Iriatherina werneri, the "Threadfin Rainbow" is an egg scatterer. Put a couple well fed pair into soft water and they’ll spawn. If you can keep the adults from eating the eggs, they’ll hatch out and fry will begin appearing on the surface in about 8 days in 78 degree water. Getting them to spawn is not the reason this is a 20 point BAP fish. It’s the fry. They’re nearly invisible. It took 10 days for their little tube like mouths to expand enough to take one live baby brine shrimp. Microworms seemed too big too, in the beginning.

 I had some experience with Killifish, Betta and Gourami fry (to name a few) which need super small foods too, but only for a day or two. I had, in fact, just moved some fry from a small tank that seemed charmed some how. Fry from that tank always seemed to grow bigger…faster. There was nothing different about it.

Nothing obvious…until I really looked.

Down there on the bottom of the tank, amidst the snails and brine shrimp egg casings…Down where the Cyclop-Eez and flake food collected in little tufts of colored pulp…down where I needed a magnifying glass to see the smallest of aquarium critters…something was growing. Something that looked like, what, a cloud?

Paramecium.

The world of super tiny live foods is huge! I pulled the following off the World Wide Web where a search for "Live Food Cultures" or "Paramecium" will give you homework for a week.

Euglena (E. Gracilis): Is one of the most important of the "green coloring organisms". They are ideal for rearing those tiny fry which reject the larger paramecium. Paramecium Multimicronucleatum: The larger size (clearly visible to the naked eye) of this species make it the perfect food for almost all fry. They are easily raised in small glass jar.

Paramecium Aurelia: Half the size of Paramecium multimicrocleatum.

Blepharisma: Paramecia and Blepharisma are from the same family of ciliates. There is no big difference in the size and the shape between the two species. However, Blepharisma moves more slowly than paramecia and are distinguished by their rose colored pigment.

Freshwater mixed rotifers (Philodina and Monostyla): After feeding fry on infusoria, rotifers "medium sized ciliates" come next in their diet. Philodina is at least twice the size of Monostyla.

So, where do you get the little critters? Well, you can buy cultures from a dozen sources on the internet. You could also ask anyone who raises tiny fry. Your BEST source however, may be your own tanks. Down there on the bottom…

 Return to Main Index