Live Food Discussion Thread

[Lukeluke]

Ohhh this is a bomb of an idea. Thank you so much Lukeluke!! Total sorts me out.

That be fair, stole it from Paul B.

Where in TX are you Lukeluke? I know Meelev (from Meelev's Reef) is also in the DFW area.

My favorite LFS in the locality is Dallas North Aquarium.

Austin area.

 

[Gogol_frag]

That be fair, stole it from Paul B.

Austin area.

Brilliant! Rock on Lukeluke.

I have set things in motion to start my white-worm culture, and my starter-culture arrives next week. My current "design" for the white-worm-factory is to use a combination of Coco-fiber and Organic potting mix as substrate, within Rubber Maid see-through food containers, that'll be kept cold with ice-packs inside a Cooler Bag (like a fabric-ed Cooler with straps). Outside of the above, I am thinking of following the guidance from this video Link.

Let me know of y'all's opinions.

 

[Gogol_frag]

Brilliant! Rock on Lukeluke.

I have set things in motion to start my white-worm culture, and my starter-culture arrives next week. My current "design" for the white-worm-factory is to use a combination of Coco-fiber and Organic potting mix as substrate, within Rubber Maid see-through food containers, that'll be kept cold with ice-packs inside a Cooler Bag (like a fabric-ed Cooler with straps). Outside of the above, I am thinking of following the guidance from this video Link.

Let me know of y'all's opinions.

"Hello World" ... say my white worms. I started with less than ten worms, 5 days ago.

 

[ewanho]

Would the water fleas Moina harm corals like zoa, trumpets? Ok for small wrasses?

 

[eVvoltura]

Man, I thought the state of parrot nutrition was bad!

 

[ReeferSamster]

I feed live blackworms Everyone likes it including some corals like scolies.
Blackworms are key to their success when first getting them to eat. blackworms also live for months in the refrigerator. Just rinse them in COLD water and dump the water. DO that once per day and keep the water level as low as you can, about an inch so they can breathe. Frozen bloodworms are accepted by first brought Copperband butterflies. But they get addicted to them fast. I rotate food around every day.

I do rods food mainly to open up feeding mode in scolys and brains.
The rest of the tank get frozen mysis and live brine shrimp because my fish crew like chasing them around.

 

[Paul B]

That is the precise reason Imanna grow WhiteWorms - all the while praying that my wife doesn't divorce me for them

I am still married for I think about 48 years. No divorce yet. I just hope my wife doesn't find out I store the worms in the back of her underwear drawer.

That be fair, stole it from Paul B.

I was looking for that.

 

[ewanho]

If thats all it takes i would have filled the fridge with worms; but we have a shortage and the regular stores have t had any since covid started

 

[Koh23]

Apologies is its already answered.....

I got baby mandarin, not sure if its tank breed or wild... Tank is 1 year old, lots of rock, refugium glass is filled with pods. But, kinda scared, i see him that he picks and nibble ocasionaly, so i guess there is some food for him.

Question is, years back i cultured phyto, i got soms from friend in bottle, added some plant fertilizer, air pump and light, and everything was great.

Nowdays, i only can get bottled phyto, like seachem or aquaforrest. Can it be used to culture my own phyto?

What else can be cultured at home to serve as mandarin food?

Thanx!

 

[lestat45559]

Thanks Paul for all the great idea. After many revisions, here is the most current version:

The feeder is anchored down by the base to avoid floating away or getting blown around by the reef tank water current. Just a push and a twist on the feeding tube, and the feeder can be removed from the under-sand-anchor:

After pouring in the BBS, you can unscrew the feeding tube from the feeder. The rigid air tube is compression fitted to the screw-like connector. You can put in a blind-plug to close the hole without getting your hand wet. The screw-like connector is loosely fitted until the last turn.

Here is the top side with the funnel. I have some longer rigid air tube on order. I'm just using the short rigid air tube from my phyto culture for fitting/testing purpose.

Here is the under-sand-base and the feeder:

Everything is modular design. If you have a thinner/thicker air-tube, just need to re-print the screw-like compression connector. If you have a different size funnel, just re-print the funnel-airtube connector.

The screens are changeable as well. I know these holes are too big. I'll print some with tighter holes later. These are just the few prototype screens I printed for fitting purpose. They print faster with less dense print out.

The next step is to make the under-sand-mounting leg exchangeable, so that it could be buried in various places and situations.

Now, I need to get some fish to feed. lol

 

[lestat45559]

Question would you mind sending me the file for the 3D printing station I need to make one for my system. I have no problem with paying for your coding time.

Thanks
Brian