Collecting live food

[prairiefire]

I like to collect my own fish food when it is available and feed my fish fresh live food or freeze it for later (winter).

As you can see I use a basic large sized fine meshed net that I taped to a 8 foot piece of maple I like to do figure 8 patterns when I am swishing for bugs as it tends to bring up bugs hanging out on or near the bottom. The trick is to not touch the bottom as you will get a bunch of gunk in your net. Right now the ponds are so loaded that it should only take half a minute or so before you have a good net full.


Do this a half dozen times and you should have a good load - depending on your pond

Here are some of the different critters that I harvest
Fairy shrimp

River shrimp

Predator nymphs

Glass worms

Daphnia and cyclops

Mosquito larva

[Birger]

Those prairie ponds are great...even in the mountains the ponds are full of shrimp right now.

I never had the patience to sort the catch as well as you have.

Birger

[prairiefire]

I usually just strain them through different size mesh to sort them for size. I sorted some of these with a turkey baster to photograph them,

[Shane]

This is an outstanding post. Great job documenting the different critters.
-Shane

[Shovelnose]

Lovely thread. I have been wanting to collect live food from the wild for sometime now.This thread has put the much needed fire under my rear end.

Shrimps are what I have aimed at so far. Will update as to what is available in this part of the world soon.

[bigbird]

wow great post and info. cheers jk

[Viktor Jarikov]

I agree: great thread and tremendous patience!

As usual, the standard question is: what's your experience wrt parasites and harmful bacteria? Fish living in tanks and other unnatural conditions tend to have a weaker immune system.

[prairiefire]

I only harvest from ponds that contain no fish so I would think the chance of introducing parasites that attack fish would be very low. I have never noticed any type of problems that I would blame on the live or frozen food I collect. I do keep an eye out for dragonfly nymph and beetles getting into my fry tanks but sifting the critters through a very fine mesh prevents this from happening. I'm much more comfortable collecting my own food as I know where it came from and how it was packed unlike store bought foods which could come from the filthiest most polluted water on the planet but it is in a pretty package.

[mistern2005]

That is awesome! I wish I had these resources available where I live. My concern would be pesticides used by farmers and getting parasites that I see on the crawfish (anchor worms) and other fish in the lakes.

[Viktor Jarikov]

i think many people have such ponds and mini-ponds in their yards where they can control to some extent what goes in - all you need to do is get a plastic tub and the water in. the insects etc. will come on their own...

yeah, crayfish i catch in the local brooks are teeming with parasites so I have to boil them before giving them to my gang... I do not see anything on bluegills, bass, etc. I catch for their food but still boil them too. Dont' like this kind of feeding too much as fat separates from fish upon boiling, messing up the pond/tank.

[apistomaster]

With a set of micro-mesh screens you can take Daphnia and rinse the Rotifers hitch hiking on them for a prime food for small fry. This is not a well known fact since relatively few hobbyist who raise Plecos ever need such small live foods.
I do recommend collecting pond foods from fish free ponds but the actual risks of introducing fish parasites are quite low.

As a fly fisherman, many of the pond animals the fish hobbyists call "enemies" such as Damsel flies and the more voracious large Dragon fly nymphs are some of the best animals to imitate as artificial flies. Their larger size represents more calories for less effort to the hunting trout. I tie a damsel fly nymph and Dragon Flies nymphs of my own design that is so good I have had Trout actually pluck them up before I begin to retrieve them.
Other flies I tie are imitations of the pupal stage of the Chironomids and in many eutrophic trout lakes they make up more than 40% of the diet even for the 2 to 4 pound trout because what they may lack in size is made up in shear numbers. Unlike the more agile Mosquito larvae, Chironomid Pupae rise slowly from the mud to the surface and where the exoskeleton penetrates the surface tension the exoskelton splits allowing the emergent adult briefly helpless at the water line. Trout strain this layer much like baleen whales strain krill.
What was described as river shrimp, the Gammarus, are not true shrimp but are Scuds. More closely related to terrestrial sow bugs than true shrimp. Their relatively hard exoskeltons and fast and erratic swimming habits make them useful for fish like large Angelfish and other larger predatory species. I tie a very effective scud imitation, too. The lakes which support large scud populations tend to have very fast growing trout which develop red flesh similar to salmon and taste much better than those that eat mostly Chironomids and damsel fly nymphs.

My trout fly fishing knowledge of aquatic insect entomology and other aquatic invertebrates has always complemented my fish hobby. It is a serendipitous intersection of my two main hobbies. Many of these can harm the smaller fry of Characins and Bettas when those fry are still very small. In general, I believe they are still worth collecting when you can as they are very nutritious.
Copepods like Cyclops are often collected with some closely related genera of more predatory Copepods similar to cyclops sometimes pose a risk.

