I currently feed my fish a wide variety of frozen foods. They love bloodworms, but will eat about anything. When I go out collecting I will bring back scud if I find them. From time to time, I get brine shrimp from the petstore, but this is about all the live food I will feed them. What other things can I look for to bring back for my shiners/darters. Info from Natureserve shows that they eat a variety of things from mayflies to small crayfish. Firstly, I wouldn't know what most of those small insects look like. I do see mayfly larvae often, but never brought any back. What have any of you had success with?
Expanding food for fish
Started by
Guest_jblaylock_*
, Apr 01 2011 10:16 AM
8 replies to this topic
#2
Guest_fundulus_*
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Posted 01 April 2011 - 10:54 AM
Small or diced earthworms.
#3
Guest_Newt_*
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Posted 01 April 2011 - 11:05 AM
If you take a fine net and sweep through shallow waters of a pond or swamp, you can get all kinds of goodies. Microcrustaceans like daphnia, copepods, ostracods, etc., and mosquito and phantom midge larvae (glassworms) are gobbled up by most small fish. Sweeping through the vegetation or leaf litter will get you additional species, including bloodworms, scuds, and isopods.
Just throw out the larger bugs until you have a good eye for IDing them. Most beetles and hemipterans are likely to be rejected, and some are predatory, as are dragonfly and damselfly nymphs.
It's pretty easy to culture daphnia and copepods, especially outdoors. Just periodically toss a small amount of crushed vegetables, fish food, or grass clippings into the tub to feed the bacteria and protozoa that will eventually feed your daphnia. Change the water when it gets nasty. Strain the drained water through a fine net to recover any daphnia. This setup will also attract mosquitos, which can be a good or a bad thing. If you harvest pretty frequently (every 4-5 days), you can get the skeeter larvae out before they metamorphose.
Just throw out the larger bugs until you have a good eye for IDing them. Most beetles and hemipterans are likely to be rejected, and some are predatory, as are dragonfly and damselfly nymphs.
It's pretty easy to culture daphnia and copepods, especially outdoors. Just periodically toss a small amount of crushed vegetables, fish food, or grass clippings into the tub to feed the bacteria and protozoa that will eventually feed your daphnia. Change the water when it gets nasty. Strain the drained water through a fine net to recover any daphnia. This setup will also attract mosquitos, which can be a good or a bad thing. If you harvest pretty frequently (every 4-5 days), you can get the skeeter larvae out before they metamorphose.
#4
Guest_exasperatus2002_*
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Posted 01 April 2011 - 11:37 AM
Easiest way to find mayfly larvae is by turning over a rock. They'll be found in the faster current clinging underneath the rocks.
#5
littlen
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Posted 01 April 2011 - 01:01 PM
Pick up or start a culture of wingless fruit flies from your LFS. Not only are they zero maintenance(for the few weeks/months, depending) that the culture lives, but they breed and replenish their numbers quickly. The shiners will love hitting them off the surface of the water. If you have any herps and are constantly buying adult crickets, try throwing a moistened Tupperware container full of dirt or ground coconut husk in with them and let the females lay a bunch of eggs. At 80-85 degrees they should hatch out in just over a week. The pinheads can also be used to broadcast on the surface, thus giving you another terrestrial insect to feed. If you’d like me to elaborate any more, just throw me a PM.
Edited by littlen, 01 April 2011 - 01:04 PM.
Nick L.
#6
Guest_jblaylock_*
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Posted 02 April 2011 - 08:41 AM
Thanks everyone for the info. I have been debating on starting a scud culture but haven't done it yet. In reading over the diets for some fish, I see a lot of names that darters eat. Does anybody feeds these to your fish? dipteran larvae, ephemeropterans, and hydracarinians, caddisflies? Has anyone used small crayfish for food for larger darters? There is 2nd order creek need my house PACKED with crayfish. If darters do eat them, how small do they need to be?
#7
Guest_gzeiger_*
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Posted 02 April 2011 - 06:23 PM
Dipteran larva is a broad term, but I've never seen one my fish wouldn't eat (mosquitos may be difficult for some darter species in a deep tank).
#8
Guest_Newt_*
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Posted 03 April 2011 - 09:03 PM
I've fed most of those to darters or other small fishes. Collecting mayflies and caddisflies, while fun, requires a lot of time for a low yield. Slackwater dipterans, like mosquito and phantom midge larvae, can be harvested in large numbers quickly. Hydracarinans (water mites) can be harvested along with dipteran larvae, daphnia, and copepods using a fine mesh net. I would avoid live crayfish; if one is slightly too large or crafty for the darters, it could live and grow undetected in the tank until it is large enough to threaten the darters. You could freeze them, and chop up any too large for the darters to swallow. Many darters like to eat snails, and greensides seem to prefer them to all else, but snails are secondary hosts for a lot of parasites. Use with caution.
#9
Guest_EricaWieser_*
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Posted 03 April 2011 - 09:39 PM
My darters loved snails. One method that I think would avoid parasites is if you take a spare 10 gallon tank, bucket, tub, etc, and put some pond snails in there along with some fish flakes, pellets, washed vegetables, whatever you want to feed them, and then just overfeed them like crazy so they lay lots and lots of eggs. Then you can toss the adults, drain the tank, fill it with fresh water, and let the eggs hatch, and I bet the eggs wouldn't have any parasites. Those would be safe to feed to your darters.Many darters like to eat snails, and greensides seem to prefer them to all else, but snails are secondary hosts for a lot of parasites. Use with caution.
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