Maybe dumb question about microfoods for FBN:

[vistajpdf]

I have this lovely but small water feature - a self-contained little cascading waterfall - in my backyard that has become a green slime bowl since tadpoles appeared several months ago and the boys refused to let me "run" it so as to not disrupt or harm the tadpoles. Anyway, in my panic over finding "Newty" some live food in a hurry, I happened to take a peak, wondering if there was Daphnia, etc. I saw small white worms/larva and what looked like mosquito larva in there. Would they be safe to feed the C. Orientalis 5-6 week old larva? I'd hate to introduce any pathogens and I've hesitated to search for food in the wild for that reason. This water feature has been in our yard for about 2 years and we don't have pest treatments done ever. However, neighbors might, and frogs visiting our yard could pick up stuff from theirs? Anyway, does anyone have any idea how safe this would be?

I know Sludgemonkey suggested I attempt white worms. What's this "starter" culture and where do I find it?

Thanks and btw, Newty seems fine in his own tank and doesn't appear to be swimming oddly???? I swear, today, I thought he was dead. I think I was looking at his beautiful orange belly amongst the fake plants on the surface though he was perfectly fine about an hour before when I fed him. He even ate very small frozen/thawed bloodworms this evening - a first.

Dana

 

[Nathan050793]

I know Sludgemonkey suggested I attempt white worms. What's this "starter" culture and where do I find it?

I know Dawn (Otterwoman) has some really great white-worm cultures available, you could try contacting her about them.

Also, there is a great page here about collecting, hatching, and feeding mosquito larvae as food- http://www.ausaqua.net/files/mozzies1.html

I've used this method before and it seemed to work fairly well. There are also some good live food discussions in the appropriate section of the forum.

Good Luck!

 

[vistajpdf]

Thanks, Nathan. Do you think my little pond is insufficient as it sounds a lot like the method in the article you sent although it has been frequented by a variety of other things (frogs, lizards) that could contaminate the whole thing?

Dana

 

[Nathan050793]

It's true that mosquito larvae collected from the pond could be a vector for contamination; however, if you collect the egg rafts, the larvae that hatch out should be fine.

Additionally, you could set-up tubs of water specifically to attract mosquitos (the link does a good job of explaining this). If you keep track of them, the larvae from the tubs would be fine. When you start seeing pupae/late stage larvae, you can dump the tub and start over,so as to avoid adding to the local mosquito population.

Just make sure your neighbors don't see this.