Juglone, Live foods, and Aquarium plants   10/21/11
Greetings WWM Crew,
I have a situation and I hope you can help me.
I have a small stock tank outdoors that I tossed some hornwort in during the spring. This stock tank is full of algae, daphnia, seed shrimp, and various other live things such as mosquito larvae. I was considering feeding some of these goodies to some of my indoor fish: Hara jerdoni, Scarlet badis, Badis badis, Plakat Betta, Xiphophorus helleri 'Rio Otapa', Endler's livebearers, Heterandria Formosa, and Hemichromis thomasi (these fish are not all in the same tank).
All of these tanks are densely planted with various plants including:
various crypts, Java Fern 'Windelov', java moss, various Vallisneria, various Anubias, Amazon swords, green temple, Ludwigia, dwarf sag, and water sprite.
Because autumn is beginning, when I went out to check in my stock tank, I noticed it was full of parts of my Black Walnut tree: broken branches, leaves, and a few nuts. The hornwort seems to have disappeared, but the tiny live critters are still there. My question is -- with the Juglone from the walnut obviously being in the stock tank water, will it be safe to still feed the living critters to my fish without killing my aquatic plants?
<I do think you'll be okay... due to dilution>
I generally feed live and frozen foods (after mixing with water) using a 60ml catheter tip syringe. I like using the syringe because I can control exactly how much I feed to each fish. Most of my fish have figured out that food comes out of the syringe tip and will swim up to it and wait for the food to come out. For the ones that don't, like the H. jerdoni, I add a short length of oxygen tubing to the syringe tip so I can deposit the food directly in their face. (I often re-purpose medical products for aquarium use).
<Neat>
If I remove some of the various live critters from the stock tank and rinse them off in tap water before feeding, do you think there is any chance of enough Juglone left to damage my plants?
<I do not... have looked into such issues: http://wetwebmedia.com/PondSubWebIndex/landpltspd.htm
Thank you for your time,
Val
<And you for yours. Bob Fenner>

Hello! Life food, culture for Betta   12/11/10
Dear WetWebMedia, I'm looking to create a reasonably inexpensive sustainable live food culture for my Betta. I understand that worms are a popular choice, but I feel like a swimming culture would be more interesting and fun for me. Daphnia pulex (this is a great guide for understanding the species http://www.caudata.org/daphnia/) has come to my attention (additionally, fairy shrimp, but they seem less practical. If you do know anything about culturing them, I would be very interested!).Daphnia feed on
infusoria in the water. Growing green water, which is considered the best bet, is not practical for me. Alternatively, yeast, soy flour, liquid fry food, and spirulina can be used. Recently, I read an article that indicated that some snails produce infusoria in their waste. Or rather, their waste feeds the infusoria? Either way, the article recommended the placement of apple snails in a fry tank to provide infusoria. It also mentioned Ramshorns as heavy waste produces and good "infusoria snails." My Betta resides in a heavily planted tank which produces a lot of Anacharis/elodea.
My plan is to create a small, inexpensive aquarium, feed it mostly Anacharis with occasional algae tabs and Hikari Crab Cuisine from my shrimp, and produce daphnia. Now, the question turns to proper snail care.
It is important to me that any animal under my care lives a full and healthy life. Seeing as apple snails do not live full lives in aquaria, and Colombian Ramshorns are so large, the Red Ramshorn has come to my
attention. They apparently can and will eat plants, although I've read they do not often do so in planted aquaria with other food sources. Anacharis was especially mentioned on Wikipedia as a plant that they
consume. So, how small can an aquarium be to still support healthy snails? My current plan is a one to two gallon aquarium, with a sponge filter, 12 hours of full-spectrum lighting (to encourage algae growth), and
small heater. I'm not experienced with such a small aquarium, but it seems I will probably have to do a 80% water change and vacuuming on a weekly basis. I can replace the water with used tank water from the larger (cycled) tank. In addition, I could cut the sponge filter in half, and swap out half of it on a weekly basis for half of the filter in my larger aquarium (the sponge filter is simply for extra biological filtration and not desperately essential to tank health).So, will this adequately support a breeding population of daphnia and red Ramshorns? What changes can be made to improve it? Thank you so much for your time and any help you can offer! I hope I gave you the information you need.
<Hello Micaela. Live foods aren't worth wasting much time on. Your Betta will be much healthier if given a diet based around daily use of a good quality flake food, together with offerings of live daphnia every week or two, daphnia being quite a good laxative and therefore good at preventing bloating. It's also a good idea to starve your Betta for a day every two weeks, and then offer squashed cooked or canned peas the following day. Peas offer some vitamins as well as lots of fibre, and again, there's a connection between using fibre-rich foods and Bettas avoiding problems with constipation and bloating. Do understand that the conditions daphnia and infusoria need are NOT ones that fish will thrive in, at least not in aquaria. Yes, people have created "microcosm" aquaria where populations of tiny animals thrive, and thereby support aquarium fish, but those tanks are measured in the hundreds of gallons and stocked with just a very few fish.
Realistically, you aren't going to be able to do it in 2 gallons! So forget about that idea completely. Want your Betta to be happy? Then get -- at minimum -- a 5 gallon aquarium, install a heater and filter, and add some floating Indian Fern at the top of the tank. That's Betta paradise.
Anything smaller isn't good, and almost all of the "sick Betta" stories we get sent here are from people who try to keep their Bettas in tanks smaller than 5 gallons. In other words, spend your time and money on stuff that will deliver good living conditions -- the size of the aquarium, the heater, and the filter. Cheers, Neale.>
Re: Hello! Betta fdg., food culture  12/11/10
Thank you for your reply, Neale! However, I think you misunderstood my
question. My Betta already has his own filtered, heated, planted twelve gallon tank, and I'm talking about setting up a separate one or two gallon tank that he will not live in, purely for the purpose of providing live
food. My question is about the health of the snails in a very small aquarium, and their ability to provide infusoria. I am aware that Daphnia aren't necessary, but it would be interesting to me and a good addition to my Betta's diet.
<Hi Micaela. There's little to be gained by doing this. Infusoria aren't of any value except for feeding very small baby fish; adult Bettas certainly won't care! As for keeping them in 2-gallon tank, no, I wouldn't recommend it. For the cost involved in heating and filtering such a system, you'd have a hard time keeping anything other than tiny Ramshorn or tadpole snails. By all means keep Bettas with Nerite snails, Tylomelania snails, assassin snails or for that Cherry shrimps if you want something unusual to keep alongside your fish. Cheers, Neale.>

