Julius Toledo I love that, thank you!

I want to see a video of that! Sounds cool!

Thank you! Glad to hear it is helpful 😊👍 I am glad you appreciate my cricket impersonation as well, though I want to see a video of you Daphnia impression...do you have to be underwater to do it?

I trained my daphnias to swim very fast around my coffee mug so it stays warm.

Tony Altobello It took a while to perfect that 😊👍 I am glad you appreciated it !

DebTim A CANADIAN Girl Thank you so much Deb, I hope you enjoy your weekend as well 👍 My best to fun-loving Humphrey!

Stacey B Thank you for watching, i am glad it is helpful. 😊👍

j conrad Thank you, I am glad to know that it is helpful. 😊👍

Robert Anthony you are welcome, and thank you for watching!

Shelley G. Thank you, that's just what I was hoping for. 😄👍

bebebutterfield1 Thank you! 😊👍

John Zimm You’re welcome! The scuds should be an excellent option for you. 😊👍

Fresh Falcon You’re very welcome, thank you for watching! 👍

colinbarsby I appreciate it very much, Colin!

Turbo Fish Thank you! 😊👍

E. K. Rendtt Thank you! Bioactive has been marvelous, I plan on doing even more bioactive setups in the future. 😊👍

Michael Fabregas Thank you! Great idea... I think I will try to do an animal tour for 4,000 subscribers...which should be coming quite soon! 👍

Lumpydog I’m glad it is helpful, thanks for subscribing! 👍

pecktec Thank you! I am glad you appreciate it! 😊

Green Thumb Aquariums Thank you, glad to hear it! You're right...the only downside to scuds is their tendency to nibble plants. A good, hardy strain of Daphnia comes close, and no plant nibbling 👍

Scowling Wolf Glad to know it was useful! Thank you for watching! 👍

Aquatic Eclection Thank you for watching! 👍

H.C. Aqua Thank you for your kind words, I am very glad to hear this video is inspirational. 😊👍 I remember how difficult it was to get live foods when I was there on Oahu...I had a few species, but was unable to source many others.

Michel Haineault you are welcome!! de rien! 😊👍

Thank you kindly! Glad you liked it!

@@Aquarimax I will try some of the processes of it... Really appreciate you. You are a good teacher

T Ago thank you, I really appreciate your positive feedback! If the worms are flat, and crawl much like a slug or snail crawls, they are probably planaria. If, instead, they are more like tiny, thin earthworms in shape and manner of locomotion, they are probably detritus worms. In either case, they may well have hitchhiked in on the plants. The good news is that they are unlikely to be a problem. If their numbers begin to boom, it is usually a sign of excessive nutrients...a symptom rather than a cause. With just 20 of them visible in the overflow, it sounds like nutrients are probably under control, although doubtless there are others elsewhere in the system. 👍

@@Aquarimax I've had problems keeping water chemistry balanced. Would these be a food source? worth cultivating? Really appreciate your quick response & of course - I'm now a subscriber.

T Ago If they are planaria, I would not bother trying to culture them as food, though some fish will eat them. If they appear to be detritus worms, those can be cultured as a food source for small fish. Glad to help, and thanks for subscribing! 😊👍

RJ45 Blackworms have been a popular request...I have never cultured them, but it appears that I need to!

Geena Re Great suggestions! I’ve done one on mosquito larvae: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gJZombWivdO5noE.html

Unlucky Good suggestion! I those are definitely on my to-do list. 👍

I have a cyclops culture to feed with my CPDs, but It's seems to be imposible to culture enough for even one diner a week. I did not found a lot of nformation about It, do you ever tried culture them? What is the key for succes?

Thom I have indirectly cultured them along with daphnia and scuds. They don’t seem easy to culture in great numbers. A small daphnia species, microworms, and especially newly hatched brine shrimp are more easily produced foods.

​@@Aquarimax Thank you! I separated them from a daphnia culture, months ago, they are okay but don't really grow in numbers. I will try microworms next for sure!

Thom my CPDs loved microworms 👍

Mosquito larvae. We know the cons but it becomes N/A if none are left alive.

Oysterman Thank you! I remember listening to Cory's podcast episode about that. 👍 This has been my experience: In a tank with fish that keep the scuds under control, the scuds will breed in the tank, providing snacks for the fish, but they really don't bother the plants. In a shrimp-only tank, or a tank with tiny fish, they can reproduce unchecked, and reach a population density where they start attacking the plants.

Anna Varty My C. pygmaeus liked microworms. The worms sink, so as long as the substrate will permit the fish to reach the worms, it will work out well. 👍

airplane george Mosquito larvae are a great fish food. I made a video about that too: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gJZombWivdO5noE.html

Small forest dweller Glad to hear this is helpful! I must confess I still use some commercial foods, but I like to provide as many more natural foods as I can. 👍

Mundo Money 🤣👍

Thought I was watching heisenberg tell me about live food for a minute

Welcome! Which fish would you be feeding? There are certainly many fish that eat aquatic isopods are part of their natural diet.

