Re: Favorite Killifish - Aphyobranchius

["Tyrone Genade" <Tgenade at sun_ac.za>]

On 1 Sep 2002, at 21:29, Scott Davis wrote:

> Is APR or the Tetra egglayer fry food of any use with janpapi? Or is
> it time to start saving mossie eggs rafts.? ;)

From hatching about 20 fry I managed to raise up about 12. I think 
this puts me in the 'success' category for Aphyobranchius fry 
rearing. Had all my males not up and died leaving me with one lone 
female I would probably still have the Ifakaras today.

A few things:

Green water is of no use.
newly hatched mossies are FAR TOO BIG
you need clouds of infursoria
or you can try Mike Reed's no-BS powder fry food.

The later was what I mainly used. I didn't nearly have enough 
infursoria so I started experimenting with this. It worked well. The 
fry took the food from the sruface. All that was needed was a mild 
current to keep the food moving.

My suggestion for Aphyobranchius rearing:

A large shallow tray. Supply some mild aeration to cause a mild 
current. Add some hornwort (because it sucks up ammonia under good 
lighting) and feed sparingly of the No-BS. Asyou are using a dry food 
it is NB to do regular water changes. The addition of some snails to 
the rearing tray would be a great idea as this would build up the 
native infursoria population which can only help.

For those of you bent on doing things the old hard way here is an 
infursoria recipe by Ian Sainthouse:

> Culturing paramecium is simple - the problem is in avoiding
> contamination. Use very clean glass containers around 1 liter and
> fresh water. Make sure the water is free from chemicals used to purify
> it and add the paramecium with one drop of carnation evaporated milk -
> if this is not available then any that is FAT FREE After a day or so
> the water will become clear and if you look you should see a cloud of
> paramecium. If the water is clear then add 2 drops and re[eat this at
> intervals. Make sure that you do not overfeed as this results in the
> loss of the culture.
> 
> When the water is clear you can add it to the tank with the peat in
> it, but dont add more than half. Top up with water and start again !
> 
> I also add a little milk to the hatching tank together with an apple
> snail [and lid]. With all this it may not be necessary to add extra
> feeds of paramecium as they will breed in the tank. Extra feeds are
> only necessary if you have alot of fry. Always sterilize any equipment
> you use e.g.medicine droppers.
> 
> I use a small polyfilter set to as slow a buuble frequency as
> possible. This is an attempt to ensure that the paramecium reaches the
> fry at the surface. They will not come down from the surface to look
> for food.


As a side note, now that I don't need infursoria my tanks are full. I 
can barely see through my lourensi, furzeri and korthausae tanks. I'm 
not doing any odd feeding they are just there. Anyway, when my 
Leptolebias finally hatch they will have more than enough food.:-)

tt4n
Tyrone Genade
tgenade at sun_ac.za
http://www.tyronegenade.0catch.com
cell#: 084-3354-977

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