Guppy fry, feeding... as in food for others  2/2/2010
Hello Neale, thank you for the great advice as always.
<Happy to help.>
One of my friends has decided to breed guppies, and I'm fearing a population explosion...
<Livebearers can get out of hand in some situations. Does depend on their tankmates though. Angelfish are unbelievably good at eating guppy fry!>
They are simply going to breed them, breed them again, and then breed the babies once they hit maturity...
<If your friend was wise, he or she would procure good quality virgin stock of a particular variety, Black Cobras or whatever, and breed those. There's quite a bit of money to be made breeding *quality* livebearers.>
As a population control, do you think it would be safe to feed some of they fry (Once or twice a week) to my tank? (6 Silver dollars, Leopard Ctenopoma, Black ghost knife, 6" Tire track eel, two Botia Kubotai, Moonlight Gourami, Large Pleco).
<Sure, it's safe, provided you can trust your friend not to have Whitespot or fish with intestinal worms like Camallanus (rather common in farmed livebearers, but should be apparent, and can be treated). On the other
hand, once predatory fish get used to live foods, you're creating a rod for your own: will you have a constant supply, year after year? As a very occasional treat, perhaps once a week, might be fine, but would not give
your predators the chance of becoming "hooked".>
I don't know the Thiaminase content, and couldn't find anything on Google talking about feeding guppy
fry to fish.
<Livebearers are easily gut-loaded with Spirulina flake, and that makes them especially nutritious. I don't believe they contain thiaminase or unusual amounts of fat.>
Thanks! -Jack.
<Cheers, Neale.>

