A new YT channel, focused on micro organisms

[outofwater]

Pretty cool stuff, high quality

 

[MattW]

I have a pot of flatworms on my desk that I caught from a culture bucket that I forgot about That video explains why my copepod culture population was so damm low. They kept eating them all and the way they hunt is incredible

 

[noahm]

I think fishkeepers should pay more attention to this in general. I have a small population of freshwater isopods (Asellus sp.) in mine, and while they aren't "cute" they get places and do things that others don't. Also, there are a plethora of tinier critters that provide food, do things and stabilize the aquarium environment.

I would like to see more refugiums in the FW side. I couldn't do one on this smaller tank due to drilling concerns, but I have started a water change process that has one 5g bucket with "life" (floating plants, pods, leaves etc.) and that is where I get WC water from using a sponge filter over my bottle. I keep this in the sunroom and refill it when it is low with more creek water. I am considering getting a larger bucket/container and covering it with screen to keep mosquitos from breeding.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

This is incredible! I'm absolutely fascinated, and we need to share this! That felt like a David Attenborough documentary.

@TwoTankAmin @GaryE @Seisage @Uberhoust @Colin_T @Slaphppy7 (@Slaphppy7 I'm remembering your fascinating alien bug creature mystery!) I think you guys would all like this, I hope.

Wish @Byron and @AbbeysDad were still around. I think they'd love this, and @AbbeysDad wrote some brilliant articles about live food, and not to be afraid of mulm, algae and snails (his site is down so I can no longer find his useful articles), but the gist was about how established tanks will have mulm, soft algae, biofilm etc, that not always being a bad thing, when kept to reasonable levels, and snails eating uneaten fish food and turning sand/gravel, so being useful and not to panic and try to keep a sterile tanks with immaculate substrate.


Lots of people add botanicals to their tanks, not just for tannins, but the bacteria and tiny critters that arrive to break down those leaves, and live in the mulm, provide food for shrimp, tiny fish, fry, and help with water quality too. I really think "bioactive" aquariums are fascinating, and those of us who want to or already culture live foods would also find this interesting and useful I'm sure.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I have a pot of flatworms on my desk that I caught from a culture bucket that I forgot about

Is this a desk at home? Because I had a mental picture of a busy office, and your coworkers giving you side eyes for having a pot of worms on your desk

That video explains why my copepod culture population was so damm low. They kept eating them all and the way they hunt is incredible

true! Same with hydra, and dragon and damselfly nymphs. Saw a slow mo video of a hydra taking and eating a guppy fry, and while I felt bad for the poor guppy fry, it's like mini aliens and monsters, if you imagine yourself as their prey!

 

[MattW]

Because I had a mental picture of a busy office, and your coworkers giving you side eyes for having a pot of worms on your desk

I don't think HR would allow me to have that

The pot I have is from a 1-2 plant pot. The water level is quite low now since they were caught over 2 weeks ago (I don't intend to keep them) about 9 specimens of flatworms are in it. My culture has a 1-2cm ish layer of mulm which is where they thrive. I've seen about 10-15 moving in and out of the mulm before at one given time. The culture as well is over 4 months old now. Probably best to destroy it.

 

[Seisage]

This is incredible! I'm absolutely fascinated, and we need to share this! That felt like a David Attenborough documentary.

@TwoTankAmin @GaryE @Seisage @Uberhoust @Colin_T @Slaphppy7 (@Slaphppy7 I'm remembering your fascinating alien bug creature mystery!) I think you guys would all like this, I hope.

Wish @Byron and @AbbeysDad were still around. I think they'd love this, and @AbbeysDad wrote some brilliant articles about live food, and not to be afraid of mulm, algae and snails (his site is down so I can no longer find his useful articles), but the gist was about how established tanks will have mulm, soft algae, biofilm etc, that not always being a bad thing, when kept to reasonable levels, and snails eating uneaten fish food and turning sand/gravel, so being useful and not to panic and try to keep a sterile tanks with immaculate substrate.


