepods, rotifers, macroalgae and phytoplankton. I was wondering if anyone could chime in with any other live feeds types and how they might be cultured and/or fed in tank. Polychaete worms, amphipods, black worms, isopods and other critters.

I look forward to the discussion!

 

[laga77]

If you get any information on the culturing of Polychaete worms or other marine worms please let me know. I will set up a culture the next day. For now here are my setups for culturing live food. White worms are grown inside of plastic shoe boxes in a wine chiller I picked up cheap. I keep it set at 59F. Black worms are kept at room temp. The upper container is a letter keeper and the lower is a storage box both bought at Menards. There are 2" tall pvc legs under the upper tray and a simple air lift pump in the center. Water level is kept at the bottom of upper tray. There are covers for both trays. The 2 5G aquariums are for live adult brine shrimp and copepods. I harvest the pods by siphon every 2 weeks or so. I also have two BBS cones going so I have live BBS everyday to feed all 6 of my tanks.

 

[Reef Nutrition]

If you get any information on the culturing of Polychaete worms or other marine worms please let me know. I will set up a culture the next day. For now here are my setups for culturing live food. White worms are grown inside of plastic shoe boxes in a wine chiller I picked up cheap. I keep it set at 59F. Black worms are kept at room temp. The upper container is a letter keeper and the lower is a storage box both bought at Menards. There are 2" tall pvc legs under the upper tray and a simple air lift pump in the center. Water level is kept at the bottom of upper tray. There are covers for both trays. The 2 5G aquariums are for live adult brine shrimp and copepods. I harvest the pods by siphon every 2 weeks or so. I also have two BBS cones going so I have live BBS everyday to feed all 6 of my tanks.

Thanks for sharing that information laga77!

Chad

 

[revhtree]

Ooh this should be good!

 

[Lionfish Lair]

I've cultured ghost shrimp, but I don't know if that's something you'd even want to bring up. The best advice I have for culturing them is "RUN!!!! DON'T DO IT!!"

 

[Reef Nutrition]

I've cultured ghost shrimp, but I don't know if that's something you'd even want to bring up. The best advice I have for culturing them is "RUN!!!! DON'T DO IT!!"

Noted. It's another live feed type, so I will mention it, with caution. LOL

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Let's pretend that the cardboard box below is a regular storage container/tote. The black mesh "bowl" is a plastic water garden basket.

I would pick out the berried ghostshrimp and put them in the basket and the basket was suspended in the tote by rigid airline tubing. When the babies dislodged, they would escape their Moms and run out of the basket into the tote. That's where I would scoop them up and put them in a different tank.

Here are the babies. They can immediately take foods such as freeze dried cyclopeeze, which you see in the water as well for size comparison.