Daphnia (sourcing, AUS.) 12/02/08 To the Wet Web Media crew. The thing I would like to say is I'm very impressed by the information provided on your website. I would also like to apologize as I know I'm in the wrong place but I'm going to ask anyway. I have had the internet since October 12th and its now 2nd December and every night I search in vain for someone who can supply me with a live daphnia culture. Magna , Pulex , Moina any type will do! I live near Townsville Qld. I will be more than happy to pay and pick-up or wait for delivery. I would take any days off work. I'm getting frustrated (I guess you get frustrated about dumb Qs like mine but I don't know and can't seem to find a supplier in Australia). I would consider any price as my alternative is flying to a creek in NSW I know. Again sorry to bother you. ANY info would be appreciated! Thanks Leigh <Hell Leigh. I'm not really familiar with the fishkeeping industry in Australia, and would encourage you to get in touch with, for example, the excellent 'Australian Aquarium' magazine if you're after information on suppliers and retailers. You could also consult the members of ANGFA, one of the better Australian fish clubs. Although interested in native fish faunas, many of its members are expert fishkeepers, and I've been lucky enough to work with several of them over the years. In any case, culturing daphnia shouldn't be difficult; here in England at least most any ditch or pond sooner or later seems to develop a thriving population. Bags of live daphnia sold in pet stores are common here, and I can't think why you could just add these to a barrel of water seeded with some decaying vegetation and left somewhere sunny for algae to grow. Frozen daphnia may be an option for your fish, though I have to admit none of mine ever seem to eat them! Cheers, Neale.>

Re: Daphnia (sourcing, AUS.) 12/02/08 thanks for the reply. <No problems.> I live in a major banana growing area here and there is twice daily aerial spraying of insecticides to control mites. the waters here are crystal clear and nearly lifeless. we also have huge numbers of cane toads (a very hardy introduced poisonous pest) it, and the occasional Gambusia (mosquito fish) are the only creatures I've found. no dragonfly larvae, few mosquitoes, but vast swarms of saltwater sandflys. <Sounds pretty grim! Almost an object lesson in the impact of intense single-crop agriculture on the local environment.> thanks again for trying. I guess im going to have to travel to NSW (3-4 days hitch) Ill try the organizations you have mentioned. wish me luck!(Im not giving up yet!) <Good luck! Neale.>

Infusoria Question  9/23/08
Dear WWM Crew,
Hi, can you please tell me how long infusoria lasts? Thanks ahead of time - Jean.
<Freshwater or marine? Freshwater infusoria cultures can last a couple of weeks or more, depending on the size of the container and ambient temperature. But at some point the culture will smell sour (rather than sweet) and that's the time to throw it out. You can use portions of good culture to start off new cultures, and in practise it's easiest to have three or more jam jars all on the go at different times. You shouldn't need infusoria for more than a couple of weeks after the fry are free swimming; most freshwater fish quickly grow on to being able to take newly-hatched brine shrimp and/or powdered/liquid fry foods. The range and usefulness of prepared fry foods has come on enormously in recent years, and are adequate for many common freshwater fish: Danios, catfish, cichlids, livebearers, halfbeaks, killifish to name a few. Cheers, Neale.>

Infusoria, guppy loss of color and Moscow guppy purchase? - 4-11-08 Can you please answer a few questions for me; I did not find any answers to them in my extensive research on various web sites re specific aquarium fish. (1 A) I was told that infusoria for Betta fry should be placed in a warm, D A R K, place and elsewhere in a warm, S U N N Y, place so micro organism could grow. <The latter is correct> (1 B) How long does it take before it's ready to feed? <A few weeks> I started one with organic lettuce and another with local straw from the river. I am using both now and the fry survived the first ten days, but I also feed some dry fry food and-after they were one week old-frozen daphnia. (3C) When do I add the box/sponge filter for the fry? <Mmm... if run gently from the get go... Immediately> (2) My guppies have lost some of their colors along the back. I was told to add salt to the water but the color is still missing. What do you think? <Something amiss... Nutritionally, water quality-wise... perhaps an infectious agent at play... Hopefully not the last... Columnaris...> (3) Do you sell and ship Moscow guppies? <Nope> And do you sell micro worms or other live food for Betta fry? <Nicht!> Thank you for any help. I am somewhat new at this and have already lost two sets of Betta fry and will try not to lose this one. Mirjana in Alamosa, Colorado. <Mmm, do look on the international Betta sites re... there is a wealth of info. and help to be had. Cheers, Bob Fenner>

