Re-subbing and maintaining Paramecium culture

[RonWill]

Hi all,
Having maintained paramecium cultures for a while, with different 'foods', I'd like to share a simple, workable method to keep 'em cultures going.

To avoid cross-contamination, DO NOT USE AQUARIUM WATER!. Best if one can start off with cool, previously-boiled water in a large take-away containers.

Those who acquired the starters from me should avoid introducing unwanted organisms that compete with the paramecium (remember that you harvest what you sow).

A clean food to feed paramecium would be brewers' yeast. 1/8 (one-eighth) of a teaspoon, sprinkled onto the surface, will last about 2 weeks.

To feed fry, use a specific mini-baster or eye-dropper to draw from the culture and squirt directly into grow-out tank.

Other food source I've tried... fresh banana skin, wheat grass, hay and rice water. Re-sub and maintain at least 2 cultures if you're the adventurous type.

Good luck and post your observations/trials here.

[TyroneGenade]

Just my humble opinion...

From my experiances with Nothobranchius luekei a pure culture may be a death sentence for them. Some fry are very picky feeders. I know from Scheel etc... that Ps. annulatus do not eat Paramecium so a mixed culture may be more effective in feeding small fry with a particular taste.

I like mixed cultures and there is nothing like interoducing a sprig of Java Moss to a nutrient mix to generate one.

Cheerio

[RonWill]

I like mixed cultures and there is nothing like interoducing a sprig of Java Moss to a nutrient mix to generate one

Tyrone, I believe in providing a varied diet, be it for fry or adult fishes. Culturing a mixed lot is easy but an uncontaminated paramecium culture is not so readily available.

FWIW, most of my homebred ANNs started off on paramecium but given the amount of mulm that's in their grow-out trays, I'm not surprised if there are other organisms too. I'm supplimenting with OSI's APR but they don't seem too crazy about it.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to get hold of a Belgian-made microencapsulated food intended for super tiny fry.

[TyroneGenade]

OSI's APR

I'm told that the Azoo dried plankton rotifers are excellent stuff! Barry Cooper uses it exclusivly to feed his Aphyobranchius.

Regarding your ANN, Paramecium are excellenr food for rotifers---which Scheel says the ANN prefer to eat. However, I doubt your ANN have read Scheel's ROTOW so they may well be eating the Paramecium.

Cheerio

[RonWill]

However, I doubt your ANN have read Scheel's ROTOW so they may well be eating the Paramecium

Actually, the ANNs are eating it only because I have not read Scheel's book!

Tyrone, I'll go see what this dried plankton stuff is about. If it's in flake form, I doubt the ANNs will take to it... maybe the guppies... they'll eat anything!

[stormhawk]

Ron, the Azoo rotifers are in powder form. I've seen for sale at many places locally.

[stormhawk]

Another question, would Liquifry No.1 be a good choice as a food for these critters? They're in a container now with a few sprigs of Java Moss and some mulm.

[RonWill]

Another question, would Liquifry No.1 be a good choice as a food for these critters?

Liquidfry is just yoke, yeast, some vits and preservative. It can be used but sparingly.

They're in a container now with a few sprigs of Java Moss and some mulm.

Congratulations! You've just contaminated a pure culture

Introducing other organisms will allow these to compete and thrive under the same conditions as paramecium. Towards the end, you'll find more pods than what you really want.

[zmzfam]

Another question, would Liquifry No.1 be a good choice as a food for these critters? They're in a container now with a few sprigs of Java Moss and some mulm.

Congratulations! You've just contaminated a pure culture

Jianyang, you're asking about the ANN's or whether paramecium can take Liquidfry?

[stormhawk]

Ron, that sprig of Java moss came from a tank minus fish. It's almost half dead so I thought since it was already rotting why not go into the paramecium culture. The mulm here refers to some crushed granulated fish food. :P So its not contaminated. In fact I just did a check on the container and wow.. there's plenty of them paramecium zipping around. I did transfer some into my java moss container. Seems they, and the small ramshorns you gave me the other time are thriving in the container. Got some mozzie larvae from time and time and they make excellent foods for the bettas.

Don't worry about the pods, I have another container full of these. In fact the australe breeding container has tons of pods. I have no idea where these came from. Maybe from the occasional feeding of daphnia I think. The pods are great as foods for larger fry. Been sucking 'em up for the bigger ones.

[stormhawk]

Jianyang, you're asking about the ANN's or whether paramecium can take Liquidfry?