@@Aquarimax just in general say . One's persons theory was the exoskeleton would be to tough for them. That made no sense personally. Im talking just a few as you find them, not so much as a staple. Thx.

Mark Haunert Got it. Isopods vary in the toughness of the exoskeleton, and fish vary in their ability to eat crunchy foods...so I would say that there are certainly many species of fish that could and would from eating terrestrial isopods, and some that would not. 👍

@@Aquarimax wow, didn't think that was that big of difference between species. Thanks for responding. 👍

Raindrop Services Thank you! Some live foods that are great for bettas (in addition to mosquitos) are Daphnia, grindal worms, rice flour beetle larvae, and flightless fruit flies.

Yanji Jay Here is my video on culturing rice flour beetles: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ebuJZc2Vqd-4YZc.html it explains the entire process. 👍

Yanji Jay That can sometimes be a problem, but when I raised bettas with walterworms, I just kept the bottom of the tank scrupulously clean, and didn’t have any finnage issues with my betta fry. 👍

THE NEON TETRA PRO GAMER Tubifex works can be a good food, and I agree, fish really go after them, but depending on the source, they can harbor some nasty bacteria.

chello ardra You’re very welcome!!

NakedNelson Great idea--I will need to do a snail culture video as well. I currently keep ramshorns and MTS snails, so that will be fairly simple to do. Are you keeping puffers?

Aquarimax Yes, one South American Puffer (Colomesus asellus). I've been trying to grow cultures of all three snails. MTS has been easy but due to people claiming they break beaks I'm not using them for food. Both the ramshorn and pond snails are propagating but are dying off in large numbers as well. I'm suspicious of shell erosion being the culprit. The MTS don't seem to be getting it due to their harder shell I'm assuming but both pond and ramshorn are obviously struggling. Could be Portland's soft water. I'm using cuttlebone to increase calcium intake but water changes probably nullify any mineral buildup in the water column. I'm very unsure of how to raise those minerals and especially calcium back up in the changed water. I'm probably doing more than a few things wrong in my approach though.

NakedNelson It sounds like soft water and possibly low pH are causing your snails some issues. As you say, a little cuttlebone may not be enough...you could try a thin layer of crushed coral substrate. If the water changes are causing a temporary lowering of pH until the buffers kick in, that could be an issue as well. What is your setup like? I used to keep pea puffers (I probably will again...) I used to raise snails to feed them, along with Moina, scuds, etc. What other live foods do you offer your puffer?

NakedNelson NakedNelson It sounds like soft water and possibly low pH are causing your snails some issues. As you say, a little cuttlebone may not be enough...you could try a thin layer of crushed coral substrate. If the water changes are causing a temporary lowering of pH until the buffers kick in, that could be an issue as well. What is your setup like? I used to keep pea puffers (I probably will again...) I used to raise snails to feed them, along with Moina, scuds, etc. What other live foods do you offer your puffer?

Crushed coral is something I will be trying again in addition to the cuttlebone. I had tried it in the past but gave up on it after a couple months because it was easier to clean the tank bare. I've also reduced the water changes I do on the ramshorn tank to 40% every other week because I'm worried that the more water changes I do the more the mineral/calcium levels will fluctuate. Thus causing poor shell construction and worse shell erosion than I have now. I'm restricted to two ten gallon live food grow-out tanks (the girlfriend has her boundaries). One tank is being used for the ramshorns and the other has a mix of MTS and pond snails. Each have dual sponge filters, internal heaters, and really basic Aqueon T8 light fixtures. The MTS tank has a mix of old ADA Amazonia and coral sand from previous tanks and the ramshorn is bare bottom. I feed both tanks every 4th day a mix of blanched spinach and Tetra Pro ReptoMin (a turtle pellet high in calcium). Due to inconsistent snail reproduction I unfortunately haven't been feeding live foods to most of my fish. I feed the mojority of them frozen proteins or prepped veggies, and on occasion various Hikari pellets. The only live food I have going right now are microworms for raising various fry. As you likely pieced together the critical reason I've been trying to raise ramshorn and pond snails is to keep our puffers beak worn down. I'm sure you don't need details beyond that so that's the details. Sorry for the long reply. A final note: Found this a while ago (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nZ1od8mSt7KZZp8.html). Mark is trying crushed egg shell as a calcium booster. Have you ever tried this?

goodall1bay They are very attractive to so many fish! I am surprised they survive that long in marine conditions. 👍

Aquarimax I have tried live daphnia several times and to my surprise some seem to survive upto 20 mins. Not always, but often. Usually they are eaten shortly after a few mins. P

goodall1bay Great to know, thanks for sharing that information. 👍

Aeron BluLeaf I talked to one person who had some, but he ended up selling all his stock I believe, maybe I should check back with him 👍

Jay Tee 👍 are you more interested in a video about hatching BBS, or a producing culture with all life stages?

