INFUSORIA - THE BEST FOOD FOR FRY
To successfully raise fry, you must feed them using the right food. Infusoria are the perfect food for newly hatched fry, and in addition they are easy to cultivate at home.
If you plan to breed aquarium fish, you need to know what to feed your fry immediately after they are born. While some fish species take care of their offspring for days or weeks after birth, many fish don't show parental instincts and don't even mind eating their own fry right away. To keep the fry safe, it is important to place them in a separate tank immediately after birth where they will be safe. In addition to this, you need to take care of the food that the fry will eat. Depending on what species of fish you are breeding, the fry will probably be very small and will not be able to eat traditional flakes or pellets. Newborn fry will require small, preferably live feeds to help them get strong quickly during their first few days of life. One of the best foods for fry are infusoria.
What are infusoria?
In aquaristics, the word “infusoria” is used to describe all kinds of microscopic aquatic organisms, both plant and animal. Infusoria are much smaller than Artemia, so they are the perfect food for fry that have just hatched and have already used up all the nutrients in their yolk sac. The first few days of life are incredibly important for newborn fry - if fry don't get proper nutrition early in their lives, they may not develop properly and may even starve to death until they are big enough to eat Artemia and other foods.
Infusoria were first discovered in 1763, and since then over 2,000 different species have been discovered. The specific species of infusoria used to feed newly hatched fry is not important - all species of infusoria are ideal as starter food.
Tips for culturing infusoria at home
If you plan to breed aquarium fish on a regular basis, it is advisable to learn how to culture infusoria at home. By learning how to culture infusoria, you will provide food for the fry and also save quite a lot of money.
To cultivate infusoria, you need to take a glass or plastic jar and fill it with water from the aquarium. After that, you need to add some plant material to the jar, such as a few lettuce leaves, potato peels, rice or debris from the water filter. after that, all you need to do is wait for some time. Some aquarists recommend putting the jar in the sun to speed up the reproduction of the infusoria. After a few days, you will see that the water has turned greenish or milky in color - this is a sign that the infusoria are reproducing normally and you can already start collecting them.
Using infusoria as fish food
When using infusoria as food for fry, you should keep in mind that infusoria are microscopic, so even a small amount of water from a cultured jar will contain a large number of them. For this reason, it is important that you do not add too much water from the can to the fry tank, as uneaten infusoria will die and can significantly contaminate the tank. The easiest way to collect the infusoria is to use an eye dropper to collect a small amount of water from the top of the cultured jar and pour the contents into the fry tank. In order for the fry to grow quickly they should be fed a small amount of water from the infusoria culture jar at least twice a day.
After a few days you will feel that from the jar with the culture of infusoria will begin to spread an unpleasant odor - this is due to the decomposition of various plant materials that you used to start culturing infusoria. When collecting infusoria to feed the fry, it is important not to capture particles of plant material along with the infusoria, which are not only harmful to fish, but also significantly pollute the water in the aquarium. As the plant food decomposes in the jar, it becomes increasingly difficult to strain the infusoria out of the water, so it is recommended to start culturing the infusoria anew every 3-4 days so that you always have fresh food.
After 7-10 days, most of the fry are ready to eat larger foods, such as Artemia nauplii. Start by offering the fry a mixture of infusoria and artemia - then you will notice that the abdomen of the fry pinkish or yellow (the result of feeding artemia), in this case you can stop feeding the fry infusoria.
Aquarium fish breeding can be an exciting endeavor, but it can also be quite challenging. If you wish to succeed in breeding your fish, you will need to know how to feed your fry in order for them to survive. Infusoria are a great food for fry and are easy to culture at home.
