NANFA-- Drain fly larvae
R. W. Wolff (choupiqu_at_wctc.net)
Fri, 1 Dec 2000 22:57:33 -0600
Here is another live food item that works really good, drain fly larvae.
They are large before they transform and go through two stages like
mosquitoe larvae. The only draw back is the adults fly. They are small and
moth like, and do not bite, so if you can live with a few that escape the
culture area, then it should be no problem. Drain fly larvae like rich
water, or will live in rich damp soil. The water bound ones go throug a
worm like state, then transform into what looks like a stage two mosquito
larvae. The ones I have raised in mud seem to skip that stage. My culture
came naturally to a paramecium culture. it then turned up in a white worm
culture too. At times the adults get thick, but they tend to stay near the
water source, and I rarely find more than one a week around the house. The
adults are slow too, and can be knocked out with a bamboo skewer or small
paint brush and fed to surface feeding fish. I am still working on methods
to perfect culturing them, but they are so prolific I wanted to let everyone
know there is one more live food item out there. I will answer any
questions on them I can if anyone is interested. All the fish I feed them
too like them, and the larvae live in water, another plus. I feed them too
rivulus, african killifish, north american killifish, mudminnows, pygmy
sunfish, young sunfish, my small sunfish species, badis species and larval
salamanders. I am sure they would work great for any fish that need live
foods or as a treat for other fish.
Ray
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