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Good morning, Dorothee 🙂
I regularly see “waterjuffers” (smaller libelles/dragonflies) by the tiny ponds in my back garden, so I am at more risk than you are for getting them if I collect mosquito larvae. 🙁
I am aware of the risks of overfeeding Grindal worms (Enchytraeus buchholzi). Microaaltjes are a kind of nematode:
http://www.livefoodcultures.com/microworms_printversion.html
While searching for information, I found this helpful site:
http://www.waterwereld.nu/microaaltjes.phpAfter looking at the chart on that site, I learned that microaaltjes have an even higher ratio of fat to protein than grindal worms! So my previous questions are now answered. :blush:
Kind regards,
JonetteOk, if you have a garden is a simple matter. Just take a large container which is open at the top, old plastic tank, or a Plastic Tub, you’ll get from the garden a few nettles give them into it, pour water over it adversely the nettles with a rock and wait one week. Then you see the first egg, another two weeks and you can reap the first time ……. pure black mosquito larvae. Since the water has been contaminated with the nettles go into it no dragonflies, only black mosquito larvae.
Another clue. the container so that no rain aufsterllen enters, otherwise they run over and the beautiful larvae are gone. I wish you success :cheer:Thank you, Bernd. I just want to be sure there is no misunderstanding. Nettles? Those are stinging nettles (brandnetel in Dutch)? I don’t have them in my lovely garden! Hahaha! But I can get them from the nearby wood. Do you mean that dragonflies will not lay eggs in water that has nettles in it?
I put the nettles into a container and weigh them down with a rock? Then I make sure that no rain can wash the larvae away.
I will need to be very vigilant, as I don’t want mosquitoes! I have read that black mosquitoes can carry dangerous human diseases.
Jonette
Bernds method works really good, – I also do it.
Only thing you dont want is to catch some larvaes up in a container to feed your fish, and forget it in the living room overnight 🙂
Next day you will have many moskitoes frying around …But I would not worry about them carrying dangerous diseases, I never thought of that to be the case. And your fish will love it :woohoo:
Hi Jonette!
Concerning infections by Mosquitos I never heard here in the south of Germany about that and we have always had many of these little animals. I react with rather heavy itching swellings if they bite me, but it doesn’t happen so often and when I see how my Paros love that food I can stand it for them ;-).Whe have actually here a journalistic “blow up” about Tiger-Mosquitos from Asia which come from south of Europe here by trucks and cars. It is said that they would bring diseases. But they just bring the diseases from the men they had bitten before and they have no eternal live.
And their offspring – if they manage to breed here because of the climate change – can only bite middle European people and get their not so heavy infections…Thank you, Dorothee. 🙂 I need to be extra cautious with my health because I have a serious chronic auto-immune illness which makes me especially vulnerable to everything! It is all too easy to get swept up in journalistic hysteria, but I try to be logical. It’s just that the sale of black mosquito larvae is not legally permitted because of the possibility of contagious diseases.
I am going to try to breed my own black mosquito larvae. Stay tuned! 😛
Now for something completely different: I was about to order more catappa leaves and saw that hollow catappa “logs” are being sold. Has anyone used these(in addition to the leaves? They look like they would make good hiding places/breeding caves. I googled and discovered that they are actually rolled up pieces of bark held in position by elastic. In the US, they are ridiculously expensive, but I’m posting a link which has the clearest photo:
http://www.substratesource.com/?p=item&c=h&i=258Here in the Netherlands, the package with two “logs” costs € 6,80.
Every serious Parosphromenus breeder should have four cultures of food:
– Moina
– Grindal
– “Micro” (worms)
– vinegar eels
– and Artemia (naupliae)But: The last three are rather small. They are good for growing small young fish, and they are taken readily by adults, too, but they are a little too small for them as a sufficient base for their diet. (Of course, raising Artemia is possible, and adults love such bigger ones very much because they are similar to those young stadiums of shrimps that they are accustomed to in their home ranges. But it makes things still more inconveniant and troublesome; so only a few people do that).
Vinegar eels have two big advantages to the similar looking micro worms: they stay alive much longer in the fish tank than those. This is a big advantage for all new Paro friends who have not yet learned the art of adapted feeding: feed more often but each time only very small amounts of food because of the water quality. When you have learned that lesson you will love vinegar eels. The second advantage is that they will live for hours and longer in all parts of the aquarium, whereas Micro sinks down to the gravel and gets lost there and decay. (One reason for breeders to omit gravel altogether and to dislike too big tanks for Paros).
