Infusoria is the best first food for the frys that are too small to eat baby brine shrimps or crushed flake food. They are easy to obtain as they naturally exist in your aquarium. They don’t foul the water like flake or other live foods. Their small size and natural movement is attractive to small frys. Their cultures are easy to maintain. You will have continuous food supply for your small frys.
What is Infusoria?
Infusoria are varieties of microscopic aquatic organisms that live in freshwater. These organisms include:
Protozoa (e.g., Paramecium, Euglena, Amoeba)
Rotifers
Tiny algae
Bacteria and ciliates
How to Culture Infusoria
Infusoria can be easily culture at home. There are numerous methods on internet. Here is how I do it.
Materials
Two clear plastic containers (You can feed the infusoria from one culture while setting up another culture. You can get away with one. I prefer to set up two just in case that one is crashed. I also like to feed the frys with mature infosoria culture rather than the new one. The water condition of the mature culture is more stable.).
Aquarium water
A few grains of half-cooked rice (or oats) by boiling them for five minutes and a small pinch of yeast. Infusoria are predators of microorganisms. They will feed on the yeasts that feed on the rice. (You can use raw vegetables rather than the rice/yeast. In this case, the infusoria will feed on bacteria or fungi).
- Mesh bag (to hold the rice and yeast)
- Aged aquarium water from sponge filter
Steps to Culture Infusoria
- Fill the container with aquarium water (about 80% full)
- Use the turkey baster to suck up sludges from the sponge filter (or any filter media in your aquarium).
- Let the water to settle and filter the culture through brine shrimp net (To get rid of debris and worms).
- Add cooked rice and yeast to the mesh bag and hung it inside of the container.
- Loosely cover the container and place the container in indirect light
- Wait a few days, the water should turn cloudy – indication of yeast / bacteria population bloom.
- Wait a few days, water should become clear. This is the indication of the establishment of infusoria population in the culture.
Feeding
To feed the infusoria to your frys, use a turkey baster to suck water from the culture and dispense it into a beaker. Pour culture into the breeder box. the Feed the frys 2-3 time daily.
Maintenance
The insuforia culture population will decline once their food source is depleted. You will need to refresh your infusoria culture ensure a continuous supply.
to start a new batch, pour the 20 % water from existing culture to a new container then fill the container with you aquarium water. You can continue to feed your fry using the existing culture.
- Add half boiled rice and yeast in the mesh bag and hung it inside the new container. Loosely cover the container and place your new culture in indirect light.
- After a few days, your should have a mature culture and ready to feed them to your fry.