I have been able to collect Daphnia by the pounds at times and have tried freezing them but the freezing seems to make them lose something and whether I buy commercial or make my own, I have never found my fish to care much for them frozen yet they go wild over the living ones. When we freeze these pond foods ice crystals form inside the cells and puncture the cell walls. This is why they loose much of their nutritive value when frozen. Mosquito larvae and Blood worms retain more of their food value when frozen.
If you have large wild Angelfish or medium to large Cichlids frozen damsel fly nymphs are good foods and are no longer alive so they can't eat small fry. If the fish are all large enough live damsel fly nymphs make excellent snacks.

I have a wading pool set up where Mosquitos and Chironomids come to and lay their eggs. I use regular additions of powdered milk to grow the bacteria that the mosquito larvae eat. I often use potato peelings as a sustained food source for the micro-organisms that mosquito larvae eat and the blood worms eat the decaying peelings directly.
This provides a source of Mosquito larvae from spring through fall and Chironomid larvae(blood worms) any time of the year that the pond isn't covered with thick ice.

In all the years I have been collecting pond life(~45 years) for fish food I have never hit the mother loads that prariefire so beautifully illustrated except the Daphnia. Using these foods can greatly improve the production when breeding most fish and frozen are the next best thing. Collecting pond foods is an enriching activity for fish hobbyists willing to do some exploring and sampling.
I used a landing net with a screw on base to handle connection. I replaced the netting with fine mesh. If the net has the screw on base it will usually fit a collapsible aluminum handle with male threads. This makes a much better connection to an extendable, strong and light weight pole. I use the poles designed for long reach window washing squeegees. Any janitorial supply outlet has these aluminum poles.

[prairiefire]

Great post master (and I truly mean that you and RD (Neil) from Cichlid food Canada have taught me more than anyone with your excellent posts). I'm hoping you can elaborate on the Chironomid's. I know we have them here as local fly fishermen use their imitations to fish the Bow river close to my place. I'm interested in collecting them in the worm stage. I have tried to dig around in the mud but have never found any thing worthwhile.

[apistomaster]

Prariefire,
It looked like you had a really good method of collecting blood worms.
They live in tubes of detritus they bond together with secretions and build networks of them. I never achieve high enough population densities to do more than feed a group of small special fish needing mostly live foods.
I usually try to destroy enough tunnels and collect enough decaying matter in a fine net then wash as much of the silt away as I can. Then I transfer the cleaned muck and worms to a more coarse mesh net and hang it in the water so half is in and half is in air. The larvae burrow down towards the bottom in the water and fall through the net. I leave it this way for hours and try it again for those that elude the first attempted separation.
I don't know how they are raised commercially.

I do know their normal life cycle.
Chironomids belong to mosquito-like, non-biting Gnat family. They inhabit every fresh water environment around the world. Many fish specialize in sifting through the bottom detritus to separate the buried larvae from the substrate.
They are a major food source for most fish at least at some stage of their lives.
They mate and then the female lays little groups of tightly packed eggs at the water line on reeds and such. The eggs hatch and are then in the larval stage we are familiar with as blood worms. There are 1000's of species. Some are extremely small and others slightly larger than the kinds used most for blood worms. Some are actually not red but green. most larvae are red.The red is because most are adapted for living in a low oxygen environment. They are rich in hemoglobin thus very red.

When the larvae are full grown they emerge from the mud as pupae that resemble a semi-paralyzed mosquito pupae. The pupae are very feeble swimming. The pupae begins to fill the space between the adult and the pupae skin with gas. This makes them have positive buoyancy. They rise slowly and nearly vertically from the bottom with an occasional twitch.
When the pupae hit the surface a small part of the head end of the pupae breaks through the surface tension. Upon exposure to the air, the pupal husk is shed. The husk acts as a launching platform as the adult gnat pulls itself free. This and the pre-emergent stage is the most vulnerable part of their life cycle because they become concentrated at the surface. It takes some time for them to emerge and expand their wings and be able to take flight. The humidity effects how long it takes for them to emerge from their pupae. In Trout lakes the fish appear to be taking flies from the surface but they are actually "porpoising" as they take the pre-emergent pupae and partly emerging adults. If they are lucky they fly away and start the cycle over.
Many uninformed fly fisherman waste their time casting dry flies to trout that are feeding actually barely under the water's surface. Trout instinctively understand that to wait until the Chironomid Gnat can fly is a lost feeding opportunity. The Pupae emerge most at dusk, dawn and through out cool cloudy days. They emerge in numbers so vast that trout do not feed on them individually but rather continuously gulp the layer of emerging pupae at or under the water's surface. The Chironomid population in eutrophic lakes is so vast, despite their often minute sizes, that in these lakes they make make up about half of the trout diet. Catching them on small Chironomid pupae imitation flies is mainly a matter of chance since the trout are gulping rather than focusing on the individuals. Chances are still good for the fly fisherman because virtually every trout in the lake will become attuned to feeding on the most abundant source of food at a time when it is the easiest to gulp enough for the least effort vs calories used pays for itself and then some.
One must be very patient to fish Chironomid pupae but over time they are probably the single most effective flies to use. It is important to figure out whether small or large pupae are emerging when choosing what size and color of fly to use. Actually because all species when emerging have the gas layer that reflects light so color is not as important as the way you use materials that reflect light that is similar to that of a bubble with a bug inside.

