Baby Jack Dempsey cichlids hatching from eggs to 8 days old. 

How and What To Feed Jack Dempsey Fry

      Congratulations, you’re the proud aunt/uncle of tiny, baby Jack Dempsey cichlids. They are tiny and yet they will soon eat crushed up flake foods and even pulverized cichlid pellets. During the first 3 days of life, these little critters won’t be eating such foods but just absorbing their protein sack. But even then, they will be nibbling around at things and possibly getting some micro, micro organisms to munch on.

     It has always been my thinking that the best nursery tank for newborns of any egg laying fish is an established aquarium. The reason being is that a good food source for these tiny fry are the micro organisms and bacteria that are covering the gravel or even bare glass bottom. Many types of bacteria that you find in an established aquarium are full of beneficial vitamins and minerals (like kids vitamins). In a newly set up nursery tank, you won’t have these beneficial bacteria and certainly not any micro organisms such as those tiny white worms you see on the glass. Those make good food for young fry.

     Despite the age of your nursery tank, you still have to provide some normal food after a few days. Now if the parents are still with the babies then they will take care of most of the feeding for a few weeks. They will, very unselfishly, accept your cichlid foods and chomp it up in their mouth, spilling tiny crumbs out their gills and mouth just over their young. It’s such an amazing thing to watch and both the male and female participate. Who ever taught them to do this? The parents try to keep the young fry in a group so that at feeding time they will all get their share. Watch the parents as they rush around the tank, sucking up in their mouth the little runts that are roaming out beyond the safety of the group.

     If you had to remove the eggs to a nursery without the parents, then your job is a bit more difficult. You must be sure to crush the food up to a powdery state to feed them. The first 10 days are critical and many of the young will probably die during this period. After a week or so, the young should be large enough to feed them newly hatched artemiabrine shrimp. Micro worms are also an excellent food source for these apprentice Jack Dempsey fish. Always take care NOT TO OVERFEED. If you find food debris on the bottom of the nursery, remove it ASAP. Feed your babies 5 times a day if possible for the first 3 weeks. Any less then that and their growth will be stunted and some will weaken and perish. As a norm, a brood of 500 fry will be shrunk down to maybe 200 after 4 weeks, even with good care and feeding… it’s the natural course of nature. 

     A 5 or 10 gallon aquarium is best for your nursery for the first month. This is so that when you feed your fry, they won’t have to wonder very far to find the food. Water conditions are not critical but stability of those established conditions are important. Temperature 72 – 82 F — PH 6.5 to 7.2 is good for fry.  But whatever parameters you initially establish, try to maintain that constant.

 Filtering is not all that important for the initial fry tank. If you’re doing it right, you’re changing about 10% of the water every day (that’s only 1 gallon of water a day in a 10 gallon tank), and keeping the bottom of the tank clean.  It’s best not to have gravel on the bottom of your nursery so that uneaten food and debris can be easily seen and siponed off.  Sponge filters are an excellent choice for your nursery tanks. This will give some filtration while creating a mild current for the young. Remember, keep the temperature stable and make sure the water you add every day is chlorine free and temperature adjusted.

     As they mature, larger food chunks may be fed, some small pieces of frozen foods and a meal of live artemia brine shrimp hatchlings every day is a great way to increase their growth rates. Raising artemia shrimp to adult stage is quite easy and will give you a great food source for older juveniles as wel as the fry grow and continue on through their intense growth period those first few months.

     Moving the fry to a larger tank (20 gallon) is advisable after 5 or 6 weeks. They will be good swimmers by then and the larger tank will give them the space they need for the coming weeks to grow out. Keep in mind that 150 to 200 Jack Dempsey cichlids in a 20 gallon aquarium is not a pretty sight after a few short months of growth. The parents should probably be removed from the fry at this time and placed back in their own aquarium. You must give thought to how you are going to house these creatures as they mature. Pet stores may take some but most will not take them under 3 months of age or 2 ½ inches in length. You will have to provide more space or more aquariums to grow that many cichlids to that size and age and have them in good health. This is the time to call on your local shops and find out who’s interested. I trade my JDs for credit towards purchasing aquarium products… no exchange of cash.

