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Re: Live Foods Digest V1 #135



> Secondly I'm curious of the different types of live foods people use. 
> So far I've heard of:
> 
> Daphnia
> Cyclops
> Infusoria (including paramecia, and rotifers)
> mosquito larva
> microworms
> vinegar eels/micro eels
> grindal worms
> white worms
> red worms
> black worms
> tubifex worms
> earthworms/nightcrawlers
> mealworms (various species of beetle larva)
> fruit flies
> maggots
> gnats
> small crickets (ie. pinheads)
> baby fish (guppy, goldfish, minnows)
> 
> So what am I leaving off the list?

That is a pretty useful list of cultures. They've been mentioned before
but there are additional items listed in Masters' Encyclopedia of Live
Foods (1975, TFH - out of print), Jocker's book on live foods for the
aquariums and terrarium (circa 1972, TFH - again out of print), Needham,
et al's Labratory Culture of Invertibrate Animals (Dover Reprint about
1960. These are found in used book stores, lists and library sales from
time to time.

	You don't sound like you need it, but enquirerers on the list will also
find the old Innes book (Exotic Aquarium Fishes) and the first vol. of
the Baensch Atlas useful.

	While picking up from the year I ran across the April 1997 issue of
Aquarium Fish Magazine. It was an issue with a foods theme. I was
surprised to find that I had overlooked a really excellent Charlie
Grimes' 8 page article in there on culturing live foods. That is one of
Charlie's best topics as a speaker. So intent does he get in conveying
information, that he actually neglects to be funny in a couple of
paragraphs. If you don't at least pick up a new idea there, you weren't
paying attention.

> I want to culture some rotifers and freshwater gammarus for my > seahorses and
> do not know how to start a culture of algae. Would this method work > for either of them? 

	Are you sure you want to feed freshwater gammarus or scuds to
seahorses? Would they fit into sea horse mouths?

	They can be a useful food for larger fishes and smaller species have
been snarfed down by my killies, but they run (species depending) from
the size of a medium brine shrimp to the size of a fingernail. Their
shells are harder than those of brine shrimp or daphnia. Also they need
cold, clean water with a bit of oxygen for best culturing.

	I was unsuccessful at culturing a larger variety a bait dealer sent
around to the pet shops (probably too small a container, too stagnant
the water.). Several of us have cultured smaller varieties that came
into our aquariums with freshwater plants. If you want them to grow in a
tank, remove the fish and watch how fast your plant leaves (the wonder
bulbs or Aponogeton hybrids in my case) fill with holes. A separate
culture using leaves or green beans or peas would probably work.

	One of the outfits in Florida (Florida Aqua Farms?) puts out a great
pamphlet on raising rotifers. Someone on this list has alluded to them
before and will have to help out again. They were raising marine
rotifers though - which might be more useful for your seahorses.

	Freshwater foods are often easier to culture (no salt creep, more
oxygen in the water) and don't carry salt water diseases, but wouldn't
newly hatched brine shrimp (maybe fortified with greenwater or Selco or
a little something from that extra bottle of invertibrate food you won
at the raffle) be easier and longer lasting?

			All the best,

			Scott Davis