Peppered Cory Fry

hi all,my cory fry are 12 days old & im feeding them on liquifry 3 baby plus growth food but my microworm culture is now ready to use (better late than never i suppose!!!).what i want to know is whether i just use the microworms as food now or do i carry on with the liquifry aswell.there growing well on the liquifry,so do i carry on using it?also,how long do you continue to feed them microworms?sorry if this is a stupid question but im new to all this.this is my first attempt at ever trying to raise fry of any kind and i think im doing ok so far as all 16 that hatched (out of 20 eggs) are still alive but i dont wana mess things up now!!!any advice is greatly apprechiated! x

Hi Flumpit2, great to hear you still having success with the fry. Microworms are an absolute God send when it comes to raising fry. I don't use liquifry as it pollutes the water quick and promotes bad bacteria on the bottom of the tank. Microworms live for at least 24hours in the tank so zero pollution, they sink if you don't have to much flow and the fry absolutly love them. I feed them solely microworms from day 4 up till 8weeks then try chopped up bloodworm, flakes and even still microworms till they go to a lfs at 12 weeks. Why did you battle with cultures? Pm me if you want my recipe.

hi alex'sandcarmen'tank,thanx for coming to my rescue yet again!!!i know what you mean about the liquifry polluting the tank,im forever using my turkey baster to suck all the stuff out that settles on the bottom.it took me a while to find a microworm culture cus the guy who sells them on here has stopped doing them for a while.i finally managed to get one from ebay & today i noticed that the worms (yukky things!!) have started climbing up the sides so there ready to use.so just feeding the microworms from now on is the best thng to do then.one more quick question if you dont mind...how long will the microworms survive in the water?how long will i have to give it before i suck the uneaten ones out?would love to hear your recipe 4 microworms as its probaly more clearer & simpler than the instructionsi got with this culture!!thanx again,your a star!!! x

Microworm Cultures.

I carn't claim to own this recepe, its just whats worked for us. We use old butter or any flat bottom container of similar size, punch a few holes in the top for air. For food we use Ready Brek because its ground down fine and has added vitamens (hopefully adding to nutritional value of worms.) But i've read people using normal oats, baby porridges and oats so easy. Take a coffee mug add 3 heaped table spoons of oats,1/4 teaspoon active yeast(not fast acting, i found the mix goes off pretty quick with this yeast) and add to luke warm water mix to a paste,so that it just rolls of the spoon. Let the mix stand for 15min then check it hasn't gone to solid, add more water to get it back to just rolling off the spoon. If the mix is too runeeee it'll go off fast. Now spoon mix into container be careful not to slop up the sides. Seed with worms from an existing culture, I scrap a few from the sides so as not to contaminate the new mix with old mix. Stir the new worms in, I stir mine daily thereafter so the food comes to the surface and keeps the mix fresher smelling. The mix shouldn't stink though, you should get a yeast smell, you'll see after a week or two the mix goes dark yellow and begins to smell this is the time to chuck away.Now place the culture somewhere warm, I put mine on top of a tank lid that has lights to keep them warm. Warning though the culture reproduces faster with warmth so they need more feeding and the mix goes off quicker. I add more Ready brek mix same as above every third day to kkep the culture going. And every fifth i start a new culture so the new one is ready when the old gets washed out.
To harvest them for the fish I wipe my finger round the side to collect them and place them in a plastic cup of tank water to rinse them.Finger licking good. Don't forget to wash your hands after. Don't touch the mix otherwise you'll contaminate your tank. Now use a turkey baster to suck them up and put in the tank, whats good is the turkey baster can reach to the floor of our tank so we're releasing them right where the Cory fry are. The worms can live for 24hrs underwater so we don't siphon off after a feed, we just add less or miss a feed next feed. We're feeding 3-4 times a day.
We also treat our other fish with them,Cardinal tetra,Rams ,Minows and Angels. They enjoy chasing them around although they need to eat quite alot of worms for it to be nutritional. But anyone whoes kept a culture knows theres always tons of extra worms.

Hope this proves helpful.
Alex

hi alex,thanx (yet again) for that,its much clearer than the stoopid instructions i got with the culture!!!!they just told me 2 spread the culture on top of quite thick porridge oats & leave for a week,then hey presto,youv got microworms.no mention of how to reculture,how long the culture lasts,making air holes in lid or the propper consistency of the oats etc.glad theres someone kind enough like you to spell it out for me as i wouldnt have the foggiest else.thanx again for taking to answer and for taking the time to type it all out for me,you really are a star!!!!!!!! shaz x

No problem Flumpit2.

I've added a pic of our fry eagerly awaiting their microworms from the turkey baster. They are little scavengers
Hope all goes well with your fry.

that pics soooo cool,thanx for posting it!!!!i started feeding the microworms yesterday using the turkey baster like you suggested.when i first put them in the cory fry just sort of looked at them,then 1 started eating & the rest followed his lead.iv never really seen them all eat together like that so it was a treat for me to watch!!!late lastnight when i put microworms in there was no hesitation from the fry this time,they all darted over from the corners & started eating straight away,the same as they did this morning.id say they def like them & theres no way im going back to use messy liquifry again!!!!thanx for the tips & help youv given me! x