     If you’ve kept the fry in the same aquarium with their parents, I would suggest that after 4 to 5 weeks it’s best to move them to their own nursery tank. A 20 gallon aquarium is the minimum size I would suggest, depending on the number of fry you have left at this point. Parent fish often want to spawn again after about 6 weeks and they may begin to kill off some of their young if in a crowded space. When the parent JDs do spawn again, you can kiss your juveniles goodbye. The adults will see their own offspring as a danger to their new brood and attempt to clear the aquarium of them. The NEW EGGS are all important and they will do whatever to protect them. That’s how it is in “The World of Jack Dempsey Cichlids” be it in the wild or in your home aquarium.  If you have questions about this, email me and I’ll respond within 24 hrs.  jackarthur46@yahoo.com.   Have fun.

        — Jack Lamountain   “The World of Jack Dempsey Cichlids”

WHAT TO FEED

 JACK DEMPSEY FISH

Quality, not Quantity 

      One essential condition for keeping your Jack Dempsey fish healthy for many years is good nutrition. Appropriate food is not only a question of quantity but also of quality for the offered food. In general the aquarist looks after whether he provides enough food but not always of the variation. In general the aquarist feels inclined to give too much in stead of too little food. Both extremes are harmful, because they can lead to diseases, or at least a decreased activity and resistance of the fishes.

     A lot of the time it appears to be that fishes get too little food, consequently, don’t develop any breeding activities and show poor health. It poses in a tank where several eating habits are put together. Very greedy and active fishes have already eaten all the food while the shy or frightened species haven’t yet started eating. Also, many hobbyist fear overfeeding and fouling the water, consequently, the fish are stressed from hunger and lack of proper nutrition.

      Mistakes are quit often made more in composition of food than in the amount of food. That’s due to the fact that some popular species are downright feeding specialists. In the aquaristique, fish are often divided into peaceful and predatory fish. This classification appeals but is nevertheless a result of wrong conclusions, which can be made by beginning aquarists. In common the peaceful fishes feed themselves in their natural habitat exclusively and mainly with animal food. The only criterion, on which the classification is based on of peaceful and predatory fishes, is the size of the prey, because there is hardly a cichlid species to be found which do not eat other species if the size does not correspond with the food he normally prefers. Besides absolute herbivores, there are numerous amounts of fishes, which need some herbivorous food as a side dish. For large cichlids it’s sufficient to add some big lettuce or kale leaves in the water besides their normal food. For juveniles and smaller species it’s best to use frozen or fresh spinach. For fresh fish meat we have nothing to say. We can buy it either fresh or frozen. Besides the meat of freshwater fish we can also feed saltwater fish.

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The Jack Dempsey fish is a very hardy cichlid. While not being a picky eater, the Dempsey can have trouble adjusting to new foods. It is best to alter their day to day diet with: pellets, shrimp, tubifex worms, plankton, lettuce, earthworms, snails, guppies and microworms for newborn fry. The better you feed a Jack Dempsey Cichlid, the more colorful and healthy it will become. It has been reported that the Jack Dempsey will also eat flake food, as well as crayfish, grasshoppers and small frogs.

A …  Proper care and feeding are very important in getting your Jack Dempsey cichlid fish to lay eggs. In my years of breeding Jack Dempseys, I have found that the common earthworm seems to be the very best way to get your fish primed and ready for egg laying. If you cannot find them on your property then purchase a few containers of them at a fishing bait shop. They usually sell between $1 to $2 a container.

They will survive for days if kept in a refrigerator or cool basement. I often freeze them in a storage bag. I then remove one and chop it up into bite sized pieces. There is no mess at all when they are frozen solid. Just place the pieces in a glass of water for a few minutes to thaw and then feed to your JDs.

RAISING AND HARVESTING WORMS

In the cold northern climates, you can raise earth-worms in your basement. 

Earthworms are blind, but light sensitive. They will burrow into the soil to avoid light. They are also temperature sensitive, and will drown if their home is flooded. Earthworms prefer a rich, clay free soil. The simplest way to culture a small quantity of worms is to gather some very heavy sacking on the ground. This should be in a shady spot. The area should be kept moist. Some scraps of vegetables should be placed in between the sack and the ground to encourage the growth of the worms. Do not over-feed the worms, as this will turn the soil sour. When you need the worms, just lift up the sack and remove the worms that cling to the sack.