[prairiefire]

Thank you again. I will put more effort into harvesting blood worms. Here are a few more pictures I took this season.
One of the ponds I collect at this one is about a kilometer from my home and is best early in the year as it will over grow with plants soon.

Some pictures of trophy sized bugs certain ponds just seem to grow them bigger I'm not sure why.
Big Scuds or as known locally river shrimp

Nice sized fairy shrimp

Hugh Daphnia along with some small ones


80 plus packs of mosquito larva ( 8 packs in each large bag ) which I have frozen for winter.

[apistomaster]

You have hit a mother load of live foods.
I have never found any fairy shrimp although it sure would be nice.
Your now frozen harvest is not only a big savings but the activity of collecting live food for your fish expands your horizons as a fish keeper.
It used to be much more popular to collect your own live foods in the earlier days of the aquarium hobby and I think it enriches one's hobby.
Not to mention how much easier some fish are to breed when we can supply them with a varied diet of live foods.
Not all miracles come in cans or plastic bags.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Nice summary, Larry. Nice lesson, Prairiefire! You inspire me to do something similar but what else can I do (other than what I mentioned above) for my 1-to-3-footers? I don't like boiling my live food collections but I am so afraid of even remote chances of passing parasites and/or harmful bacteria to my beloved pets.

Setting up a quarantine tank for the feeder fish and crayfish and treat them with a cocktail of antiparasitic and anticeptic meds?

I tried that once with the goldfish and rosy red feeders - it did not go well, they were dying too much and goldfish are real hardy. For 90% of my fish, these are way too small now anyway. They take 6"-15" TL feeder fish, thawed or alive.

[apistomaster]

Viktor,
It is hard to beat large earth worms or as they are usually called, Night Crawlers. They are 5 to 7 inches long.

[davidkozak]

Thanks for posting about your collecting trip(s)- especially enjoyed the pictures..David

[Viktor Jarikov]

Right, Larry, I forgot about those. Albeit they are way too small a food for my purposes, they are good for food diversification and easy to grow at home. They cannot be a staple though. The staple foods I need to collect by multiple pounds to make it worth while.

[L number Banana]

What a brilliant post! Nice pics and great info. Seems I've missed a lot since I've been away!
This one has inspired me to go see what's floating about in my ponds. Thanks

[prairiefire]

It is Fall here now so the irrigation canals have been shut down ... so now is the time to harvest Scuds or River shrimp

Shut down canal with a few pools of water


A closer look into the pools



Scoop away free food

[Jools]

That's amazing, I never seen them in such numbers. Made me go look them up and I found a decent article below.

http://www.flyfishersrepublic.com/entom ... er-shrimp/

Jools

[dw1305]

Hi all,
If you live anywhere in the UK near to streams with reasonable flow and moderate to good water quality you can collect your own Water Shrimps (Gammarus spp.). The only clean streams that don't produce them are ones with very acid water.

They are very common where you have leaf litter and a stony bottom, you can collect them by turning over the stones and letting the current sweep them into a net (You can also do this by "kick sampling").

They aren't very suitable as live food as they don't like the combination of high temperature and relatively low O2 in aquariums, but they are fine frozen. I haven't cultured the Mexican Hyalella azteca, described in Hellweg's "Culturing live food" book, but I believe this is much more tolerant of warmer water.

cheers Darrel

[RickE]

What an amazing abundance of food! I'm really surprised nothing has adapted or evolved to take advantage of it.

[dw1305]

Hi all,

You have to remember the context for the "Scud" picture.

It is Fall here now so the irrigation canals have been shut down ... so now is the time to harvest Scuds or River shrimp

These have aggregated together as the water level has fallen and you have ended up with a large amount in the small volume of remaining water. The population grew that large when the entire bed of the canal was covered in water. It is also a seasonal water course, meaning that many of the aquatic organisms and ecosystems you would find in a permanent river or stream are missing.

I'm really surprised nothing has adapted or evolved to take advantage of it.

They are a major component of the diet of fish like Brown Trout (Salmo trutta) and Miller's Thumb (Cottus gobio), they are also eaten by birds and mammals like Dippers & Water Shrews, by Dragon-fly nymphs etc.

From Kelly & Dick (2005)"Introduction of the non-indigenous amphipod Gammarus pulex alters population dynamics and diet of juvenile trout Salmo trutta"
Freshwater Biology 50:1, pp 127–140.

Summary 1. The amphipod Gammarus pulex, introduced to Irish rivers with the aim of enhancing trout feeding, is displacing the native Gammarus duebeni celticus.....

3. Correspondingly, densities and biomass of 0+ trout were significantly higher in the G. pulex reach......

4. In the G. pulex reach, this invader dominated the diet of 0+ trout, leading to ingestion of significantly higher invertebrate biomass than fish in the other reaches. Fish generally preyed on Gammarus in proportion to its abundance, but exhibited some positive selection for G. pulex in the invaded reach.

Cheers Darrel