Vinegar + Water + Oxygen =??? FW microbial culture   11/07/07 Hi; I bought a 70 gallon tank a while ago, used. Scrubbed all the hard stains off it with white vinegar, then did my best to rinse it out with water. Must not have done a good enough job. <Mmm... doubtful... Vinegar, the simplest organic acid... Acetic, solubilizes, rinses freely with water> I filled the tank half full with water, ended up letting it sit because I realized I didn't know how to use the oldest looking Fluval canister filter I've ever seen in my life (had a leak too, so I bought a new 305). Well some white slimy growth started appearing free floating in my water. Rather puzzling since none of my Internet searches gave me much of anything other than fungus that grows on fish and food, neither of which are in my tank. I took out 90% of the water, replaced it, still had this stuff in there. So I hooked up two filters and let them have at it. Couple of days and hardly anything was left in the water. Did a chemical check, things looked fine (aside from horrendously hard water and a pH of 8.x.... tap water) Got a little curious, put my flying fox in there (all prepared to take him out if things looked funny) to my surprise he nibbled on a bit of the white stuff, thought about it, then raced around gobbling up as much of it as he could find. Nothing was left in the span of 20 minutes. He had no change in behaviour after that. color was fine, alert and happy my RB shark wasn't chasing him. Couple of days went by, he still looked good. Eating, swimming, and staking out territory (which was quickly lost to the RB shark later) So that was that. I never learned what it was, but I guess it tasted awfully good. <Seems so> Now, recently, I've been playing with vinegar again in a small 5 gallon tank with a DIY sponge filter and peat moss bag. 6 tablespoons of white vinegar to 5 gallons water, let sit for two days, then feel the thick slime on the walls. Kinda "ew". I still want to know what this stuff is. pH is sitting around 6.8 . I don't know if its the same since its not free floating. Nor do I want to test it with any of my fish. Wonder if it will grow on an agar solution (got some laying around). <Interesting speculation...> I did manage to come across something called "Mother of vinegar". appearance isn't the same, but its a Bacteria that turns alcohol into vinegar and is supposedly harmless if eaten. (can think of a few people I might want to do that to) however it doesn't "look" quite the same. Well that's about all I can think of. Side note; the tank has been up and running for 1.5 months, everyone is healthy and happy, in crystal clear "tea" colored waters (from the peat moss which has boosted my plant growth by double!). Bottled water (pre aged with peat, etc) will be added gradually to lower ph in the near future. Also hoping that my tetras will stop flirting and finally produce something before the males get a complex. Thank you for your time! Cera <CH3COOH is a good feeder stock in some situations... for decomposers... likely bacteria and/or fungi here... in dilute solution... not an avid, "strong" proton donor... Thanks for sending this along. Bob Fenner>

Alternative to apple cider vinegar  - 11/07/06 Hi crew,      what can be used as an alternative to apple cider vinegar for culturing vinegar eels.      can u <Grrrr> please tell me a method for culturing vinegar eels other than using apple cider vinegar.                                                             thanking you <Mmm, well, other sources/types of Acetic Acid (CH3COOH) will do best/better here... basically any brand/make of vinegar... but other organic acids (diluted strength) could be used... Not inorganic acids though. Bob Fenner> Preparing infusoria   9/30/06 Hi crew         I wanted to know that while preparing infusoria should i keep the jar in sunlight and should i keep the jar air tight.          Thanking you <In sunlight is best. Never in a completely sealed jar. Bob Fenner>

Chemicals, Breeding Green Terrors, Fungus on RES's Neck  - 05/29/06 Hi crew. I am happy to be back after a long break to my fish hobby. Now I have many questions for you.   1)There is a lake near my house which was polluted by chemicals nearly  8-10yrs back. Now I find a lot of daphnia and mosquito fish in the  lake. Can I feed this to my fish? < Chemicals is a very broad term. Depending on the contamination levels and the chemicals the threat could be gone by now. Other chemicals can last for years in very low concentrations. These invertebrates could each contain a very minute level of the chemicals. As you fish eats these invertebrates the concentration of the chemicals may build up in the  fish's body and cause health problems for your fish. In general I do not use any water for my fish that I would not drink myself. This way I know the water is safe.> I also fear that there are hook  worms (Argulus) present along with the daphnia. Can I feed this to my  fishes? < Fish generally will not eat Argulus.> Is there any way I can remove the Argulus? Medications used to kill the Argulus will kill the daphnia too.> 2) My green terrors breed very often but the problem is that the male is  not helpful in guarding the spawn and the female keeps eating the  fry. How can I hatch the eggs away from the parents? <Give the parents something to lay the eggs on that can be removed from the tank. If they lay the eggs on the side of the glass then there is not too much you can do. Get a 5 gallon tank and set it up with a heater and an airstone. When the fish lay the eggs you can remove 5 gallons from the main tank and put  it in the 5 gallon tank. Place the rock with the eggs in the 5 gallon tank and set the heater for 80 F. Place the airstone next to the eggs to keep a current going. Add some methylene blue to the water to prevent fungus. After three days the eggs should hatch and the fry will fall to the bottom of the tank. Remove the rock. Three days later the fry should be free swimming and will need to be fed baby brine shrimp, microworms and finely crushed flake food.> 3)My RES turtle appears to be growing fungus around its neck and on its shell. How can I treat this? <Fungus generally feeds on dead tissue. I assume that the turtle is shedding his skin and the fungus is simply attached to the skin that is sloughing off. Do a big water change, try to rinse off the dead skin and add a Dr. Turtle Sulfa Block by Zoo Med to inhibit the fungus growth.> I will be very thankful if you help me out. thanking you in advance. < Next time you need to rewrite your questions to include proper punctuation or you questions will not be answered. These questions/replies are posted to help other aquarists/hobbyists and we need to be very clear so not to mislead others trying to save their animals.-Chuck>