Find the earthworms yourself or buy the worms from a reputable dealer (on internet). Red worms are usually purchased from a worm dealer as young worms and eggs. Night crawlers can be found after dark on the edge of lawns and are especially plentiful after rain.

Step 1  

Prepare a place to raise your earthworms. Use a large rubbermaid tub or wooden box with drainage holes for indoors. For the outdoors, cut the bottom out of the large tub and bury part of the tub in the ground. The tub will keep the earthworms contained and keep animals from disturbing them.

Step 2

Keep the worms damp and in darkness where they thrive. Provide organic matter like leaves, grass, manure, kitchen scraps (no meat products) and compost material for food. Place this material on top of the worms in the tub; they will crawl up to feed and then burrow down into the dirt when they are finished.

Step 3

Feed the earthworms once a week. Give one pound of food per cubic foot of space per month. If feeding weekly, divide the amount of food into fourths. Moisten the soil with every feeding and be careful not to add so much water that it puddles. Worms can drown in standing water.

Step 4

Cover the tub where your earthworms live to keep the moisture inside the container. Ensure that the temperature is consistently between 60 and 65 degrees F, as this is the temperature range in which worms thrive and breed.

When I begin to feed worms to a pair of JDs, usually within 2 to 3 days I have eggs.  Don’t overfeed but give just a few pieces twice a day.  Feed them a different food for the other 1 or 2 feedings.  To bring a pair to spawning, you really should feed them at least 3 times a day.

          — Jack Lamountain

SPIRULINA ALGAE

An important food source

What is Spirulina Algae?
Spirulina is one of the most concentrated natural sources of nutrition known for both terrestrial and aquatic animals. Early interest in Spirulina focused mainly on its potential as a source of protein and vitamins. Spirulina is 60-70% protein by weight and is the richest source of Vitamin B-12 and Beta carotene (twenty times that of carrots) and is also loaded with essential fatty acids and minerals. Today, there are several commercial companies in the U.S., China, and India culturing Spirulina primarily as a food supplement for the health food markets. More recently, there has been new interest concerning the therapeutic effects of Spirulina as a “probiotic” or booster for the immune response system in animals and fish.

Spirulina as a Probiotic
What are probiotics and why should you feed them to your fish? Probiotic means “that which promotes life,” as opposed to antibiotic which means “against life.” Both types of therapy have their place in fish husbandry. While antibiotics kill microbes and harmful bacteria after an infection has occurred, the probiotics will help to prevent the infection from occurring in the first place.

Recent studies have found that Spirulina algae functions as a probiotic, allowing the fishes own immune system to function at a higher level of activity. The idea of using probiotics for disease control is receiving greater attention lately due to:

Ineffectiveness of the available antibiotics; and The public’s growing interest over the use of probiotics or holistic type medications. Benefits of Using Spirulina Algae:

It has been shown that Spirulina algae increases and promotes more uniform growth rates when fed at the recommended .5-2.0% inclusion rate. Spirulina improves the intestinal flora in fish by the breakdown of otherwise indigestible feed components, thereby extracting more nutrition from the feed. The same beneficial flora or bacteria produce vitamins and displace harmful which is why fish fed Spirulina have less intestinal compaction, a slimmer abdomen, and are more resistant to infection.

Spirulina stimulates the production of enzymes that transport fats within the fish’s body.

The fish utilize their fat to power growth instead of just storing it and becoming flabby.

Enhances color.
The 5 ppt carotenoid pigments that are concentrated in Spirulina algae improve and intensify the coloration in fish. This is especially important for koi and goldfish for commanding a higher price in the marketplace. Chlorophyll and phycocyanin also enhance the skin colors.

Increases survival rates.
Studies in Japan on marine yellowtail showed that fingerlings fed a ration of 0.5% (5 ppt) spirulina resulted in a significant gain in survival over the non-Spirulina fed group. Similar results were obtained from professional Discus fish breeders whom incorporate Spirulina powder into the diet for newborn Discus fry.

