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Several Corn Husks?
Hey all,
I enjoyed Ray Mitchell's down to earth article in the latest JAKA (Vol30 #6)
regarding live foods. I am always willing to try new simple mediums and he
suggested many that are different than mine. I have a question regarding
his Paramecium medium: dried corn husks. Please explain to this "city boy"
what your interpretation is of what (how much) is a dried corn husk?
My sense of what a husk is seems like alot to put in a gallon jar.
Along this line of live foods I've been using two with satisfaction that may
not be used as often as many. The first are large "flightless" fruitflies
called Drosophila hydei. They offer a significant food morsel to adult fish.
They take longer to develop but culture methods are the same as the more
commonly used D. melanogaster. A downside to hydei is that if you have
a high surface tension (no water movement in tank) they literally can walk
on water,up the glass, and out! Slightly crushing them remedies this in my
"natural setups". The other food I've found valuable are "springtails"
(Collembola family). These little white grub-like animals are easy to
culture in peat at room temperature and fed flake food. They take some
weeks to establish, but once done provide a food source always at your
command. I harvest mine by taking a healthy pinch of media and placing it
in a small container of water. After letting the peat settle, the many
small critters can be skimmed off with a brine shrimp net. Young and adult
fish all eat them readily for me. They live a long time on water. I got my
starter cultures for these foods (and others) from: LFS Cultures in
University,MS (601-236-4687). I sure there are other fine and reliable
suppliers that I don't know, LFS is just the place I got mine.
Is a corn shuck the same as a husk?
Mike Bleakley
mbleak at telepath_com