Nevertheless, with these cultures you are independent from the seasons, and with Moina and Artemia you will be even successful in getting your females ripe for egg-laying. (You will not be successful in this with the other alone, or, with Dapnia. So you don’t need a culture of Daphnia).
But: In the warmer season you have an easy to harvest source of food which is the best you can offer: mosquito larvae. You can harvest them in big quantities out of small containers with a bit stinky water in the garden, in all sizes, for young and for adult Paros. If you have ever seen an adult Paro chasing for such a larvae you know for all times that Artemia naupliae are are good, but not its favourite prey.
There is no risk to catch dragonfly larvae. They need clear and clean water without smell, quite the contrary to what mosquitos prefer. And they live at the bottom or at plants. If you want to omit the last risk that some could hide in the nettles that Bernd recommended for producing that stinky milieu, take the nettles out when they have done their duties. One can rule out the possibility that afterwards any drangonfly will lay eggs in that container. Their needs are completely different. Nobody should neglect the advantages of mosquito larvae. You get your females ripe within two weeks.
Of course, there are other good food items only to be caught in the open nature: Cyclops for instance, Bernd favourite food, or what we call “glassworms” (factually larvae of non-stinging midges). They are wonderful food but not as easy to be cultured in your garden or on your balcony. You can find them in bigger ponds and small lakes only. And there you must look afterwards; a dragonfly larvae could have been harvested. too. But the risk is low. The bad experiences told her are of quite different source: exotic dragonfly larvae imported be the trade with aquarium plants. You can minimize that risk by nou using imported plants from the trade or using only items that you have scrutinized closely for dragonfly larvae. They are big enough to be found easily.
Hi Jonette!
About black mosquito larvaes I didn’t hear something like that. It is said about the red ones I guess. And it is a difference if you breed them yourselves or if you buy them in a shop from an unknown breeder. I had just bought white ones for my Spaerichtys. They are too big for my Paros.The rolls are no leaves, but made from bark. I got once some peaces of barks, but I think it is not the same as leaves…
There should be more than one source for catappa leaves in Netherlands than one very expensive? The leaves last about three weeks in the tanks … I get two packs with 12 xl leaves if I go once in two or three months to my aquaristic shop in Freiburg. The pack costs 6,99, from “Hobby”. They have a bit different reddish/yellow/orange colors, so I guess they have been picked at the right time.
I am learning so many new things here!
It is quite amusing to me that in my youth, I wanted to become an entomologist and was always conducting experiments with insects and collecting them in jars, where I made little habitats for them. My life seems to have come full circle! 😛
Jonette
Hello again, Dorothee. 🙂
I have no problem acquiring inexpensive catappa leaves, which I buy here all the time. There are different brands.
I was just curious to know whether anyone had tried the rolled-up catappa bark. It looks like it would make good hiding places for the paros. If no one else has tried these, I will be the pioneer here and buy a package. I will report back whether it is a success or not!
It is very interesting that on this site (at the left, under “The Aquarium” and then food), it states that “red mosquito larvae and tubifex should be avoided, because they can carry diseases”.
I know about tubifex. But here in Holland, they sell live red and white mosquito larvae, but black mosquito larvae is only sold frozen because live ones can carry diseases.
AHA! Now I understand the conflict about the mosquitoes and disease.
I’ve been able to find out through Google that the full grown mosquitoes from white larvae and also from red larvae don’t bite, the black ones bite and can theoretically carry disease to warm-blooded humans and animals.
But now I understand the warning on this site. The red larvae thrive in polluted water (just like tubifex)and therefore can make our fish sick.
Mystery solved!
Cheers,
JonetteHm, I wonder if these parts remain lying on the ground or float on the water surface. Not all Paros spawn like on the surface, also, I have found that the caves should be closed on one side, they like to only one side of the need to defend it. They look also quite large? You do not spend so much money, old photo doses or finger-thick plastic tubes do it. Paros are not so picky, mainly narrow and dark, as I said is thick as a finger the right. Furthermore, you can then take better pups from the Aquarium and converted into a rearing tank. 🙂
Just a note about the leaves, I use for years oak leaves, here with us, there are 2 types, even large serrated leaves and a keineres with rounded tips. I collect them in autumn large quantities and put them in laundry bags, so I’ll come out all year. I prefer the large leaves (American oak) because they are easy to remove when I have to get out to catch fish. they last longer than half a year and it costs nothing.
The expensive sheets from trading I use only when I fish abgebe to provide in the transport container, a good climate, but this must be only small such as a thumb nail.
The oak leaves are ideal for Paros, they make the water acidic, cover the ground well and the animals can hide. try the times. 😉
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