Lessens the usage of medication.
Fish farmers have found that including Spirulina in the diet reduced the amount of medication or therapeutics that are normally required to treat sick fish. Spirulina also reduced toxicity of medications and may itself have anti-viral properties. Most disease treatments on the market are “water baths” in which the fish must absorb the drug from the aquarium water. Unfortunately, the treatment water is often discharged down the drain into our environment and waterways.

Orally feeding your fish a diet containing Spirulina could effectively reduce or eliminate the need for bath treatments. Using Spirulina algae as a “prophylactic” treatment in place of antibiotics can effectively reduce wastewater pollutants, eliminating costly treatment systems and increases the effectiveness of existing systems.

THANK YOU TO  BRINE SHRIMP DIRECT FOR PERMISSION TO POST THIS ARTICLE.

HATCHING AND REARING ARTEMIA BRINE SHRIMP

FOR JACK DEMPSEY FRY

      The common brine shrimp (artemia) is in the phylum Arthropoda, class Crustacea. Artemia are closely related to zooplankton like Copepods and Daphnia, which are also used for live food in the aquarium. The artemia life cycle begins by the hatching of dormant cysts which are encased embryos that are metabolically inactive. The cysts can remain dormant for many years as long as they are kept dry. When the cysts are placed back into salt water they are re-hydrated and resume their development. Artemia cysts are best stored in a tightly sealed container in a cool, dry environment. The refrigerator is usually best.

     After 15 to 20 hours at 25 degrees C (77 degrees F) the cyst bursts and the embryo leaves the shell. For the first few hours, the embryo hangs beneath the cyst shell, still enclosed in a hatching membrane. This is called the Umbrella stage, during this stage the nauplius completes its development and emerges as a free swimming nauplii. In the first larval stage, the nauplii is a brownish orange color because of its yolk reserves, newly hatched artemia do not feed because their mouth and anus are not fully developed. Approximately 12 hours after hatch they molt into the second larval stage and they start filter feeding on particles of various microalgae, bacteria, and detritus. The nauplii will grow and progress through 15 molts before reaching adulthood in about 8 days. Adult artemia average about 8mm long, but can reach lengths up to 20mm in the right environment. An adult is 20 times longer in length, and a 500 times increase in biomass from the nauplii stage. In low salinity and optimal food levels, fertilized females usually produce free swimming nauplii at a rate of up to 75 nauplii per day. They will produce 10-11 broods over an average life cycle of 50 days. Under super ideal conditions, an adult artemia can live as long as three months and produce up to 300 nauplii or cysts every 4 days. Cyst production is induced by conditions of high salinity, and chronic food shortages with high oxygen fluctuations between day and night. Adults can tolerate brief exposures to temperatures as extreme as -18 to 40 degrees C (0-104 degrees F) Optimal temperature for cyst hatching and adult grow out is 25-30 degrees C (77-86 degrees F), but there are differences between strains, San Francisco bay strain is 22 degrees C as compared to 30 degrees C for Great Salt Lake. Artemia prefer a salinity of 30-35 ppt (1.0222-1.0260 density) and can live in fresh water for about 5 hours before they die. Caution should be used to not over feed in a fresh water aquarium because of the rapid decomposition of the dead. Many fresh water fish will tolerate and even thrive in a brackish water environment of 1-5 ppt easily, so it is possible to add saltwater to the tank and extend the survival of the artemia if required.

     Other variables of importance are pH, light and oxygen. A ph of 8-9 is best; pH less than 5 and greater than 10 will kill the culture. the pH can be increased with baking soda, and lowered with muriatic acid. A minimum amount of light is necessary for hatching and may be beneficial for adult grow out. A standard grow lite bulb available in an aquarium supply is adequate. Most important is the level of oxygen in the water, as this dictates what the artemia will consume. With a good oxygen supply, the artemia are a pale pink or yellow, or if they are heavily feeding on microalgae they will look green in color. In this ideal condition growth and reproduction is rapid, and a self-sustaining artemia supply is possible. If there is a low oxygen level in the water with large amounts of organic matter, or a high amount of salinity from evaporation, the artemia will feed on bacteria, detritus and yeast cells, but no algae. It is under these conditions that they produce hemoglobin and look red or orange in color. If this environment remains they will start producing resting cysts, and the colony may crash. It is very important to have a vigorous air supply in the tank for two reasons, one is to keep the available food supply in suspension where it can be filtered out, and the other is to promote a good oxygen supply in the system. (in other words – a boiling cauldron is fine)

