I am re-ramping up my breeding program, whether my fish like it or not, and one of the things I have to do is get more cultures...
After about 4 years, maybe 5, my VEs finally gave out on me, and I haven't had micros in forever. So off to Aquabid I go.
Funny, a lot of the same names are still there, and I guess that was a good thing. I put a bid in on a pick 4 auction, and the choices were VEs, walter worms, Micros and Bananas, and also confused flour beetles..
Wait, I HAVE those.. don't I? I thought I did...
So I went hunting for the cultures of confused flour beetles I was sure I had, lol. That sounds absolutely horrible, but it's true, I had these things in my house and had forgotten all about them.
Well, I found them, and I feel really bad... The poor things were almost starved to death, and it is all my fault. One culture was completely dead, and one was dead but for one bug and a few skinny larvae. Even in the last culture, the larvae were all super skinny emaciated looking things, or at least as emaciated as a worm thing can look.
So I have since early this morning, scooping up all the beetles I could fine, and all the wormies too... I put them in another container with flour and wheat germ, since that's what it looked to be what was used to make the medium the original cultures were grown in.
I have to say, three and a half years without reculturing, that is my kind of culture, lolol. Now, if I can figure out how to harvest the larvae.. I wouldn't feed my bettas the adults, too much chitin making them too hard for the fish to be comfortable with. But the larvae are nice juicy bits that all the adults love.