Looking Into Live Fish Food Cultures   I have a 2 month old now and my fish raising habit is sort of suffering from too many things to do at once. It's times like these when laziness and ingenuity often come to the rescue. I've been trying to think of ways to feed fry without doing the twice daily baby brine shrimp dance. Change water, foul water with food that dies, leave alone all day while at work, come home, foul water with food that dies, etc.  I am also assuming that fry constant graze or hunt for food items in a natural environment instead of trying to glut themselves and then starve. That would seem to promote lazy and weaker fry. Not to mention sitting in the nitrate build up which is probably the number 1 growth inhibitor for fish.   So I started thinking a freshwater refugium might be helpful by supporting a constantly available, living food source. Googling turned up this in your FW filtration FAQ's.  "The sad thing is that only since the internet has really taken off in the past 5-10 years has these issues been asked. And there isn't that many definitive answers. Years back I had thought of the exact same thing and being the scientific mind that I was attempted to set up a freshwater tank that mimicked my marine tanks. (seeing if I could set a tank up first, then move onto a refugium sort of idea. A sand or mud based substrate worked best in a planted aquarium (rather than any sort of gravel).  It offered a better medium for the plant roots and for microfauna to build up some colonies.  I created mine by actually hiking into the middle of my parents woods to the stream they owned and scooped a bucket full of the sand/mud from the riverbed. I made sure that the area wasn't near any roads or field run offs so there shouldn't be that many chemicals in there. I then brought it home to add it to a tank I had set up with a bag of "Southdown Children's play sand" as substrate. I added the contents of the bucket to the tank (after looking through it for pieces of glass and things I wouldn't want in my tank). I thought that I could see if some things would colonize the remainder of the sandbed just like if you were to seed a reef tank sand bed.  I found that it did work. Lots of little bugs were in the river bed that quickly started working away on the sand. The down side... many of the bugs found on land in freshwater are the larval stage of some sort of flying insect... (keep a lid on your tank!)" I am a stream quality monitor and have a very basic idea of what I would get from my local stream, at least on the macroscopic level anyway. Lots of gnarly things like hellgrammites and dragonfly larvae to mention a few. The microfauna would be a good first food for many fishes, but what would they eat next to transition to adult fish food? There are smaller aquatic midges and worms, etc, but those don't seem to be as populous, at least to my naked eye.  So as of now, I'm thinking that fry would not have a good chance of making it too adulthood. (Not that fish in the natural environment would) And I would like to better the wild survival rate and at least make enough fish to sell or trade. I am mostly interested in Angels, Corys and Bettas, but also barbs, danios, and other American cichlids.  Is there a good source for what the fry of these fish eat in the wild?  How can I produce that in the aquarium? More rambling...So while I wrote this e mail, I started wondering about vernal pools, which I don't know very much about, but I do know that these pools are teeming with small insect larvae, etc. Would it be possible to recreate a still water pool in the home, without hatching tons of mosquitoes and other uglies, and produce some sort of food animal for fry that would not die and foul the water? I read something once about blue gourami breeders seeding grow out tanks with green water, then dumping a daphnia culture in, and letting the fry raise themselves, is this possible? I'm hoping this e mail provides others with some ideas about raising fry, serious breeders really should always be looking for ways to produce better fry, in a more efficient manner. Thanks for any insights you may have, and the 12 hours it will probably take just to read all this.  Peace,  Zach < Feeding fry has always been a challenge for breeders since they started to breed fish. There are many ways to hatch baby brine shrimp. I suggest that you research the fish you are trying to breed and see what the breeders are feeding them. For instance if the betta breeders are feeding infusoria, then start to research infusoria. You will find many different methods and many suppliers online.-Chuck>