I've been toying around lately with live foods to try and pack on some good fat and protein with less than desirable fish - while blood worms and brine shrimp are all good and fine, they're quite a mess to culture and not monetarily sound in the sense of being a renewable resource.
Since I keep reptiles I have a roach and mealworm colony growing as a replenshable food source for the bearded dragon, and while the roaches make a great meal for large fish like the oscar - I've found that anything and everything will eat rmeal worms.
For about $20 I got 500 meal worms delivered to my door from lllreptiles.com (along with the orange spot roaches for my colony).
Maintenance is as easy as buying a large box of Quaker Oatmeal and throwing a rotten potatoe in a plastic bin with the oatmeal every month or so.
I haven't changed out the oatmeal in over 6 months and still have thousands of meal worms left over. They mature into beatles with age, which in turn mate and lay anywhere from 5,000-10,000 eggs.
After about 3 months of keeping the mealworms in the same bin I was into a rotation where I had all sizes of meal worms, including maturing beatles that were laying eggs.
I have yet to run out of meal worms by a long shot, feeding nearly 30 of them to the fish and lizard every day. I'd say I've gotten my 20 bucks worth.
Just thought I'd share with everyone, if you've got further interest Google raising mealworms and check with lllreptile.com
These things also seem to pack on the beef with fish due to their high fat and protein content, I've gotten completely emaciated fish beefed up in a few weeks using them.
It beats paying 2 or 3 bucks a week to get live foods.
Since I keep reptiles I have a roach and mealworm colony growing as a replenshable food source for the bearded dragon, and while the roaches make a great meal for large fish like the oscar - I've found that anything and everything will eat rmeal worms.
For about $20 I got 500 meal worms delivered to my door from lllreptiles.com (along with the orange spot roaches for my colony).
Maintenance is as easy as buying a large box of Quaker Oatmeal and throwing a rotten potatoe in a plastic bin with the oatmeal every month or so.
I haven't changed out the oatmeal in over 6 months and still have thousands of meal worms left over. They mature into beatles with age, which in turn mate and lay anywhere from 5,000-10,000 eggs.
After about 3 months of keeping the mealworms in the same bin I was into a rotation where I had all sizes of meal worms, including maturing beatles that were laying eggs.
I have yet to run out of meal worms by a long shot, feeding nearly 30 of them to the fish and lizard every day. I'd say I've gotten my 20 bucks worth.
Just thought I'd share with everyone, if you've got further interest Google raising mealworms and check with lllreptile.com
These things also seem to pack on the beef with fish due to their high fat and protein content, I've gotten completely emaciated fish beefed up in a few weeks using them.
It beats paying 2 or 3 bucks a week to get live foods.
you were in my house today, did you smell any mealworms or roaches? They were in the same room we were in for most of the time 