Hatching Requirements
     The optimal conditions for hatching artemia are as follows – 25 degrees C, salinity – 5ppt (1.0030 density), heavy continuous aeration, light – 2000 lux constant illumination, pH 8-9. Good circulation is essential to keep the cysts in suspension. A container that is V shaped is best (two liter bottles work good, the absolute best I’ve found are separation columns found in any lab supply – they’re expensive though). glue a valve on the cap and invert, this way unhatched cysts, empty shells, and hatched nauplii can be easily removed separately. Another idea I would highly recommend checking out was offered by Ken Cunningham (kfc@wimsey.com). His discovery was to use pilsner beer glasses, Some of them have a conical point at the bottom, these are the ones to look for. Ken places three or four in a ten gallon tank and heats them by the water bath method. Put rigid air lines in the glasses with no air stones, connected by flexible tubing to the distribution manifold. 80 degrees, bright light at all times. In each glass put 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 or 1/4 teaspoon of cysts, and bubble for 24 hours. To harvest, leave the rigid tubing in the glass, but lift it out of the aquarium and disconnect the flexible air tube at the manifold. Let the glass settle in relative darkness (i.e. not bright light) for 10 minutes, and siphon the artemia out using the airline tubing into fresh water to rinse. By using the glasses on a rotation, its possible to have hatched artemia available at all times. Still another good idea comes from Wright Huntley (huntley@ix.netcom.com) who originally got the idea from Oleg Kiselev. Wright now uses Chianti wine bottles found at Trader Joes for 4 bucks. By tilting the bottles on edge and using the same salt and cyst ratio as Ken, quite high hatch rates are being obtained. harvesting is the same, by siphoning using the air tubing, but into a funnel lined with a handkerchief, then the artemia may be rinsed if desired, and fed. There are many methods in use for hatching these guys. Once you play with whatever particular method you chose to achieve optimum performance, your results will probably be just as good as any other hatching method. Dont be afraid to experiment.

     The hatching percentage and density are usually a function of water quality and circulation. Containers with flat bottoms have dead areas in the corners and are not ideal for maximum hatch rates. It doesn’t take alot of cysts to get going, there are usually 200,000 to 300,000 nauplii per gram of cysts, so a half teaspoon in a two liter bottle is more than enough for the typical aquarist. With a setup of two or more bottles, one started one day, the other the next, you can have a continuous supply of newly hatched artemia for that reef tank every day.

     Harvest the nauplii by turning off the air, or remove the air stone, and let the culture settle for about ten minutes. Hatched, empty shells float to the surface, and unhatched cysts will sink to the bottom. The newly hatched nauplii will concentrate just above the unhatched cysts on the bottom. Since the newly hatched nauplii are attracted to light (phototropic), by shining a flashlight at the center of the bottle, you can concentrate them where it is easy to siphon them off, or drain the cysts off the bottom by using the valve, then drain the nauplii onto another container. The unhatched cysts should be used in the next culture and not thrown away, most of the time they will hatch with the next batch.

FEEDING
     Since artemia are non-selective filter feeders (meaning they dont care what they pick out of the water), a wide range of food has been successfully used. The criteria for food selection should be based on particle size, digestibility, and solubility (powdered milk wont work). Feeds that have been used include live microalgae such as nanochloropsis and a wide variety of inert foods, which are far more practical for us aquarists. One caveat with inert foods is to be careful not to overfeed. Inert feeds include yeasts, both active and inactive (a brewers supply is the best source, bread yeast is expensive!) micronized rice bran, whey, wheat flour, soybean powder, fish meal, egg yolk, and homogenized liver. Dried microalgae such as spirulina has also been used with success (available from health food stores, but again kind of expensive). The simplest way to measure food levels in the tank is by figuring the transparency of the water. This is done with a dowel with measuring marks marked off in centimeters, and a white disk glued on the end. The depth where the white disk just disappears measures the light penetration into the tank. The more stuff floating around the tank, the less transparency. With a stocking density of 5000 nauplii per liter, the transparency should be 15-20 cm the first week, and 20-25 cm thereafter. Of course it is best to maintain an optimal food level at all times, so frequent feedings, or better yet, a continuous drip feeding are mandatory for optimal grow out.

