# Collecting live food in the prairies



## Jorg (Jan 14, 2011)

I like to collect my own food when the ponds are loaded in the spring and summer. It gives me a chance to get out and enjoy nature and my fish get conditioned with plenty of fresh live food. I also pack and freeze up enough to get me through the winter.
















As you can see I use a basic large sized fine meshed net that I taped to a 8 foot peice of maple I like to do figure 8 patterns when I am swishing for bugs as it tends to bring up bugs hanging out on or near the bottom. The trick is to not touch the bottom as you will get a bunch of gunk in your net. Right now the ponds are so loaded that it should only take half a minute or so before you have a good net full.








Do this until you think you have enough, if I'm not freezing any that day I will do around half dozen scoops








Now when you get home you have 2 choices either keep it alive and feed till it is used up or freeze it. To keep it alive it helps to add an airstone and keep it cool but with the high numbers of bugs in the bucket I usually see a large die off within a couple days. So if I want to save some for winter I will freeze some. I like to sort them for size before I freeze them. I start by setting up 3 containers and then use a large mesh net first to dip into one of the containers a few dozen times so all you have left are the larger bugs the smaller stuff will shift through, then you place what ever is left in there own container and repeat till your bucket is empty then you repeat this again using a smaller mesh net and so on down the line till you have them sorted.
















For freezing them I just scoop them into small zip lock bags I usually use 2 parts bugs to 1 part water in the bags








packs of Daphnia ready to freeze








80 packs of mosquito larva ( 8 small packs in each bigger package)


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## Jorg (Jan 14, 2011)

Here are some of the different critters I catch
Scud or river shrimp








Large Fairy shrimp








Daphnia








Mosquito larva








Small fairy shrimp








Glass worms








Dragonfly nymphs








fine sifted assortment great for small fry


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## Splash768 (Mar 29, 2011)

Wow, how do you sort all the critters so neatly by species? Or do you just have an assortment of nets with different hole sizes?


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

Nicely presented. I do similar on a smaller scale. I have mine delivered to the basement via hose from my winter pool cover. I don't have the variety you have, but I don't have to leave the house. Mostly I have daphnia, but also various insect larvae including blood worms, and various similar larvae that are green or brown, as well as predacious water beetle larvae, and the occasional glassworm.


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## Jorg (Jan 14, 2011)

Splash768 said:


> Wow, how do you sort all the critters so neatly by species? Or do you just have an assortment of nets with different hole sizes?


Yes I just strain them through different size mesh to sort them for size. Different times of the season and different ponds lets me target certain species.


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## fish_luva (Nov 24, 2009)

Well done Jorg and thank-you for posting all of this information and great pictures. Guess i'm going to have to go a huntin in some of the local ponds around the area... 

What a great natural source of food and soooo much better. 

Cheers!!!
sheldon


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

wow, that looks like a lot of work! 

aren't dragonfly nymphs dangerous to small fish? Have you any trouble with diseases or parasites?


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

solarz said:


> wow, that looks like a lot of work!


Looks like a big financial savings too! I'd think the nymphs are cichlid food.

Jorg, that is absolutely fantastic. Well documented. It's great to see people using such ingenuity in this hobby- and then sharing their tricks. Thank you. Some questions if you dont mind;

Do you sell the frozen foods locally? national? any legalities in this area?

Do you specifically gutload the items before freezing? Or is it catch, strain, freeze immediately.

How long have you been doing this? How long did it take to develop your method.

Do you have a favourite species of live food? Why?

Have you ever tried freeze drying?


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## Jorg (Jan 14, 2011)

solarz said:


> wow, that looks like a lot of work!
> 
> aren't dragonfly nymphs dangerous to small fish? Have you any trouble with diseases or parasites?


Yes predator nymphs and beetles will eat fry or very small fish thats why I strain it through very fine mesh before putting it into fry tanks.
I catch almost all my food in ponds that contain no fish so the chance of introducing any fish parasites or fish diseases is almost nil.


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## Jorg (Jan 14, 2011)

Will Hayward said:


> Looks like a big financial savings too! I'd think the nymphs are cichlid food.
> 
> Jorg, that is absolutely fantastic. Well documented. It's great to see people using such ingenuity in this hobby- and then sharing their tricks. Thank you. Some questions if you dont mind;
> 
> ...


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