Infusoria

[jjohnwm]

If there's one thing better than snakes in a teen's room...it's forbidden snakes in his room...

 

[tlindsey]

Used this young man first method of starting a infusoria culture. No need to boil broccoli anymore. Also stopped using light except to observe the culture. I'm feeding dry yeast. I change out near half replace with water removed from wc. Here is the vid from Keep It Simple

 

[phreeflow]

Used this young man first method of starting a infusoria culture. No need to boil broccoli anymore. Also stopped using light except to observe the culture. I'm feeding dry yeast. I change out near half replace with water removed from wc. Here is the vid from Keep It Simple

Thx for the link. I’ll have to try this as it seems easier and cleaner than a jar of rotting veggies.

 

[tlindsey]

I like his diy culture jars for infusoria thought I share the video.

 

[skjl47]

She would boil some lettuce leaves (bad ones if available), and put them by the window, just as @tlindsey described.

Hello; This is the formula i have used for decades. Only difference has been to not place in sunlight. Do not see anything wrong with sunlight, just never tried it.
I try to start the culture the first day I see eggs.

 

[HarleyK]

Great and very helpful thread revival, thank you @tlindsey

 

[cockroach]

I used infusoria I cultured myself only once. And it was definitely more successful than usual.
I will be bringing it back for future breeding projects. It is simple enough but I also follow pteropyllum's method. Leave leave alone in tank. Fry will eat what grows.

I had good success with vinegar eels as well but they were a slight PITA to keep going.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; A thought beyond infusoria. When i have raised fry from eggs an infusoria culture has most often been the first foods. There is, in my opinion, a second stage of small foods a step or two above infusoria. Many years ago I was given an old coffee grinder. Not the sort with spinning blades, rather the sort with grinding wheels. It was too weak to grind coffee beans and i almost discarded it.
After a good cleaning I found I could run dry fish food pellets thru this old grinder and get a fine powder. Pretty much could get the grade of powder i wanted. Made feeding fry at an early free swimming stage some easier.
Of course there are other small fry foods. I have used canned peas. I would squeeze the peas into the water. On accident I would drop the empty pea hulls into the grow out tank. Days later would see the fry grazing on the empty hulls. I do not exactly know what they found.

One other thing I have noted is after throwing a very old sponge filter into a grow out tank. I pulled the sponge filter out of a tank where it had been running for many months or maybe over a year. I wanted some sort of air movement and basic filtration but could not use HOB sort as the fry were too small tho a few weeks oil. I began to see the fry grazing on the sponge. After a few weeks the surface of the sponge was cleaned up.

 

[jjohnwm]

The post by @skjl47 above reminds me of another commonly-recommended food from my earlier days in the hobby. When trying to feed small newly-hatched fry, and if one was unable or unwilling to raise infusoria, or simply had not gotten a culture going several days in advance, we would often take a chunk of hard-boiled egg yolk, wrap it in a clean handkerchief or piece of thin cloth, and squeeze the bejeebers out of it in the tank water. This would produce a cloud of tiny particles that were eaten by the developing fry. It would also foul the water very quickly and require frequent large water changes, but it was only necessary for a very few days until the fry grew large enough for baby brine shrimp.

I hadn't done it for decades, but then a few years ago I was caught off guard by a large number of Medaka fry, which were about as small as any fish fry I've seen. I had not prepared at all, and the fry seemed to do well on egg yolk for 3 days while putting on some size and starting to handle larger foods. I dislike the idea of a single food, as opposed to the variety of infusoria, but it's only for a very brief time.

I also grind up dried fish food...pellets or flakes...with a small mortar and pestle, much like stated above. Fast and easy to produce the small quantities required, and simple to match the granulation to the requirements.

Small fry are also a great excuse to keep extra sponge filters bubbling away in sumps on a continuous basis. Having a mature filter on hand for an emergency fry tank is wonderful; having a bunch more mature filters on hand allows you to take a different one each day and squeeze it out into the fry tank, producing a cloud of organic detritus which contains food for many species, and also encourages the growth of infusoria right in the fry tank.

 

[Fallen_Leaves16]

Hello; A thought beyond infusoria. When i have raised fry from eggs an infusoria culture has most often been the first foods. There is, in my opinion, a second stage of small foods a step or two above infusoria. Many years ago I was given an old coffee grinder. Not the sort with spinning blades, rather the sort with grinding wheels. It was too weak to grind coffee beans and i almost discarded it.
After a good cleaning I found I could run dry fish food pellets thru this old grinder and get a fine powder. Pretty much could get the grade of powder i wanted. Made feeding fry at an early free swimming stage some easier.
Of course there are other small fry foods. I have used canned peas. I would squeeze the peas into the water. On accident I would drop the empty pea hulls into the grow out tank. Days later would see the fry grazing on the empty hulls. I do not exactly know what they found.

One other thing I have noted is after throwing a very old sponge filter into a grow out tank. I pulled the sponge filter out of a tank where it had been running for many months or maybe over a year. I wanted some sort of air movement and basic filtration but could not use HOB sort as the fry were too small tho a few weeks oil. I began to see the fry grazing on the sponge. After a few weeks the surface of the sponge was cleaned up.

The pea hull thing reminds me of some shrimp foods; lubao-a small mesh bag with things like mulberry leaves, soybean hulls, grains, Indian almond leaves, etc.- apparently promotes microorganism growth for shrimp to feed on, and soybean hulls are sometimes used as shrimp food because it fosters microorganism and biofilm growth.