John Zimm you can contact me on my KZfaq ‘about’ tab, and it can help you out directly, or you can visit Aquabid.com, they are also available there.

Dandy Da G Good question...daphnia need small suspended particles in the water, while you really want a shrimp tank to have good water clarity for appearances’ sake, at least. Shrimp would probably eat dead daphnia, I’m not sure if they would hunt them down though.

Lori B I believe I have seen my Cherry shrimp scraping them off of the substrate. I feed microworms pretty heavily and don’t seem to have many problems.

Thomas Ashe You could, but moving from microworms (or baby brine shrimp) to daphnia would be better, especiallly after a couple of days after they become free-swimming.

Kenneth Clay Good suggestion! I have raised a few different types of fairy shrimp, and they can definitely be a viable food, although many species are difficult to culture multigenerationally. They end up being a food more like brine shrimp...you hatch and feed a batch, and then hatch another batch...

John Zimm it seems to be down at the moment, but you can email me at the email on my KZfaq ‘about’ tab.

How many days does it take to feed all of the different types?

Yurou Shi they need to eat once they are swimming freely. You can offer infusoria or vinegar eels as a first food for a few days to endure that the highest number of fry survive, as I did, or you can immediately offer the slightly larger baby brine shrimp.

Big thanks ❤️

Yurou Shi you are welcome! 😊👍

Amit Sharma Thank you, I am glad my video is helpful! I think the best option for you, of you can’t find daphnia locally, is to purchase dry daphnia eggs from eBay. Is that possible in your area?

@@Aquarimax Thanks Sir for a quick reply, sir how much cold temp daphnia can survive i want to setup my daphnia tank on the roof where natural light came , is it ok please tell me

Amit Sharma temperature will depend on the species, but my daphnia can survive at temperatures near freezing, with a thin sheet of ice forming on the surface of their bucket. They don’t breed partcularly quickly when it is that cold, but they do survive it,

lallygaber I hear you...i hardly ever use them as food anymore...🤣

Carmen Patata Anaranjada I need to get a guest interview for that, as my wife has specifically requested that I not culture any roaches. Maybe Jeremiah could do a guest spot?

excellent, thank you both for the input! good idea on testing them out before going the culture route. I will look up those other varieties of roach, I haven't heard of them. another idea is a earthworm farm, a current project I am researching. as always thanks for the great content and always replying to comments!

Jeremiah Natte sounds good!

Carmen Patata Anaranjada Thank you! That is a good suggestion, I have several years' experience culturing composting worms and yet I have never done a culture video for those...that's another for the list!

Dexter Razbor If you want something that wcan live an multiply one the substrate for Corydoras catfish, scuds (amphipods’ can work well, as long as they have some places in the tank that are inaccessible to the catfish.

@@Aquarimax Is it necessary to make some kind of shelters where these creatures could hide from the fish, live and reproduce?

Dexter Razbor Some driftwood and/or rockwork underwhich the Corydoras could not forage would help the scuds reproduce successfully. I did a similar thing in a goldfish tank.

@@Aquarimax what do you think about idea to put rocks for scods UNDER the sand: by this way the corydoras will find the scods into/under the sand/gravel.?

Dexter Razbor it might work. The main thing is to make crevices where the Cories cannot reach. 👍

Jokke That is a popular request! I will definitely work on it, thank you! 👍

Spivey C It depends on the species and age of the springtails, but in general, I would say they are a little too large. Fruit flies are as well. My favorite live foods for guppy fry are microworms and baby brine shrimp. 👍

R Valasini Great question! I culture my own probiotics for human consumption...I would be interested in finding out more about doing that for aquarium fish. 👍

@@Aquarimax I also make my own for my consumption. I have been wondering this weather the same probiotics can be used for my fish. I started looking into it about a month ago and came up with some interesting stuff used, in traditional aquaponics. One site i came across mentions it sayhinjg that you can use the same for animals and fisheries, as it has multi purpose uses, even for every day cleanig...

@@Aquarimax Ps.. you have inspired me to culture my own live food for my betta and his tank mates :)

Kody Dryden-Conway from this list, definitely appropriately-sized crickets, bean beetles, and some of the small to medium isopods. I would also try flour beetle larvae.

Okay thanks

Kody Dryden-Conway 👍

Kodiak Bear Is the mold covering the entire culture surface? Can you confirm that there are any viable worms left in it? I would be cautious about antifungal Meda as it would be difficult to calculate an effective dosage.

it is a green mold with white fuzz, I had a dying culture and tried to make this one but it is moldy. There is still a layer of worms on the bottom that are not moldy and look healthy.