     Food is not directly consumed, but rather transferred to the mouth in a packaged form. The space between an artemias legs widens as the legs move forward. Water is sucked into this space from below, and small filtering hairs collect particles including food from the incoming stream. On the back stroke the water is forced out and the food remains in a groove at the base of the legs, this groove has glands that secrete an adhesive material that clumps the food into balls, and microhairs move the food packages toward the mouth. The optimal size for food should be less than 50 – 60 microns. Growing Adults – When feeding larger fish and invertebrates where small food is not needed, adult artemia may be preferred over nauplii. But why should you bother growing adults you ask? I will just feed more newly hatched brine shrimp to make up the difference you say… Well, adult artemia are 20 times longer and 500 times heavier than nauplii and therefore provide more of a meal. There is a myth floating around that adult artemia are not as good for your fish as newly hatched. There is a tiny bit of truth to this, but it depends on what you are feeding. So what’s in it for your fish: Newly hatched artemia are high in fats, about 23% of dry weight. By mid juvenile stage, the fat levels have decreased to about 16 %, and by the time they are pre-adults the fat levels have decreased to about 7%. But, at the same time, the protein content has risen to replace the fat, from about 45% in a newly hatched artemia to about 63% in an adult. Based on this, you should determine what is best for your tank, young fish larvae require a high fat intake for growth and health, while older juveniles and adults need protein for health and reproduction. Also, nauplii are known to be deficient in several essential amino acids, while the adult artemia are rich in all essential amino acids. Adult artemia therefore supply more biomass than nauplii and are more nutritionally complete. 

A side note to all this is that rearing microworms for your newborns is also an easy task. A cornmeal or oatmeal culture is all that is needed and the worms live and thrive right in that culture. My belief is that newly hatched artemia is a slightly better nutritional source but that is up for debate. Artemia shrimp can also be raised to adulthood for feeding to large fish whereas microworms stay micro.

     The best approach to growing adults is to pick up a 10 or 20 gallon glass aquarium cheap someplace. Take a thin acrylic sheet or Formica, and jam it in the tank, essentially making an oval tank. (This is important to remove the previously mentioned dead spots and improve circulation) Glue all the seams with silicone (3M – Blue tube). Circulation can be enhanced by gluing a partition down the middle of the tank making a raceway arrangement. Best yields are obtained with a good food circulation, animal distribution, and strong aeration. This next step is the hardest to explain without pictures. You need to make six or eight (depending on the length of your tank) air lift tubes. These are simply 1 inch thin wall PVC, cut at 45 degrees on the bottom, with a 90 degree elbow on top. The water level should reach the middle of the elbow, with the tube touching the bottom of the tank, 45 degree cut down. Drill a hole in the 90 degree fitting so you can feed an airline 3/4 of the way down the tube. Glue these tubes to the center divide so that the 90 degree elbows all face in the same direction at a 45 degree angle to the divider. Your creating a mechanism to make a constant flow of water in a clockwise or counter clockwise direction (I don’t think it matters which).
Here is where I should bring up the subject of aeration, avoid the temptation to put in wood airstones to increase flow and aeration. Yes they make beautifully fine bubbles and you can get excellent upflow with them. But it’s these same fine bubbles that will wreak havoc with your artemia. Artemia cannot tolerate fine bubbles since they can lodge in the swimming appendages and kill the little buggers. Artemia can actually ingest fine air bubbles which will wipe them out (I don’t think you can use Gas-X for brine shrimp).
I haven’t had much problem with water quality, so filtration really isn’t necessary on the small scale that were on. Filtration can be included if you feel so inclined, but it will require a screened overflow to a sump or cartridge filter.

