infusioria culture questions

SKAPSYCHO

Skafunkrastapunk! Senior Member
Apr 14, 1999
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Collegeville, MN
infusoria culture questions

Hello,
I'm expecting betta fry somewhat soon and want to make sure I've arranged my infusoria culture correctly. I tore up a bunch of spinach and boiled it up before transferring the spinach and water to a covered mason jar which is sitting in indirect sunlight.

Was all of this done correctly? How long does it take for the culture to become suitble for feeding my fry? Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
~Skap
 
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I gave up on trying to "identify" infusoria a LONG time ago...Always just looked like skungy water to me... A Pomacea Bridgesii snail on the other hand is a one snail lunch truck... Snails naturally produce all kinds of micro jobbies via their intestinal tracts.. I keep one in all of my betta fry tanks....
 
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When I looked up sites telling how to culture infusoria some of them said that it was ready when it was cloudy, others said when it became clear again after being cloudy. I was so confused. I agree with pixie, putting a brig snail in the tank would be great, as well as live plants. I like to keep a culture of microworms going because they are very easy to keep and they are great for betta fry. I'm actually selling some on ebay right now because they are so easy to reproduce.
 
well what i do is, i have a 2 gallon plastic aquarium outside my balcony, with live plants and 3 snails for like one month now, it also have some mosquito larva there. the water has almond extract to make the water better.

i got my self a jar and add some of those water to the new jar with dried lettuce, sit it under a 10 watts light bulb and in 3 days i have my self an infusoria, if you look closely you will see a white dots moving around the tip of the water, those are the infusorias, my 2 gallon from my balcony already have infusoria so 3 days it will be ready for emergency feeding. i just got this Atison's betta fry starter and im thinking about feeding it together with infusoria.

also i have a 10 gallon tank with just live plants in it, i use the water in that tank to add water to my betta breeding tank, for the water already have micro organisim that lives there, so it's nice to have a seperate tank just
for water cycle with live plants than getting a new one from the faucet
 
[off topic] what does the almond extract do to make the water "better"?[/off topic]
 
almond leaf is used much the same way as peat, and it is also thought that it has some theraputic value to fish.
 
Just buy some brigs from themightyqueenpixie thats what i did. They poop out infurosia.
 
If your culture is unsuccessful you're not totally out of luck. I've been feeding mine Hikari First Bites since day 3 (days 1-3 they feed off their egg sacks) and they've been fine.
 
Another idea if you don't want to culture live foods (although as I mentioned, microworms are really easy), is to try Golden Pearls. They come in a variety of sizes from 5-1000 microns and are supposed to be a good alternative to live food. I've got some ordered to feed baby ghost shrimp and I'll let you know if I like them.
 
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