Im going to start a 5 gallon hex dwarf tank I ve had dwarfs before, and the tank has already been treated w/ panacur after a hydroid outbrake killed off my heard. I do not want to have to hatch BBS all the time. Before I used an in tank hatchery from DR. Fosters, but it poulted my tank a little more than i wanted. Well im going to try again and i was wondering if i could feed them cyclopeez instead of BBS. Is this possible?
Cyclopeez and Dwarfs
- Thread starter whatnot45
- Start date
You would need to do a lot more water changes and vacuum the bottom frequently, and that's assuming they would eat it, which isn't real likely. If time is your main concern I highly recomend my method. I spend 5 minutes a day hatching and feeding BBS. My Dwarf Tank takes very little time. Why only 5 minutes? I use the BBS hatching trays carried by Brine Shrimp Direct. It's the easiest thing in the world to use, you get a good hatch rate, the BBS decaps itself, and you can collect several times a day to get the freshest BBS. I would recommend getting atleast two so you can stagger the hatch times. Right now, I'm sprinkling the eggs into one hatching tray about 7:30-8:00 A.M. and harvesting the other one during the day. The next day you harvest from the one you started the previous day and add new eggs to the other one. It's very simple, quick, and easy. There are no bubbling bottles and decaping eggs. If I want to grow some Brine out I'll use the bubbling bottles, but otherwise it is completely unnecessary and more time consuming than is needed.
Samala
New member
Definitely do not rely on non-live foods to keep dwarfs happy. If you want to maintain a colony of these guys live food - copepods, shrimp larvae or BBS - is going to be a requisite. I can name just one person who got H. zosterae to eat frozen foods for any length of time, and she's got loads of experience training brood after brood of larger SH to frozen while raising them. It isnt easy. I encourage everyone to try if they like, but cant stress enough that you cannot plan on them ever taking to it.
>Sarah
>Sarah
DanU
New member
Dwarf's will eat fresh frozen cyclopeeze, but you will not be able to rely on it as a sole food source. The key to getting them to eat the cyclopeeze is to make sure it is fresh and not freezer burnt, being patient and adding it daily. It also needs to be suspended in the water column. You will still have to augment with artemia but the cyclopeeze is great for varying the nutrition.
Dan
Dan
JennyL
New member
My reason for pointing out your mistaken claim that this process you are using is "decapping" is so people that are not familiar with decapping will realize that there is not a hatcher that will do an all in one process.
It's very important for people to know the differance.
What you are seeing is just the hatching of artemia.
Decapsulation is a very useful process, especially with zosterae (dwarf) and other fry of a differant species, in helping ward off hydroids, etc. One can still have them crop up from other sources, of course. That is not the only reason for decapping but just one.
HTH
Samala
New member
Dan that is very interesting, especially coming from you! My experience was that the juvies would take cyclopeeze (frozen not freeze dried), but they would not do it consistently. A few mouthfuls a day at the most. I also added it daily, along with BBS and other goodies. I think they ate it more out of mistaken identity than anything.
Still, very good to hear your input on this!
>Sarah
Still, very good to hear your input on this!
>Sarah
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7816488#post7816488 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JennyL
My reason for pointing out your mistaken claim that this process you are using is "decapping" is so people that are not familiar with decapping will realize that there is not a hatcher that will do an all in one process.
It's very important for people to know the differance.
What you are seeing is just the hatching of artemia.
Decapsulation is a very useful process, especially with zosterae (dwarf) and other fry of a differant species, in helping ward off hydroids, etc. One can still have them crop up from other sources, of course. That is not the only reason for decapping but just one.
HTH
But my tank is treated with panacur, doesnt that mean that hydriods are not going to spring up again?
DanU
New member
Hey Sarah, one of the things we found is that it has to fresh. If the cyclopeeze hangs around in the freezer too long and gets any freezer burn, they won't touch it. We add it daily now and they readily take it. To prevent freezer burn, we break up the bars into smaller bars and re-vacumn seal it. At this point, I would not rely on it as their only food, so we still give both newly hatched and enriched artemia. Another point of interest is that they are now breeding more. Based on our observations and reports from the boards and customers, I have every reason to believe that diet has a lot to do with dwarfs breeding in captivity.
Dan
Dan
BlennyBabe
New member
We feed our dwarfs about 4 or 5 times a day. The very first feed of the day is only cyclopeeze. All the dwarfs eat it, including the juveniles. We do this because they are super hungry in the morning and the cyclopeeze is really nutritious. The dont even have to eat it from the water column, many will "hunt" along the bottom and pick it off the sand. We use live mysis to eat the leftovers and we vacuum the tank every few days (<1/2gal). We also use a filter pad that gets changed every few days also.
For the rest of the feedings they get decapsulated (cysts removed using bleach) 24hr artemia nauplii. They eat this just as eagerly as the cyclopeeze. Im wondering if I should be feeding more cyclopeeze and less artemia.
Does the cyclopeeze cause as much hydroid growth? I wouldnt think so because it is so much bigger.
For the rest of the feedings they get decapsulated (cysts removed using bleach) 24hr artemia nauplii. They eat this just as eagerly as the cyclopeeze. Im wondering if I should be feeding more cyclopeeze and less artemia.
Does the cyclopeeze cause as much hydroid growth? I wouldnt think so because it is so much bigger.
BlennyBabe
New member
Yeah. There are about 50 live adults and any number of juveniles roaming the tank bottome all the time.
