Microworms

[Foo Hong]

another fry food. next pls.

[Dr Hsu]

Have given up my microworm cultures - too messy and has time lag if you want good yield. Gone to vinegar eels, if I use them at all....

Regards,

Li Chieh

"Good judgement is based on experience, and much of that is based on prior bad judgement!"
"The more I know, the more I know that there is more that I don't know!"

[Myron Tay]

I have a different experience. I have found them to be no fuss foods. Just have to make sure that the cultures are checked periodically and they can last forever.

Have kept three separate containers of them so that once one is exhausted, can go on to the other two, while waiting for the first one to replenish by itself. :)

quote:
Have given up my microworm cultures - too messy and has time lag if you want good yield. Gone to vinegar eels, if I use them at all....

Regards,

Li Chieh

"Good judgement is based on experience, and much of that is based on prior bad judgement!"
"The more I know, the more I know that there is more that I don't know!"

[Foo Hong]

problem is they attract flies/maggots and repel....my wife!

[Myron Tay]

The secret of my success is to keep the breathing holes some enough and keep it far away from the wife. I have the occasional baby cockroach but have not have any more problems after I cleaned up the containers and kept the lid tight. :)

quote:
problem is they attract flies/maggots and repel....my wife!

[Dr Hsu]

quote:Originally posted by Myron Tay

Just have to make sure that the cultures are checked periodically and they can last forever.

Have kept three separate containers of them so that once one is exhausted, can go on to the other two, while waiting for the first one to replenish by itself. :)

That's what I mean....too much work! :D

Wait till you try vinegar eels.......

Regards,

Li Chieh

"Good judgement is based on experience, and much of that is based on prior bad judgement!"
"The more I know, the more I know that there is more that I don't know!"

[Samuel Phan]

Hi Dr Hsu,

What is the yield of the vineger eels???

To us for estimation ... if for 1000 fries ... what will be the number of VE cultures required?

With Best Regards,
Samuel Phan

[Dr Hsu]

1000 fries! Maybe a barrel of vinegar:)

Frankly I don't really know. I feed sparingly, maybe only for 2-5/6 days - just long enough for the fries to get large enough to take daphnia.

for large spawns like that, possibly best to use microworms as the yield is high and with that amount of fries, you likely don't have to worry about overfeeding!

Regards,

Li Chieh

"Good judgement is based on experience, and much of that is based on prior bad judgement!"
"The more I know, the more I know that there is more that I don't know!"

[Samuel Phan]

Point taken ... actually I was using the 1000 as a benchmark.
I am beginning to realise that large spawn are very difficult to maintain and get good fishes out of them.

A manageable spawn size of maybe 300 will be better.

[Samuel Phan]

Someone posted this link on BettaHan.

http://www.petfish.net/max-micro.htm

Samuel Phan **** Chiat
(Creator Of Sam's Betta Colour Rendezvous)

[Foo Hong]

Sam,
can you bring a small culture of MW s for me to night s club mtg? My fingers are itchy.

[Samuel Phan]

I dun have leh ... maybe have to ask Edwin.
Nvm .... I ask for you ... was thinking of starting one too.

quote:
Sam,
can you bring a small culture of MW s for me to night s club mtg? My fingers are itchy.


Samuel Phan **** Chiat
(Creator Of Sam's Betta Colour Rendezvous)

[Myron Tay]

Sam, next time you have a large spawn, I can be of service. <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>

In any case, if you guys need some MWs, you can always pick up from me at Pasir Ris (since I am not coming down tonight for Comm meeting). Just give me a call before you come. :)

quote:
Point taken ... actually I was using the 1000 as a benchmark.
I am beginning to realise that large spawn are very difficult to maintain and get good fishes out of them.

A manageable spawn size of maybe 300 will be better.

[Samuel Phan]

had a number of large spawns ... all die ... not easy.
btw ... thanks for your offer on the MW.

C u next meeting then ...

quote:
Sam, next time you have a large spawn, I can be of service. <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>

In any case, if you guys need some MWs, you can always pick up from me at Pasir Ris (since I am not coming down tonight for Comm meeting). Just give me a call before you come. :)

quote:
Point taken ... actually I was using the 1000 as a benchmark.
I am beginning to realise that large spawn are very difficult to maintain and get good fishes out of them.