I was referring to the paramecium. Never bred any ANN before though. I did have these many years ago but uptil now I've not had any in my tanks. Have a phobia of seeing my beauties get torn up by them nasty tetras.

[RonWill]

Guys,
I checked on my paramecium culture today only to find a stinking concoction. Have neglected it too long as I'm working on other things.

Anyone with a viable culture that I can re-sub from?

For the 'core members', I should be able to distribute some Walter Worm Cultures (WWC), in about a week's time, for backups. Will inform collection date in new thread.

[turaco]

Ron, thanks to you my culture still going strong. Will revive yours during my next visit.

[shortman]

Another question, would Liquifry No.1 be a good choice as a food for these critters?

Liquidfry is just yoke, yeast, some vits and preservative. It can be used but sparingly.

Ronnie,

Do not use the liquid fry for your paramecium culture. The preservative chemical might just destroy the culture.

[whuntley]

Another point on the graph...

I kept a parmecium culture going for years on nothing but infrequent drops of Liquifry No. 1. To quote our local Live Foods expert, Don Greig, from his article at www.sfbaka.net:

I like to use wide mouth gallon glass jars for my cultures. Fill the jar to the bottom of the neck with conditioned water at a ph of about 7.5. Add a small piece of dried corn husk, that has been boiled. Inoculate with Paramecium and add a few drops of Liquifry No 1. To keep the culture hot (about 1000 per ml) add a few drops of Liquifry every few days.

Don knows his stuff, though I had used Liquifry for a long time before he wrote this article. AFAIK, Liquifry has no preservatives, but may have been pasteurized.

BTW, by conditioned water, he didn't mean with dechloraminators! Amquel, et al, will kill parmecia quickly. Use photographer's hypo (aka dechlorinator) and aerate a few days to get rid of the ammonia. For this to happen, the pH must be kept at 7.5 or higher (ammonium ions stay in solution forever). Use baking soda (pure sodium bicarbonate, not baking powder that contains tartaric acid) to raise it, if needed.

To emphacize an earlier point, the culture must never be touched by anything not boiled or otherwise sterilized, or it will grow other stuff and go bad (usually quickly).

Wright

[shortman]

Don knows his stuff, though I had used Liquifry for a long time before he wrote this article. AFAIK, Liquifry has no preservatives, but may have been pasteurized.

Liquifry don't have preservative, then I am wrong.
Thanks Wright for pointing up.

I use bleach then microwave and heat to sterilized equipment.

[whuntley]

I use bleach then microwave and heat to sterilized equipment.

I do, too. Since I have been going to Tijuana MX to get prescriptions refilled, lately, I picked up a liter of pure ethanol (well 95% or so as it soaks up atmospheric water vapor). IMO, it is the very best solvent sterilizer, as any minor residue is not usually fatal to fish. It is a much more certain way to really kill Fish TB germs (Mycobacterium marinum).

I wonder what a tank of drunk filamentosum might be like? Naaah!

Wright

[stormhawk]

I lost my paramecium culture some time ago. Did re-sub the cultures but those sub-cultures did not take off one way or another. Conditions were all the same.

I have currently resorted to using a small plastic guppy tank to generate all the tiny critters I need. In that tank I placed a small amount of java fern, a small guppy and I heavily feed the bugger for a day. In 24 hours the number of tiny critters would have easily exploded and I just use a turkey baster to suck out the amount of "critter-juice" out and just squirt it in a tray of hungry tiny fry. As long as the muck remains at the bottom of the tank and I just top up the water the tiny critters very much remain in suspension all over the tank.

Works for me. Although these are probably a mix of critters, the fry don't choose and they snap at basically anything that moves.

[shortman]

I lost my paramecium culture some time ago. Did re-sub the cultures but those sub-cultures did not take off one way or another. Conditions were all the same.

I have currently resorted to using a small plastic guppy tank to generate all the tiny critters I need. In that tank I placed a small amount of java fern, a small guppy and I heavily feed the bugger for a day. In 24 hours the number of tiny critters would have easily exploded and I just use a turkey baster to suck out the amount of "critter-juice" out and just squirt it in a tray of hungry tiny fry. As long as the muck remains at the bottom of the tank and I just top up the water the tiny critters very much remain in suspension all over the tank.

Works for me. Although these are probably a mix of critters, the fry don't choose and they snap at basically anything that moves.

Ronnie pass me 3 x cultures the other night one of which is inforsoria/paramecium I can't tell which is which.
It is a very good culture that I ever see think that Ronnie must have master the art of inforsoria/paramecium culturing.



This is the algae or something I do not know. No time to go research for it.