     Moderate aeration with a coarse or no airstones, good water quality, and generally clean conditions are all important for raising high densities of adult brine shrimp. Since the artemia feed constantly, faster growth rates and better survival is achieved by multiple or continuous feeding over a 24 hour period. Best growth rates are achieved at 25-30 degrees C with salinities of 30-50 ppt and LOW light levels. Remember, artemia are drawn to strong light, so if you install that 175 watt metal halide lamp you had leftover from the reef tank, the little buggers are going to increase their swimming activity and have greater energy expenditure, resulting in slower growth rates. In low light the artemia will spread out in the water column, swimming slowly and achieving more efficient food conservation.

Maintenance
     Being a low volume operation, water quality can deteriorate rapidly, especially as biomass increases (I mean, that’s the whole idea right?). The problem usually occurs because of over feeding, which leads to fouling and low oxygen levels. There is a fine line between optimal feeding levels and wiping out our tank, especially when using non-living foods. To help overcome this problem, you need to take care of your artemia tank as much as you pay attention to your aquarium. Here is what you do: Clean the bottom every couple of days. You do this by turning off the air, letting the tank settle, and using that handy flashlight again (I find this works best when done at night). By now we know what our little buddies are going to do. Meanwhile siphon the crap off the bottom of the tank, remember, these guys are going to molt 15 times before becoming adults. (unless you have three hands, prop the flashlight on something). About 20% water change per week is adequate.

Troubleshooting
     My artemia just crap out and die – several causes, there could be insufficient aeration leading to asphyxiation, or you couldn’t resist and used that damned wooden airstone I told you not to use. Or – they’re starving to death. The health status can be checked by looking at how they’re swimming, shine your flashlight into the tank, and they all should rapidly concentrate at the source, this is good. However, slow dispersed swimming indicates things are going to hell quick. If you have access to a microscope you can examine their digestive track which should be full of food (assuming you’ve been feeding themproperly) If the swimming appendages and mouth region are clean, this is good. If they are covered with food particles, this is bad. This condition could be due to the nature of the food or the physiological condition of the animals. Slow growth – Temperature is too low, pH imbalance, salinity is off, inadequate food or lousy food quality.

Artemia storage
     Your artemia can be stored for future use in several different ways, adult artemia will survive for several days in the refrigerator. If you refrigerate them, be sure to warm them up and give them one last feeding before you feed your fish. This will restore their nutritional quality, after all, they’ve been starving for the past couple of days. You can also freeze them and ice cube tray works perfect for this. Be sure to freeze them in 7-8ppt saltwater for best results. Freezing is neat because all you have to do is toss an artemia cube into the tank, and you have a nifty time release food supply. You have to be careful not to over feed here, they float to the bottom and decompose quick and you can bomb your tank rather rapidly.

Article written by © Bill Wedekind

Dear fellow aquarium enthusiasts:

I only recently bumped into this site as a result of my search for a microworm culture. Only then did I learn of this valuable resource to share ideas and experiences. Well, I would like to share with all of you an incredible harvesting technique that I just discovered.

I used to grow microworms many years ago when I had over a dozen tanks in my parents home. I found them to be a very valuable live food for young fry. Now I am showing my children the joy of keeping an aquarium and breeding. I remember never being able to harvest enough worms for all my young. In an effort to increase my harvest, I would always have 6 -12 cultures going.

The time tested method of harvesting these worms is to scrape them off of the side of the container as they climb out of the medium. Indeed, this is what I did many years ago and it is also the instructions I received from Clint when I ordered my culture. However, if you have kept microworms before, you have observed the same thing as me – most of the worms are on the surface of the medium. Only a small fraction of them actually climb out to be harvested. Of course, if you try to harvest off the top of the culture, you will also get an unacceptable amount of the medium which you do not want to put in your tanks.

A little background: I used to grow the worms only in a corn meal culture. We put this in plastic shoe boxes which were great because they were large and clear with covers. Per the instructions that Clint provided, I saw that you could also use other material such as oatmeal. So, from the starter culture I bought, I started two cultures; one in oatmeal and one in corn meal. I wanted to see which would work better (provide the most worms). These were both put in large plastic shoe box size containers.