A manageable spawn size of maybe 300 will be better.





Samuel Phan **** Chiat
(Creator Of Sam's Betta Colour Rendezvous)

[Foo Hong]

I will need plenty fo MWs in no time. Spawns and spawns coming up or planned. Also need to start collecting sytro boxes from market stalls, running out of breeding tanks.

[Myron Tay]

Good information about culturing microworms:

http://www.bettaclub.org.sg/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=805

You should also know about microworms and its link to ventralless fries:

http://www.bettaclub.org.sg/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=246

[Myron Tay]

Question: How do you guys who use this maintain your microworms between spawns?

[Alex Lim]

i rely on a mixture of MWs and daphnias to reduce over-dependency on any one kind of food. not really much of maintanance between spawns. but if i need urgent MWs, the best way i tried to speed up production is by using a new cereal culture and yeast (mixed thoroughly) coupled with warm water. the heat from the water somewhat spurs the MWs to full production and between 3-6 hours, they are ready to culture. i also subject the urgent culture under my table lamp (5w).

[Myron Tay]

quote:Originally posted by Alex Lim

i also subject the urgent culture under my table lamp (5w).


Why so? Placing them under strong light increases their reproduction rate?

[Alex Lim]

Myron,

not really, this lousy lamp of mine gives out a lot of heat. the idea is to use it to hasten the MWs growth and reproduction rate. that's why warm water was used in the mixture. any heat source will suffice. but it tends to burn out faster too. if this is jused, frequent addings of yeast is needed and the culture's max. life of two weeks (for me) is somewhat reduced to about 7-10 days. just an experience. have you tried using other medium that can hasten production rate? and also, MWs as i learned seems to have little nutritional value though i think they are critical to ensure the survival of fries for first few days. do your fries having been fed with MWs grow at slower rate?

[Myron Tay]

quote:Originally posted by Alex Lim

Myron,

not really, this lousy lamp of mine gives out a lot of heat. the idea is to use it to hasten the MWs growth and reproduction rate. that's why warm water was used in the mixture. any heat source will suffice. but it tends to burn out faster too. if this is jused, frequent addings of yeast is needed and the culture's max. life of two weeks (for me) is somewhat reduced to about 7-10 days. just an experience. have you tried using other medium that can hasten production rate? and also, MWs as i learned seems to have little nutritional value though i think they are critical to ensure the survival of fries for first few days. do your fries having been fed with MWs grow at slower rate?
I see. I do not use heat but I do use instant quaker oats (microworms don't take to the non-instant type - trust me, I tried). Works for me. As to the nutritional value of microworms, I balance that by feeding my fries baby brine shrimp after the initial two days or so. I feel it is important to give them at least two types of food and constantly experimenting with other foods to see if the fries will take to them. Not sure about the growth rate though.

[Alex Lim]

Myron,

i only stick to the "old man" brand of oatmeals and gardenia bread. the oatmeal should be the same one you mentioned. yah, two types of food (daphnia and MWs). just found out there is a third kind in my breeding tank... the all natural infusoria.. finally figure out what they are in action~

[Myron Tay]

quote:Originally posted by Kelvin Tan


microworms can and should be clean by dipping the toothpick with worms into clean dish of water and wait for them to sink, and then use dropper to transfer the cleaner worms without the substrate which cloud the water right?

[Myron Tay]

quote:Originally posted by Sam Grillo

Well this was unexpected, no conditioning just normal feeding no heater just room temp(around 75) i noticed the male trying to court her yesterday and all i did was add a small indian almound leaf to the tank last night and this morning they were both under the leaf and there was a very nice nest under it and they wrapped a few times from 9 to 9:45 this morning. i saw maybe 50 eggs get put into the nest. 1 problem, i didnt plan it so my mw culture was just cleaned yesterday:( how long will it take to get back up? what can i feed them until then? Whoa...a tricky situation. I would suggest getting the microworm culture back up as soon as you can, and feed whatever microworms you can find as the culture develops. Luckily, it is a small spawn, which should do find with the infusoria already in the breeding tank.