Kodiak Bear I would try scraping off the moldy layer to recover as many of the healthy worms as possible, and starting a culture in another fresh container. Cover as much of the surface of the medium with a layer of healthy worms/older medium as possible. You have a chance of getting rid of the mold that way.

Aquarimax could the reason I have mold in the new one be too.much yeast? I am thinking this because it is looks like a different type of mold than the first culture

Kodiak Bear possibly, but generally yeast helps keep mold out.

Just One Animator A little ‘Max Headroom’, anyone?

Armenestra Patey I have done so in small numbers. It is much like ‘culturing’ mosquito larvae, but not very productive compared to some other live foods. It is probably much more practical in large bodies of water.

Peter Pzazz Yes it is, within the continental USA.

Aquarimax Pets / Gee thnx Russ, that was immensely helpful.

Peter Pzazz sorry, I think I misunderstood your question. 😳 you can contact me at Aquarimax.com if you would like to purchase some. I was trying to clarify that they are available, but only within the continental USA, since many people from outside that area ask about buying from me. Sorry about that.

Aquarimax Pets / No problem Russ.

Aquarimax Pets / Russ, how much do you charge for your daphnia strain?

Justin Fish Good question- those are gold barbs. 👍

they look awesome

Justin Fish Thank you! They're an attractive but very hardy fish 👍

cazey000 that is a Damon diadema, also known as a Tailless Whip Scorpion. Deadly to insects, harmless to humans. 👍

Dinosaurs terroir World I'm working on a mealworm one. 👍

Aquarimax are crickets noisy sometimes and smelly because some people on KZfaq said that they are noisy,smelly,they don't have much protein in them etc is that true???????

Dinosaurs terroir World Noisy, definitely. Smelly, in some situations. That can be reduced. They are not the most proteinaceous insect but they have a fair amount.

Aquarimax I have some happy news😃😃 yesterday I was checking on my superworm darkling beetle colony and they were just doing there normal stuff as usually and I placed in a piece of carrot in there container and I left them for two hours then I checked up on them again and to my surprise I saw a tiny tiny microscope baby superworm on top of the carrot,I was so happy like really happy because finally after three months of hard work finally paid off and I'm really glad that I will have a superworm farm going on in the near future, I will be checking on there progress for the next couple of months I'm so excited 😆

Dinosaurs terroir World congratulations! That's awesome! I hope they do really well for you. 😁👍👍👍

ashy slashy Good idea! Many of these live foods outside the parasite cycles of our tropical fish, the ones I would worry about the most are those that naturally inhabit waters where fish live, especially if wild collected, such as daphnia and scuds. Fortunately, culturing these species in fish-free waters over multiple generations, as I do, minimizes any such risks.

Thomas Ashe both good fish foods that I have worked with 👍 many (not all) fairy shrimp can be hatched and raised easily, but not all can be cultured multigenerationallly without a drying period. Many shrimp are not like that, I think there is more potential there...👍

Are seed shrimp easy, extremely prolific, cost effective, and nutritious?

Are seed shrimp and daphnia the same thing?

Thomas Ashe Good questions. No, they are quite different, and in my opinion, daphnia are much more cost effective, easier to produce in quantity, and appeal to a wider variety of fish due to size, movement, and the fact that they tend to stay in the water column. 😊👍

Do you have a video on how to culture daphnia? Will they eat my plants? Is a 10 gallon big enough? Will they outcompete shrimp or can you keep them with shrimp in a 10 gallon or would I need to set up a bigger tank? Do they need circulation?

JAS CRUZ TAN excellent! How are they doing for you?

John Zimm on the tab, there is some info about business inquires. You have to do a captcha, and then the email shows up. A bit of a pain, but protects from bots stealing my email.

Soujanya Hegde Yes, definitely! Guppies of all ages and sizes, from newly born to large adult females, will devour microworms.

@@Aquarimax thanks! You are the best.

Soujanya Hegde You are very welcome! 😊👍

Andrew Chen LOL! Thanks Andrew, nice poem too!

I just made that up on the stop XD.

Andrew Chen Not only the first comment, but the first poetic, improvised comment. 👍

:D, thanks!

I have been practicing for a long time 😊👍

@@Aquarimax please do a moina culture 😃

@@zektch8867 I have a tip for you: Moina can be cultured exactly like daphnia, but the culture density up an be higher. 😊👍

@@Aquarimax thanks for the tip! 😃

Mighty Seagoat 🤣👍 I am glad you appreciate it! It took some time to perfect it!

I had to play it twice because I couldn't believe it was you making the chirps....

James McGraw 😂 I did tend to say that a lot, didn’t I? 😊👍

lol just a bit... But very informative brother ... Keep up the love and passion..

James McGraw Thanks, I will! 😊👍