Single cell live food

For the very smallest fish larvae, which cannot eat Artemia nauplii due to their tininess, unicellular food animals should be considered. Rotifers and paramecia are also part of the natural food spectrum of the very smallest larvae in nature. Cultivation is not very difficult.

Saltwater rotifers, Brachionus plicatilis(buy here)

Rotifers are the smallest multicellular organisms among animals, growing only about 1-2 mm long. This makes them a perfect food for the smallest fish larvae, for which Artemia nauplii are too large, and also for shrimp. In itself, Brachionus is quite low in nutrients, but with suitable high-quality feeding, the non-specific filter feeder can be enriched with nutrients very well. Even medicines can be administered to the fish larvae in this way.

Locomotion

Rotifers float in the water, they can move with their wheel apparatus.

Food

Rotifers are non-specific filter feeders, they eat everything from bacteria to unicellular algae and microorganisms. Very good food for Brachionus is for example the seaweed Nannochloropsis salina, but they can also be fed perfectly with slurried dry yeast.

Who eats Brachionus?

Especially small and smallest juvenile fish larvae like to eat rotifers, but also dwarf shrimps like to take Brachionus. 

Breeding kit

Brachinous plicatus can be propagated in large numbers very easily in seawater. For this purpose a tank of 25 l or more is recommended, into which the breeding stock is added. Please measure the salt content of the preparation with a hydrometer and make sure that the water in the breeding tank has approximately the same density. Rotifers can tolerate a salt content of 20-35 g per liter, but should not be exposed to large fluctuations in salinity in culture, otherwise they may die. Temperature fluctuations are also problematic. Brachionus grow larger the lower the salt concentration.

Brachionus are collected with a suitable sieve (mesh size approx. 50 µm), so that no water from the culture tank reaches the fish larvae.

Value

Rotifers are not particularly rich in content, but they can be optimally enriched with additional feed, for example from the company INVE.

Paramecia

Paramecium live in fresh water and belong to the largest unicellular organisms. Some of them can even be seen with the naked eye. For very small fish larvae they are the perfect initial food. 

Locomotion

Paramecia move very slowly swimming or floating in the water by beating with their cilia.

Food

Paramecia eat unicellular bacteria and other protozoa such as yeasts and so on.
Who eats paramecia?
Paramecia are the first food for the smallest fish - tiny fish larvae, for which Artemia nauplii would be much too big, can be fed with paramecia in the first days.

Breeding kit

Slipper lizards reproduce well on their own when fed sufficiently. They can be seen as floating whitish tiny dots in the water. In the breeding tank you can feed diluted milk drop by drop (really only very little) or simply put a small piece of banana peel into the tank - this way you feed the bacteria in the open water, which in turn serve as food for the slipper lizards.
Slipper lizards can be sieved with a very fine-meshed sieve (fine sieve) with a mesh size of 20-35 µm. Before feeding, they should be rinsed briefly with running water.

Value

Paramecia are an optimally suitable first food for tiny juvenile fish larvae. Also in nature the tiny fish eat slipper animals and other unicellular organisms.