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Re: Live Foods Digest V2 #20
>>I am currently keeping a culture of Grindal worms. They have been slowing
>>down of late, and it notice a lot of little white globules. When i sprincle
>>pablum on them each day even the golobule wiggle. This prompted me to get
>>out the microscope and see what was going on in there. Well it turns out
>>these globules are little translucent beetles of some sort. about as wide
>>as a grindal but only twice as long as wide. they seem to be climbing over
>>each other, and over the worms. They do have two black spots on their
>>backs, the rest of hte body as i say is similar to the worms. Question. Are
>>they related, ie part of the lifecylce, or just friends, or are they eating
>>my worms? (would they make good fish food)? Thanks.
>>
Sound like what we call mites here in the UK. I simply immerse the culture
in a bucket of water and stir vigirously. The mites are lighter than water
and can be poured off. Simply pour the remains of the culture through a
fine mesh net and squeeze the excess moisture out and return the culture to
the steralised (hot water or nuke in microwave). You may have to add a
little more compost as some will wash away.
SOmetime cultures also become infested with springtails and the same method
can be used. Both mites and springtails can be collected in a fine mesh net
when pouring off and fed to your fish.
>
>>What is the best way to harvest vinegar eels to feed to fry? I've read that
>>I should hang a strip of scouring pad in the vinegar, the eels climb in,
>>then you lift up the pad and the vinegar drips out, leaving the eels, and
>>you swish the pad around in the tank to release the eels into the water. It
>>doesn't seem to be working. The eels apparently aren't going into the
>>scouring pad, plus it seems like I'm putting vinegar into the fry tank.
>>I've tried pouring the vinegar through baby brine shrimp nets, different
>>types of cloth, coffee filters and even paper towels (which worked best,
>>but not well enough to really use that method). Any suggestions would be
>>appreciated. Thanks.
>>[Rick & Dana Scott]
>>
I to use a coffee filter, whilst some worms do indeed pass through such a
filter enough remain attached to the filter to rinse into the tank to feed
the fish.
Whilst I culture micro (vinegar eels) I use very little as livebearer fry
can take much bigger food. However I culture mine in a sugar solution
(details on our web pages) and this solution will not affect the PH ect of
a tank as any sugar residue is used by bacteria to reduce nitrate / nitrite
(I can never remember which). One of my local club members who breeds a lot
of egglayers just sets up a drip feed system from the stright culture with
no problems using sugar solution.
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