Starter cultures of daphnia, microworms, banana worms, grindal worms and vinegar eels for breeders and fish keepers — dispatched Monday to Wednesday and delivered door-to-door with The Courier Guy.
Starter cultures
One starter culture keeps producing for months. Buy one, or take the Fry Starter Kit and pay courier once. Minimum order R200 in cultures (before courier) — four cultures, or the Fry Starter Kit on its own, reaches it in a single parcel.
No. 01 · starter culture
Moina sp.
The small “daphnia” that suits fry and small fish — and breeds fast in warm water
R50 · starter culture
No. 02 · 15 ml starter culture
Panagrellus redivivus
The go-to first food for betta, gourami, tetra and cory fry
R50 · 15 ml starter culture
No. 03 · 15 ml starter culture
Panagrellus nepenthicola
Smaller than microworms — for the tiniest fry, sooner
R50 · 15 ml starter culture
No. 04 · starter culture
Enchytraeus buchholzi
A bigger, meatier worm for growing-on fry and small adult fish
R50 · starter culture
No. 05 · 50 worms
Lumbriculus variegatus
A meaty aquatic worm that adult fish go mad for — currently out of stock
R350 · 50 worms
No. 06 · 15 ml starter culture
Turbatrix aceti
The tiniest first food — cultured on oats, despite the name
R50 · 15 ml starter culture
No. 07 · 4-culture bundle
All four fry cultures in one parcel
Every fry size covered, from first bite to grow-out, in one courier parcel
R200 · 4-culture bundle
How ordering works
Choose daphnia, worms, eels — or the kit — and tap any WhatsApp button.
Tell us your town and postal code. We confirm stock and the exact courier price before you pay.
Pay by EFT, then your cultures are packed fresh and dispatched Mon–Wed.
The Courier Guy delivers door-to-door. Set your culture up the day it arrives — every product page has the care steps.
Which food for which fry?
Most first-week fry losses are starvation next to food that is too big. Work up this ladder:
| Fry stage | Feed this | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Tiniest fry, first days | Vinegar eels · Banana worms | Smallest foods; eels swim in the column for hours |
| Small fry (betta, tetra, cory) | Microworms | The workhorse first food, harvested off the tub wall |
| Growing fry & juveniles | Grindal worms · newborn daphnia | Mixed sizes, meatier feeding |
| Adults & conditioning breeders | Live daphnia · grindal worms | Triggers hunting and breeding condition |
Live food by fish
Stage-by-stage live food plans for the fish South Africans actually breed — fry schedules included.
Daphnia for digestion and hunting, grindal worms for conditioning — amounts and frequency.
Microworms from day one, baby daphnia from week 2 — the schedule for fast, even growth.
Daphnia and microworms for larvae, grindal worms for juveniles — and what adults should really eat.
Also covered: pea puffers · killifish · corydoras & cory fry · tetras & tetra fry · angelfish & fry
Care guides
Start and keep a daphnia (moina) culture in a bucket or tub: warm water, feeding with green water or yeast, harvesting, and why you must always keep a backup culture.
Microworms and banana worms on an oats medium: tub setup, harvesting from the walls, restarting before cultures sour, and which worm suits which fry.
Grindal worms in coir or sponge at room temperature: box setup, feeding under a glass plate, clean harvesting, and avoiding smelly, crashed cultures.
Questions
Right here. We culture daphnia in the Western Cape and ship starter cultures door-to-door nationally. Tap any WhatsApp button, tell us your town, and we confirm stock and the exact courier price before you pay.
Live cultures can die sitting in a courier depot over a weekend. Dispatching Mon–Wed means your parcel keeps moving and arrives alive — the same rule serious SA culture suppliers use.
Often not on its own — courier usually costs more than a single culture. That is exactly why we offer the Fry Starter Kit (daphnia/moina + microworms + banana worms + vinegar eels, one parcel, one delivery fee).
Yes — every product page on this site has the full setup and harvesting steps, and the guides section goes deeper. Links come with your WhatsApp order confirmation too.
Message us what you are breeding and your town — we will recommend the right culture and confirm the exact delivered price.
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