where can i get blackworms or bloodworms without buying them?

Question

i have bettas and i want to feed them bloodworms or blackworms and if you dont know its ok

Answer 1

Neither of these are particulary well suited for home culture. Bloodworms are the larvae of a midge fly, which makes them a royal pain to culture and reproduce. Blackworms are te same animal as tubifex worms and generally are grown in some of the nastiest waste run off water you can image.... yeah, that kind of waste.

Here are some ideas though:

Mosquito larvae: Mosquitoes breed like nothing else wherever there is water. So why not take advantage of this and put out a bucket of water for them to breed in? True, your neighbors may be less than understanding at first, but as long as you don’t let the little monsters mature you shouldn’t get any complaints. One bucket can provide a surprising number of larvae but if you need more then put out more buckets. You can also freeze the larvae easily for later use. A convenient way is to uses an old style ice cube try and put one feedings worth of larvae in one section and add some tank water. Freeze them up and store in a zip top baggy until you need them.

Daphnia: Daphnia are a wonderful fish food that is often free for the taking. One of the best sources of daphnia is a golf course pond. Who doesn’t live fairly near a golf course these days? What you are looking for is a nutrient rich pond that contains no significant fish population. No fish is best. Golf course ponds are usually not stocked with fish when built but people do release fish into them. They are also usually very nutrient rich from the fertilizers used buy the golf course to maintain its sod. If you plan to collect from a golf course pond, call the course and find out on what day they are closed. You may also want to go by and get permission from the grounds keeper first. Be sure to explain what you want to do and why and also explain that you will be very careful not to get on greens or otherwise damage the course in any way. That would be their first concern. Daphnia are also called water fleas because of the way they move in the water, in little jerky jump like motions. They often collect in swarms in the pond near the surface if it’s not too hot or too cold. You can collect them using a fine net with a long handle of a cone shaped pull net. These can be purchased online from a variety of aquaculture suppliers. Daphnia is also quite easy to culture in a spare aquarium. Plenty of sites have information on how to do this.

You will most likely net a variety of critters when looking for daphnia. You may encounter fairy shrimp, mosquito larvae, or midge flies for example. Most anything small enough for your fish and soft enough for them to chew is fair game, don’t toss it just because it’s not daphnia. Most of these will freeze fairly well.

Earthworms: Earthworms make good food for larger fish and can even be cut up for medium sized to smaller fish. Some of the smaller red worms are a bit too tough for most fish so try a variety until you find the right one’s for your fish. Starting a small compost heap will encourage worms and you can always buy them from bait shops to either feed your fish or to seed you compost pile once it’s breaking down well. Don’t even bother trying to freeze extra worms, they just turn to goop.

Crickets: Nice for the big fish. I always remove the large hind legs before feeding as they are so tough they are a problem for all but the biggest aquarium fish. You can encourage crickets by placing a large piece of cloth under a tree in a moist place from late spring to late fall. Dampening the cloth is a good idea as well. I use an old burlap bag and it almost never fails that each morning I have at least a few crickets under the bag. I tend to leave the largest and go for the smaller crickets. They don’t freeze well.

Ant larvae: An excellent food if not rather hard to collect. Scope up a part of the nest with a wire screen and screen out most of the dirt, work quickly and you can probably avoid stings. Then drop the larvae and ants into a bucket of water. The ants will float while the larvae mostly sink. Running water into the bottom of the bucket and allowing it to over flow will wash away most of the remaining ants. Try to get the larvae out before it drowns and you can keep in it a small bowl for a few days. They don’t freeze all that well.

Ants: Yes ants. Ants make a good food for insectivores such as archer fish. I regularly feed the larger black ants without a problem. They are not too hard to collect as they are not prone to stinging.

Wasp and bee larvae. Same problem as collecting ant larvae, the adults! If the nest was killed without the use of poisons, you can find larvae in various staged of maturation and the younger grubs make good food for medium to larger fishes. Again, these don’t freeze well.

Flies and gnats: Collect them without the use of poisons and feed away. Removing the wings from house flies can be a good idea since the can escape the top of the water and get free in the house. They actually freeze fairly well, but as common and available as they are I wouldn’t bother. Small moths and the like are also in this group, great food for any fish that can handle them.

White worms: While not free, you can order a starter culture and grow these very easily at home. Probably the biggest challenge is keeping the temperature low enough as they like it around 55 – 65F. They grow well in a small container of dirt or better yet worm bedding available from department stores and bait supply houses. Look for it in the sporting good section. Feed them a little bread soaked in milk and away you go.

Bloodworms: While not practical to culture them, you can sometimes find the in the leaf litter in the bottom of small ponds and puddles. They aren’t hard to collect, but time consuming.

Vinegar eels: These are a very small worm that lives in vinegar. You can order a starter culture easily online. Just add it to some cider vinegar and drop in a small piece of apple or a little apple juice. They are very, very small and collect near the surface of the vinegar along the edges of the container. They are a good first food for numerous egg-laying fish fry.

Micro worms: These are also very easy to culture and start cultures are readily available online as are the instructions. Again a very, very small live food, but great for baby fish

Flour beetles: Again very easy to culture from starters available online. While the adults have a hard shell and aren’t a very good fish food, they larvae are great for small to medium fishes.

This is far from a complete list of free or nearly free fish foods out there. Not only are these real money savers but excellent food for your fish as well. So get out there and start catching / growing your own live foods! Your fish will thank you for it.

EDIT: Good call on the fruit flies PeeTee, I forgot about those. Contaminants can be an issue, but rarely. Most of this stuff you can culture at home after buying the cultures from supply houses online or getting them from a local aquarium club, probably for free.

Answer 2

Ole Magicman has it just about right. The down side to wild collecting is the stuff that you don't know about,(contaminants). The worm cultures are good,but very rich and contain lots of fat(relatively speaking) and must be used carefully to avoid overfeeding. One source he didn't mention that is good for Betta's is wingless fruit flies,starter cultures can be purchased from the classified ads in the back of fish hobby magazines. There is an out of print book,"The Encyclopedia of Live Foods" published originally by Tropical Fish Hobbyist Magazine that sometimes is available in used book sources that has a very comprehensive look at your questions,and more information than one could ever want on such matters.------Live foods take your fish keeping efforts to a new level,fish that were difficult to spawn become easy,fry grow faster,colors get brighter and fish become livelier. It requires a lot of effort,but it's definitely worthwhile.------Good luck,PeeTee

Answer 3

bloodworms are just mosquito larvae, you can lay a pan out of still water and have that in warm weather in two or three days, then you could also catch the west nile lol. blackworms breed in sewers and run offs, they are filthy and i dont reccomend feeding them to a betta, frozen bloodworms are better and pellet food it the best

Answer 4

u can get misquito larva by taking a clean 5 gallon bucket of water and sit it out side and wait for misqitos to lay the eggs. (nomaly takes about 1 week in the summer.)

Answer 5

Ok this might sound like a cliche, but try e-bay. You can find just about anything there.

Answer 6

Did you try ... Regular worms?


I had a betta shark befor. It died, Not enough other fish.

Answer 7

you can get them from yo mommas cookin


THX for the 2 points

Answer 8

Stealing them!!