Coryd55

Has anyone ever grown/fed live bloodworms(mosquito larvae)?

I have an empty 20 gallon tall tank outside with water in it and have had mosquito larvae before but dumped it because I didn't think about feeding them. Im about to fill it up again and let them grow.

My only concern is if one gets under driftwood or something will it grow into a mosquito or is that highly unlikely?

Thanks,
Cory

Chief_waterchanger

The larvae have to stay near the surface, because they are air breathing organisms. We go around our yard to various troughs setup for aquatic plants to gather them for our live-food eaters.

Tips!

Patience is the key.

Harvesting Mosquito larvae:

1) DO NOT let your shadow cross the water before you go to gather them. The blocking of the sunlight alerts the larvae of a presence and they go deeper into whatever muck may be along the bottom of the container.
2) Scoop and wait a minute for them to resurface for air and scoop more, and repeat.
3) They stay down less than a minute before having to resurface for air.
4) Do not gather out of contaminated containers. Paint, oil, chemicals, solvents, etc having ever been in those containers render them harmful to the fish to harvest from.
5) Make sure to harvest every other day or so after they are noticed in the container. Missing a couple here and there won't make a big difference, but missing a few days will cause mosquito larvae to hatch and give you a nice jump in mosquito population around your home.
6) Be aware that you may also be introducing other animals to your tank. Be on the look out for: Dragonfly larvae, leeches, and hydras. They are carried from water source to water source by birds. Dragonflies can break the necks of and eat small fry. Leeches can penetrate the slime coat and do what they do best. Hydras also eat small fish and look like planaria with multiple tentacles and rather than being a worm they stay stationarily attached to the same spot.

Hope that helps, my friend.

Slug

Funny you should mention this. I scooped out some from a bucket today and tossed in the discus tank. They went NUTS for them.

What i did was use a turkey baster from like Target. Just sucked them up and put them in a contaier. Then i sucked them up again and put them in another container with fresher water. By moving container to container i was able to weed out dirt each time as well as dirty water that i don't care for in my tank. I did get some, none is impossible....just try to limit the amount you get. Takes a while, but not worth the risk to just scoop and dump in....IMO.

Coryd55

Thanks.

So should I put the tank in full sunlight or half in the shade like it is now.

Alasse

Bloodworms are different to mozzie larvae

My fish absolutely love both of those food sources

Barbrella

Bloodworms are the larva of the midge fly, not the mosquito.

Just be careful if you're cultivating mosquito larvae. It might make you a bit unpopular with the neighbours!

Slug

I've found that most of the mosquito larva i get is in the shade. I have a container in the sun too, but seems they prefer the shade.

Chief_waterchanger

Thanks for that info, Matt. We'll have to try that idea out.

Slug

Just put on my boots, sprayed some bug spray and collected more today! Man these discus go NUTS for skeeter larva. I think i've found a decent source of free live food. I figure if i have 2 sources outside i can alternate harvest days and have plenty.

The turkey baster worked wonders again. Its pretty tedious work, but it gets me outside with the dogs and some fresh air so its not so bad. And to see the discus stuff themselves is even better when i come inside.