Wild caught live food questions

Hi all,

I have access to a metal bath full of pond weed and blanket weed that has loads of little aquatic bugs living in it. I've caught daphnia and some smaller similar looking black bugs. The smaller ones have been living in a jar on my windowsill for at least a year now and doing well. There are also some worms in the bath/pond which I think are tubifex and bloodworms but I'm not entirely sure.

I'm hoping to get some scarlet badis soon so a supply of free live foods would be very useful.

I've got a couple of questions
Are there any problems with feeding any of these live?
I've heard horror stories of live worms biting fish from the inside after being eaten. Is this possible with tubifex or bloodworm?
Is it necessary to clean them in any way before feeding? Some people say to keep them in tank water for a few days or weeks to thoroughly clean them but is this necessary? (The bath/pond doesn't have any fish in BTW)
Is it possible or beneficial to gut load these in any way before feeding like you do with insects for reptiles?

Thanks

 

For me its always a little risky to take anything from a pond and put in my tank. Sometimes its the things you cant see that will ruin your tank quicker than those you can.

 

For me its always a little risky to take anything from a pond and put in my tank. Sometimes its the things you cant see that will ruin your tank quicker than those you can.

Yeah I can understand that. I think by keeping them in a jar of tank water for a while and doing a few water changes may limit what goes into the tank but it's not guaranteed.

 

Just make sure they are clean before you feed them or you could be introducing bacteria

 

Just make sure they are clean before you feed them or you could be introducing bacteria

How would you recommend cleaning them?

 

How would you recommend cleaning them?

First make sure the water they are actually living in is clean, maybe add some floating plants like duckweed and lilypads to help and do water changes occasionally and then when you have them in a net just rinse them in old tank water

 

Always felt it to be to risky for me , less chances you take the less chance something can go wrong , just my opinion

“stay fishy “

 

First make sure the water they are actually living in is clean, maybe add some floating plants like duckweed and lilypads to help and do water changes occasionally and then when you have them in a net just rinse them in old tank water

I think it would be difficult to do a water change since it's so far away from any taps. There are loads of plants in there already.

I caught some daphnia and put them in a jar yesterday. I did 4 almost 100% water changes using fish tank water and then another one today so they are currently in very clean water. Hopefully this will clean them.

Always felt it to be to risky for me , less chances you take the less chance something can go wrong , just my opinion

“stay fishy “

Yeah I totally agree with that and usually I am very cautious with my fish tanks but since I am getting scarlet badis which will need lots of small live foods this is too good an opportunity to miss. I'm trying to minimise the risks.


For those of you talking about risks, are there any specific risks I need to look out for?

Since the pond doesn't have (and never has had) fish in it, it's unlikely that they'll pass on any fish diseases. As I'm keeping the live foods in clean tank water for a period of time before actually feeding them, they will be pretty clean and no pond water will be entering the tank.

 

I think it would be difficult to do a water change since it's so far away from any taps. There are loads of plants in there already.

I caught some daphnia and put them in a jar yesterday. I did 4 almost 100% water changes using fish tank water and then another one today so they are currently in very clean water. Hopefully this will clean them.

Yeah I totally agree with that and usually I am very cautious with my fish tanks but since I am getting scarlet badis which will need lots of small live foods this is too good an opportunity to miss. I'm trying to minimise the risks.


For those of you talking about risks, are there any specific risks I need to look out for?

Since the pond doesn't have (and never has had) fish in it, it's unlikely that they'll pass on any fish diseases. As I'm keeping the live foods in clean tank water for a period of time before actually feeding them, they will be pretty clean and no pond water will be entering the tank.

Another idea would be to start a culture of these live foods live seed shrimp and daphnia in the actual tank months before you get the badis, then they could live off that and not need fed, i got this idea from a video, i will link it:

 

Thanks for adding that video. That's a pretty neat ecosystem.