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Re: Live food for Colisa Chuna/Honey Gouramis
> Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 00:21:56 EDT
> From: IDMiamiBob at aol_com
>
> > As for microworms (thanks Alysoun), my text books
> > say these are larger than newly hatched brine shrimp - which are
> > already way too big for new c chuna fry. Do you harvest yours very
> > young or is this a different species? Again, no luck with microworm
> > seed cultures in London.
>
> Killie keepers I have known (myself included) have fed microworms to their fry
> until they were large enough to handle baby brine shrimp. I would contest the
> info in your text on that basis. The microworms are longer, but they are
> worm-shaped, long and skinny, very easy for fry to get into their mouths and
> down to their gullets. Ask your LFS if they know any killie breeders. I'd
> expect most of them have microworms and would be happy to provide you with a
> starter.
Gourami fry are really small, much smaller than killie fry. At one point
I had some excessively fertile pearl gouramis and some Aphyosemion gardneri.
New-hatched A.gardneri had no difficulty at all eating gourami fry up to
several days old. That said, a microworm culture will have individuals of
all ages and sizes, and the smallest might be edible by the gourami fry.
Another way of providing tiny food for all kinds of fry, even very small
ones, is to have a lot of plants in the tank. Water sprite is great for
gouramis, and Java moss is good for any fry that eat from the bottom or
midwater. These plants (especially the roots of floating water sprite)
can support an enormous population of micro-critters which can feed a
batch of fry for quite a long time, and provide a good supplement between
feedings of dry or frozen foods. Plants also help keep the water clean
by taking up ammonia and other pollutants/nutrients.
Be careful with feeding green water - if it doesn't get enough light and
'crashes' the dead microbes can foul the water. The traditional method
of feeding green water is to drip it into the fry tank over a period of
hours.
I like to keep a few ramshorn snails in fry tanks to consume excess food,
since it's really hard to strike a balance between feeding fry well and
feeding them too much. The ramshorns will clean up any surplus.