Lots of people add botanicals to their tanks, not just for tannins, but the bacteria and tiny critters that arrive to break down those leaves, and live in the mulm, provide food for shrimp, tiny fish, fry, and help with water quality too. I really think "bioactive" aquariums are fascinating, and those of us who want to or already culture live foods would also find this interesting and useful I'm sure.

I do love the teeny little guys! I'll have to check this channel out. I wish it would hurry up and dry out a little around here so I could go leaf collecting. I want more little buggies in my tank. The neons completely decimated all the rhabdocoel flatworms, the copepods, AND the ostracods that were hanging out in my tank I miss them

 

[MattW]

forgot I took this video a few weeks back (rhabdocoela)

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I do love the teeny little guys! I'll have to check this channel out. I wish it would hurry up and dry out a little around here so I could go leaf collecting. I want more little buggies in my tank. The neons completely decimated all the rhabdocoel flatworms, the copepods, AND the ostracods that were hanging out in my tank I miss them

I'm sorry, I just love that you call them little buggies! I'm stealing that, instead of calling them micro-critters.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

forgot I took this video a few weeks back (rhabdocoela)

Wow, it moves so fast!! No wonder they're such effective little hunters.

Do you have a thread about your cultures? I've only deliberately cultured microworms/walterworms/bananaworms as fry/cory food at times. But I do have a lot of fish buckets outside, and happily steal mosquito larvae, bloodworms, and another weird little more segmented, caterpillar type worm thing that the fish gobble up when rainwater has collected in the garden buckets.

There's more stuff in the 12 by 18ft pond, but I'm much more wary of taking anything from there in case I introduce hydra or something. I do have black mollies that could happily 'clean' any plants I scavenge from the pond though...

 

[MattW]

Do you have a thread about your cultures?

Afraid not its just a 5L bucket that had multiple matured sponge filters squeezed into it and left for weeks. That fed my sawbwa fry for a while If I can recall I got the idea from KFS in AUS. I'll have a look for the video

But I do have a lot of fish buckets outside, and happily steal mosquito larvae, bloodworms, and another weird little more segmented, caterpillar type worm thing that the fish gobble up when rainwater has collected in the garden buckets.

That is not a bad idea actually might have to try that in the future

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Afraid not its just a 5L bucket that had multiple matured sponge filters squeezed into it and left for weeks. That fed my sawbwa fry for a while If I can recall I got the idea from KFS in AUS. I'll have a look for the video

Brilliant, thank you for link! Will give it a watch, and try it out soon.

That is not a bad idea actually might have to try that in the future

Just one note of warning @Colin_T told me when I mentioned this before, it's illegal to culture mosquito larvae in the UK and some other countries, for obvious reasons. But I've never tried to culture them, I just store my fish buckets outside, plus have tubs and containers for gardening and plants, so if I see that mosquitos are laying larvae in there, I do the responsible thing and harvest the larvae, so they never turn into adult mosquitos.

Another tip, since the mozzies produced far more larvae than my fish could eat in one go, I used ice cube trays, added some water, and netted mozzies into those and froze them, so that they couldn't turn into adult mozzies either Homemade frozen fish food, while being a responsible and law abiding citizen.

ETA: It's not my fault that it rains constantly in the UK, leaves sometimes blow into the buckets, and mozzies are attracted to the pond that's been there for nearly 40 years.

 

[Uberhoust]

Happiness is just a bucket of critters Thanks for bringing the video to my attention.

 

[MattW]

I took down my Infusoria culture the other week and managed to save some copepods. They've thrived in the new tank

 

[outofwater]

I'm so happy to see such enthusiasm from this. Once I move to a more suitable space I'll definitely try my hand at many of the ideas people have shared here. I must say that my dojo loaches have dispatched the entire colony of scuds in their tank, as well as pest snails. I find myself moving a few snails every week or so from the other tank, as a snack, I guess.