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Freshwater shrimps are an outstanding food, but as they’re about ¾-in. in length they’re only suitable for the larger fish. They’re also helpful scavengers, feeding on decaying animal and vegetable matter.

These little, deep red worms (generally about 0.5 inch lengthy) could be fed to larger fish with out chopping or shredding.

Blood worms are discovered in daphnia ponds, and in numerous other watery locations.

Blood worms are the larvae of a midge, a species of Chironomus.

The lowly earth worm, so familiar to fish on the end of a hook, is usually acceptable to all fresh water fish. These worms are generally too big to be fed as collected, and will need to be chopped or sliced.

An old pair of scissors does the job fairly well, or you are able to use two steel plates with circular grooves like a coarse file. The worm is rubbed between the two plates which soon shreds it. Clean earth worms well prior to shredding.

Nottingham red worms are the very best to use. Those that ooze a yellowish secretion should be thrown away. The fish won’t eat them anyway.

These little worms are nearly invisible with out a microscope, and they only turn out to be visible to the naked eye when really dropped into the water and then you are able to see them wriggling their way down to the bottom of the tank. They’ve now turn out to be established live food for very young fish just out of the infusoria stage.

They’re grown from a culture supplied by a dealer. You are able to make die stock in which the culture would be to grow and multiply with soya flour, semolina, or oatmeal. Mix the oatmeal with water, 1.5 oz. to half a pint of water, cook, and then permit to cool.

With soya flour or semolina, no cooking is essential, just mix with water until it reaches the consistency of floppy paste. The culture is then put into the stock to cultivate. After a time the stock will deteriorate, but this require not worry you as a fresh stock could be made up and began off with a spoonful of the old one.

The micro-worm has an affinity to wet or damp wood, and it is this that allows it to be collected and fed with out the stock also being introduced into the tank. Use a little paste pot with a metal lid to collect the worms.

Punch twelve holes in the lid, to ensure that twelve match sticks could be pushed into them with sufficient friction to hold them in position. Put a little quantity of the stock into the jar, roughly an 1/8-in. depth will do, and push the match sticks down until they just touch the stock. Leave the micro-culture for a couple of hours in a warm room, after which sufficient worms will have discovered their way up the sticks to offer a meal.

You’ll get the very best outcomes if the match sticks are thoroughly soaked in water prior to use.

Release the worms into the tank by immersing all of the matches in the water with a brisk sideways movement which washes them off. If a big quantity of worms is required, a number of paste pots could be made up.

You are able to purchase a set of six plastic containers set into a tray specially created for this purpose from most dealers.

The main attraction of tubifex worms is the reality that they could be obtained all of the year round, and they’re also a substitute for daphnia. These thin rusty-red worms are relished by most fish, and when a bunch is dropped into the tank there’s usually a rush to be the initial customer.

Tubifex worms are generally discovered in localities like little estuaries and flats of streams where there is lots of mud and silt.

The mud which contains the worms is lifted widi a spade, put into a muslin bag, and washed in the stream to remove all but the worms. If tubifex are left in a shallow container, with about an inch of water, they’ll unite into a mass, and it is then simple to transfer them to your carrier jar.

Tubifex left uneaten in the tank separate from the bunch and scatter about singly, digging one end into the sand, and weaving as though in a strong breeze.

Don’t store a big quantity in a jam jar as the weight of the top ones will kill the lower ones. Tubifex should be stored in a bucket or big tin into which a slow steady stream of water is flowing. The bunched worms can occasionally be separated with a stronger jet of water, which will wash out any dead and rotting ones.