Both cultures grew well. However, even after 8 days of growth, there were not many worms climbing up the sides. Sure, there were millions of worms in each culture but they were mostly on top. I tried many things to harvest more worms but always got too much oatmeal or corn meal. So, after two days of experimenting, I tried something “revolutionary.” In fact, it worked so well, I believe it could become the new standard for harvesting these worms. Would you believe that at each feeding, I actually harvested MORE worms than I could use. But now I just take less by choice. Here’s the technique:
First, wait until your culture has reached maturity (has a gazillion worms crawling all over it). Then cut a piece of paper towel to fit over about half of the culture surface. You can decide later if you want to use more or less towel. The size of the towel will determine your harvest size. Now thoroughly wet the towel in fresh water and squeeze it so it is just damp. You are going to lay this towel over the top of the culture. We dampen the towel so as not to deplete the moisture in the culture.
If you see your culture getting dry, just add water. Now, cover it and just wait a few hours. I let mine wait overnight the first time I tried it. In this time, worms will cover the surface of the towel. Now just remove the towel. It will be literally saturated with worms. The towel comes out virtually “clean.” It comes out a bit cleaner from the oat meal culture but I believe the corn meal culture provides more worms. Rinse the towel in a cup or two of clean water. It usually takes me two cups of water just to rinse the towel to the point where it looks like it is free of worms. Then I finish rinsing the towel in one of my fry tanks. Even after taking the vast majority of worms off of the towel and then dipping the “empty” towel in a tank, I am probably overfeeding this first tank (thousands of worms still on the towel). Next, I pour the cups containing the worms through a #2 cone coffee filter that I put in a second cup. I rinse this through 2-3 times. What is left is millions of worms in the coffee filter that you can use to feed more fry than most of us will ever have.

I took photos of ONE of my worm harvests from one culture. It is an unbelievable sight. I weighed the harvest – it was OVER ½ ounce of worms without any debris. I had so much left over that I fed my adult tanks with it also.  

Bill is still working on perfecting his new harvesting technique and sent this update:

Hey, I actually improved on the “millions of microworms” harvesting method described in the article you put on your web site for me. It totally eliminates the process of filtering the worms through a coffee filter. Although filtering works, I have found over time that sometimes the filter “clogs” and it takes a long time to get the worms “purified”. Also, some of the worms go through the filter and are lost. Check this out – imagine being able to dip a teaspoon and get ONLY worms. No filtering, no trouble whatsoever.

Here’s my final setup: 

Get a worm culture going the normal way. Although my original article indicated that I thought the oatmeal was a better medium than cornmeal, I now prefer cornmeal (it stinks less, it seems to work better and it lasts longer). 
So …

1)  Get a cornmeal worm culture started and wait until it is going strong.

2)  Lay a paper towel over the well-populated culture (same as before). Sprinkle a few teaspoons of fresh water on top.

3)  Wait until you see the worms in abundance on top of the towel (same as before).

4)  Now, instead of removing the towel, leave it in place. Just use a spoon to gently scrape the worms right off of the towel. You get no cornmeal (or just a couple of specs). From my experience, you can leave the towel in place (as long as you don’t tear it which if you do, just buy a stronger towel, not the cheap store brand) for the LIFE of the culture. This works better because it doesn’t disturb the culture and the only worms disturbed are the ones you harvest. The culture continues without interruption – there is no “recovery” time (such as when you remove the towel). I have harvested 3 – 4 teaspoons of pure worms EACH DAY from each shoe box size culture. Each of my cultures goes about 3 weeks – some a little longer. When my kids say it stinks too much (I’m used to it), I get some new cultures going.

5)  For each teaspoon of culture you remove, replace with an equal amount of pure water right on top of the towel.

That’s it! My cultures are working so well I could probably start feeding my adult population if these worms weren’t so small. Thought you might want to share this with your readers as well. As good as the first method was, this is even better still. I don’t plan any more improvements because I don’t see any room. I’m harvesting worms as simply as taking frozen food out of a packet. It doesn’t get any easier than this (unless you can get the worms to jump into the aquarium too ))

Regards – Bill Wedekind

Article written by © Bill Wedekind

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