Gut loading live food ... How?

eskymick

Active member
We often read about gut loading live food (such as brine shrimp and black worms) with Selcon and/or Vitachem.

What is the technique for gut loading?
 
I gut load brine shrimp with spirulina and Selco.
Adults can be gut loaded in about one hour. Just place the brine shrimp adults in a container of salt water with a little Selco added or "fog" the water with spirulina. In an hour, rinse the brine shrimp in fresh water and feed them to your tank.
If you have brine shrimp nauplii, you have to wait about 24 hours before you can gut load them. The nauplii in the first stage have no mouth or anus. Once the first molt occurs, the second stage nauplii can be gut loaded in about 24 hours.
To gut load the nauplii, add the Selco/spirulina or food of your choice to some salt water with the nauplii, and after 12 hours, do a water change and replenish the food for the second 12 hours.
After the 24 hours of gut loading, rinse the nauplii in fresh water and feed them to your tank.
For gut loading spirulina, I use flake food crushed up as fine as possible and place the food in the centre of a dense piece of cloth.
I fold up the edges and twist the cloth to make a "ball" of the spirulina. Fasten with an elastic.
Soak the ball overnight in a mug of salt water, and then massage the ball while it is in the gut loading container and gradually the food will start to flow through the material and "fog" the water.
Keep the "ball" refrigerated.
spirulinaball.jpg
 
Thanks for the great explanation, rayjay.

One question. I believe spirulina is a type of algae, but where does one buy it? Is it found just as flake? It must take quite a bit of flake to make that nice, wet ball of spirulina.
 
Spirulina is one of the best forms of algae.
I buy it in bulk because I use so much.
The all spirulina flake I order from Jehmco, and the regular spirulina flake I order from Aquaselect.
Most spirulina in the hobby is only about 45 to 50% spirulina but the good stuff from Jehmco is around 95% I believe.
You can buy powder forms from Brine Shrimp Direct but it's more expensive. Also, health food stores sell it for human consumption as well but I suspect it would be expensive there also.
JEHMCO PURE SPIRULINA FLAKE
JEHMCO REGULAR SPIRULINA "GRAZE'
NORTHERN AQUASELECT
Click on the US flag and look for the spirulina.
BRINE SHRIMP DIRECT SPIRULINA POWDER
 
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