Microworms

I have finally started to use these fantastic worms, and I must say that I’m very happy with them as a food source. 

Microworms belongs to the Nematodes or roundworms. As the name implies they are a very small species barely visible to the naked eye and as such are only suitable as a food source for smaller fish and fry.

There are several positive aspects to these worms, firstly they are so easy to care for and multiply very fast which means that with a bit of planning you should never run out of worms.

Secondly your microworm culture will contain worms in different stages of development; this means that your culture also contains a food source for fish of various sizes. I for instance use the same culture to feed fry and juvenile cories in different stages of growth.

So what do you need to get started?

Not much is the answer. 

You will need one, preferably two containers. Plastic food containers of pretty much any sort will do with 10-20 holes in the lid. Make sure that the holes are as small as possible to lessen the risk of contamination. 

The culture material can be of varies number of organic material, I’m still trying out different materials, at the moment I use porridge which seems to work well. The material needs to be soupy but not too runny. It should be wet enough to settle as an even surface in the container. Use enough to cover 1-1.5cm of depth. Lastly you will also need a starter culture of microworms, you should be able to find one either from the fish community where you live or else buy one online.

I mentioned two containers; this is because it’s very handy to keep two cultures going at the same time, one started about a week or so after the other. Not only will you have a greater supply of worms, but having two cultures means that you always will have a spare culture to start a new one from should one crash.

Keep the culture in room temperature away from direct sunlight and the worms should do well. If the culture starts to dry up just add some water and stir. Once the culture(s) is running it takes 1-2 weeks before you can perform your first harvest. When the culture is ready you will start to see tiny worms climbing the sides of the container. To harvest the worms, simply use a paint brush and brush the sides of the container, catching whatever amount of worms you need. Stir the brush in a cup of water and use a pipette to select the chosen amount. Make sure not to get any culture media into the tank while doing this, also always use a clean brush not to cross contaminate the different cultures and try not to get tank water into the cultures.

If your culture starts to become miscoloured or mouldy it is time to terminate it. This is another reason why it is good to have several cultures running at the same time so that you always have a fresh culture to start off a new one with. After about a month or so it’s it likely that you will have to start a new culture and discard the old one. Simply wash the container and follow the steps above again.

Source:

Hellweg, T., M. 2008. Culturing Live Foods: A Step-by-Step Guide for Culturing One’s Own Food for the Home Aquarium. T.F.H Publications, Inc.

Additions to the family / L134 juveniles

Due to my current work situation there has been very little time for me to spend on the internet and this blog, I do hope this will change soon.

I did go to www.seahorseaquariums.com/ the ther day and came home with these beauties. Many thanks to John at Seahorse for sourcing these and for taking the time to discuss signs of gender in juveniles.

These are quite small and it is very hard to sex L134's this size with any accuracy. I am hoping there will be some females among these and when picking them out I was looking for rounded shapes (body/head/fins). If all of them turn out to be female I will be extremely impressed by myself and John, and very surprised:)

 

 

Very small/young Bristlenose father

The picture above shows a common Ancistrus male, he is about 5-6 cm in total length and between 5-6 months old. The cave is approx 4 cm wide.

This male is guarding it's first batch of eggs and the mother was an large adult female.

The male seems to have developed really early and already have a full set of bristles with split end.
There were no adult males in the tank as I did not intend to breed the female, this could have lead to that this little lad got his chance.

Even though this male developed very fast it is proof of just how productive this species is when it comes to breeding.

From now on I will have to separate the young males from the girls much earlier than i have been doing so far.

Melander

Painting the background/side of an aquarium,

I decided to paint the sides of some of my tanks, the reason being that they are in a new location now and disturbance/light coming in from the sides have made some of the inhabitants a bit nervous.  The principal is the same for painting the background.

Having done this before with various types of paint I decided to go with acrylics this time as it seems to be the safest, cheapest and easiest option.

I got a cheap brush and paint, just lined the edges with tape so that the paint would not go everywhere.

To get a perfect even surface spray or a roller would have been better but I used what I had in the house and did not want to use spray anyway due to the risk of it entering the water. If you have the option it would be better to do this before the tank is filled anyway.

This is the result:

I prefer black backgrounds myself as I find that a dark background really contrasts well with the light up interior of the tank.

Happy painting!

Melander

Wanted section, Peckoltia compta, L134 females

A Wanted section has been added to the blog and at the moment I am looking for some Peckoltia compta, L134 females so If anyone has some in the eastern part of Ireland please let me know at: melanderandreas@hotmail.com

Melander

Fish Tank Photography Tips!

 Here are some simple things I try to think about when taking photographs of aquarium fish:

1. Clean the glass, nothing as irritating as finally having gotten a clear shot and there’s dried water on the glass.

2. Stability, this could be a tripod, table or a pile of books. Especially important when not using the flash.

3. Lighting, turn off all other lights in the room and take the shot during the evening. Prevents annoying reflexion in the glass.

4. Flash, normally I tend not to use the flash as it is tricky to get an angle from which there is no reflection of the flash in the glass (and it might disturb the fish) but with fast moving fish it can be very useful.

5. Background, try to take shots of the fish when they are in front of something nice like plants or wood rather than the pump or heater.

6. Use crop when editing to get rid of that pump or heater

7. Practise on using the macro setting on the camera.

8. Try to focus on the eye or at least head of the target.

9. Take some time to try different settings on the camera, you don’t have to do this the manual way the pre-programmed settings will take you far. When you found one you like remember it! The photo conditions will not change as long as you don’t change for instance the lights and you can always come back to the one setting you know works well for one tank.

Good luck!

Melander

(These tips were originally posted on: http://www.irishfishkeepers.com/)

Corydoras schultzei black, first spawn!

I had a pleasant surprise today, my group of Corydoras schultzei "black form" spawned for the first time.

The group consists of two males and two females, approximately 12 months old, however only one female participated this time.

I was so delighted when I saw it and completely forgot to take pictures of the eggs, too busy collecting them I suppose.

There was no other trigger than weekly 20% water changes and regular feeding of catfish pellets, waffers and blood worms. In fact I had actually not done this week’s water changes yet. A possible trigger could have been the C. panda’s regular breeding behaviour.

Having these two species breeding in the same tank is slightly worrying as the last thing i want is hybrids. As I was monitoring the spawning today there was no interaction between the two species but I do need to move the C. schultzei group to their own tank.

Two males and one female took part in the typical cory T-position and the eggs were scattered on the front glass of the tank, right in the current of a wavemaker.

The egg count seems to be somewhere between 40 and 50, sadly at first glance many seem to be infertile but I hope the ratio will improve as the fish gain experience. They are now being kept in a breeding net in the same tank as the parents, hopefully everything will go well and there will be a positive update soon.


Readings:
Temperature: 24.5 °C
pH: 7