Aufwuchs

[Potts050]

This spring I thought I would set up a brine shrimp colony outdoors in hope of having a steady supply of live food for developing fry. I used an old five gallon tank filled with brine and and shrimp eggs and waited to see what would happen.
Not much as it happens. Only a few nauplia were observed a couple of weeks later. I continued topping up the tank through the early part of the summer using water and mulm from my cannister filters as I cleaned them. Eventually I saw only a four mature shrimp, and discouraged pulled the airstone and pump for use in my sump. I thought I may as well try to breed the adults and tossed in some spirulina flake on occaision as food and continued topping up the tank from my cannister filters.

Over the next couple of weeks the bottom and sides of the tank became covered with an orange peel thick coating of filamentous algea and slime. Aufwuchs? By the way I have quite a few shrimp now as well

I pealed off a piece about 6" in diameter and thought I would see if my mbuna would be interested. You can predict the result. Anarchy.

I have been feeding this stuff to my regularly for a while now and had three spawnings in one tank within a week of starting to feed with the 'slime'

Has anyone had a similar experience and more importantly, vcan anyone offer advice on how to culture this material?

 

[Potts050]

Anybody?.........

 

[Potts050]

found some info on this stuff for anyone interested
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/geology/ceap/b345/aufw.htm#table2

 

[js302]

Thats crazzzzzy! I've never heard of it or anyone ding that.

Have you tried freezing it???

How long does it take to replenish once you harvest it from the outdoor tank?

 

[justin]

sounds like the orange algae that grows in my air conditioner drip off

 

[Potts050]

Thats crazzzzzy! I've never heard of it or anyone ding that.

Have you tried freezing it???

How long does it take to replenish once you harvest it from the outdoor tank?

Seems to take about a week although it has slowed down lately due to the shorter days and cooler nights I figure.

 

[Potts050]

I brought my aufwuchs culture inside today. The cold weather seems to have slowed it down completey and the brine shrimp seem far less active or numerous. I've noticed that the water has turned green. It hasnt been this colour since the number of brine shrimp and aufwuchs began increasing.
The culture will now be under 24 hours of growlight and maintained at room temp. I'm only produciing enough aufwuchs for a batch of yellow lab fry which seem to be growing quickly on it.

 

[Potts050]

The stuff seems to have slowed down completely now.
I fed the last big piece to some 47 day old Labidochromis Caerulus and som 96 day old Neolamprolgus Caudopunctatus. I've been getting some awsome growth rates with this stuff up till now.
I have about 50 fry in that tank and they destroyed the stuff in less than twenty minutes.
Sorry about the glass being so dirty. I prefer not to mess with fry tanks too much. Just filter cleaning and water changes.

 

[CHOMPERS]

Potts, how did I ever miss one of your threads? Interesting stuff. Take it indoors and keep it in a southern exposure window to see if the higher temps will help the growth rate. And make sure to keep a culture over the winter to restart in the spring. I am going to have to see if I can start my own culture.

For my fry tanks, I prefer to go with a bare bottom. I just learned this when I moved my fry to a gravel tank with a UGF. Not a good idea when the fry can get sucked into the gravel. I know of three that failed the learning curve. Another thing I found is that in a bare bottom tank uneated food remains available on the buffet until all of it is gone. In a gravel tank, when it makes it to the gravel it is gone for good. With less food available, their growth rate has slowed big time.

 

[Potts050]

I've had the culture inside under constant light for a week but there is no discernable growth. The water has turned an emerald green which suggests that some type of euglena has taken over the nutrient web. It may have something to do with the frequency of light or some kind of successional thing.
At least the brine shrimp are doing well. I'll keep the culture going until spring and put it back outside to see if the aufwuchs returns.

Thanks for the advice on gravel and fry tanks. I dont use UGF anymore. That tank was originally set-up for assessing juveniles as potential broodstock for line breeding mbuna. I have the next generation sorted and for now I'm using the tank to grow F-1Caudopunctatus fry which are notoriuosly slow. The Caerulus are in there as 'dithers'.

I plan on using polycarbonate stock tanks as fry grow tanks in future and won't use gravel in those, just XP3's and sponge filters.