Cyclops for fry?

[cmster]

I'm thinking of getting some of these for my future fry but I'm not quite sure how large they are and when the fry will be able to actually eat them. Is anyone feeding cyclops?

So far I have: microworms, boiled egg yolk, frozen bbs.

Variety is always good. I'm probably only going to feed the egg for the first few days since it'll cloud the water and dirty up my tank really fast.

[baycitybettas]

Microworms = good

egg yolk= dirty and nasty.  Water quality will degrade quickly

frozen bbs= I dont think the fry are interested in them, atleast mine have never been...

Pick yourself up some Brine shrimp eggs and hatch your own.  BBS are most nutritious as newborns so you want to have lots of fresh ones on hand.  Easy to hatch and a little goes a long way.  

[zenafish]

Cyclops? Live or those frozen ones? Good luck trying to find the live ones. Frozen ones are just a recipe for rotting disasters. There are also many types of cyclops, small ones are microscopic but the bigger ones are size of daphnia. So be careful.

You can use rotifers. I stock my newborn tank with live rotifers for the first couple of days (instead of infusoria). If they don't eat it, the rotifers will live in the tank for a while. Until the fry's big enough for microworms.

If you have a source for live cyclops let me know. I want to get some for my saltwater tanks.

[cmster]

Kim - I have some bbs eggs on hand already but was hoping to not have to hatch them. I will for the sake of the fry though. http://209.85.62.26/html/emoticons/laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' />

Zena - Nope, I was thinking frozen. Thanks for the tip. Where can I find live rotifers?

[bettasandbeads]

Has anyone ever tryed Gammarus a form of freshwater shrimp ( also known as amphipods or scuds)
I got a culture and haven't really tryed them. They are growing and living in a large pail I have.
If anyone knows anything more about them please let me know.  All I have read about them is that they make a good live food for fish??? http://209.85.62.26/html/emoticons/dry.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='dry.gif' />
Thanks
Catherine

ps. Yes another thing I bought on impulse

 

[cmster]

Catherine - It's interesting to experiment with new foods isn't it? http://209.85.62.26/html/emoticons/tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /> Don't feel guilty, I have an order of Fairy Shrimp coming in soon.

I think we collected scuds and other f/w invertebrates in high school. We were doing an sampling of f/w invertebrates from our local creek as an indication of water quality. Kinda neat little water bugs http://209.85.62.26/html/emoticons/tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /> What are you feeding them?

[zenafish]

I finally bought a pack of Ocean Nutrition frozen cyclops to see what they look like (it was cheap at Big Al's). The size of each bug is bigger than the frozen daphnia by Hikari. Well, perhaps I should say "longer", they're more elongated in shape, almost like a flea, than daphnia which are more rounded. The cyclops are very similar to the Cyclop-eeze brand frozen food which I feed my saltwater tank with, only that ON cyclops are beige and Cyclop-eeze is bright red.

My juvenile and adult bettas take the new cyclops as well as they would frozen daphnia, but I don't think this would be suitable food for betta fry to small to accept daphnia.

Grinding seems to be a messy thing to do, so I didn't test it.

[crazy4bettas]

I just recently tried frozen rotifers too (hikari bio-gold).  The fry seem to love it... even the 3 week old fry were after it so long as it was suspended in their water and not sitting on the floor.

One cube is much too big for my one and half dozen fry, so I take the cube out and swish it around in some water until I think there's enough thawed, then put the remainder of the cube back into the freezer for the next time.  Makes for an easy variety for them...  

[zenafish]

I just recently tried frozen rotifers too (hikari bio-gold).  The fry seem to love it... even the 3 week old fry were after it so long as it was suspended in their water and not sitting on the floor.

One cube is much too big for my one and half dozen fry, so I take the cube out and swish it around in some water until I think there's enough thawed, then put the remainder of the cube back into the freezer for the next time.  Makes for an easy variety for them...

I use them too, mainly as a backup, but they're REALLY expensive...

Another rotting disaster in the making if they got let sit on the tank bottom. Snails and shrimps, in this case, are your friends http://209.85.62.26/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' />