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In order to raise baby fish successfully, you need to use the right food. Infusoria are the perfect size for newly hatched fry and they are easy to culture at home.
If you plan to breed your aquarium fish, you will need to know how to raise the fry after they have hatched. While some species of fish care for their young for a few days or weeks after birth, many do not show any paternal behaviors. In fact, many species will eat their own young. It is important to provide your developing fry, a safe and growth compatible environment. You also need to offer them food that they are capable of eating. Depending on the species, the fry are likely to be very small and will not be able to accept traditional flake foods or pellets. Newly hatched fry will require tiny, preferably live, foods in order to grow quickly during their first few days of life. One of the best foods for newly hatched fry is Infusoria.
What are Infusoria?
The word Infusoria is used to describe all kinds of microscopic aquatic organisms, both plant and animal. Infusoria are much smaller than brine shrimp nauplii and so they are the perfect food for fry that have just hatched and have absorbed their yolk sac. The first few days of life are incredibly important for newly hatched fry. If the fry do not receive adequate nutrition during the early stages of life they may fail to develop properly and could even starve to death before they grow large enough to accept brine shrimp nauplii and other foods. Infusoria were first discovered in 1763 and thousands of different species have been discovered since then.
Tips for culturing at home:
The easiest way to culture infusoria is by collecting water and filter debris from an established tank. Next, fill the jar with water from an established aquarium – water from planted tanks is best. After you’ve filled the jar, add some type of vegetable matter such as a few leaves of lettuce, potatoes, rice or debris from an active filter. After you’ve prepared the culture, leave the jar in sunlight to increase infusoria production or leave it just like that. After a few days, you will see the water begin to turn cloudy green. When this happens, it is a sign that the infusoria have reproduced sufficiently to be harvested.
Using Infusoria as food for fish:
When using infusoria as food for fry you need to keep in mind that infusoria are microscopic so even a small amount of water from the culture jar will contain many infusoria. For this reason, it is important not to add too much water from the jar to your fry tank at one time because the infusoria could die and pollute the tank. The easiest way to harvest infusoria is to use an eye dropper or turkey baster to collect small amount of water from the top of the culture jar and to squirt it directly into the fry tank. Plan to feed your fry atleast twice a day so they will grow quickly.
Vegetable matter in the culture jar decomposes in few days. So start a new culture every 3 to 4 days to have a fresh Infusoria. Most of the fry are ready to accept slightly larger foods like brine shrimp nauplii in a week of feeding on infusoria. Start by offering a mixture of the two and when you see the bellies of the fry are pink or yellow, it is safe to discontinue the use of infusoria.
