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seed shrimp

66north

66north

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Joined
9 Jul 2015
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13
Had some nice weather today and found myself out in the garden. This has me starting to initiate my plans for live food cultures this year. I've kept a daphnia culture going the past 3-4 years quite well but want to try separate cyclops and seed shrimp (ostracod) cultures this summer. Seems like seed shrimp aren't for sale anywhere. I had some by accident a few years ago but they got eaten up fast by my gudgeons. Is there a source for these somewhere that anyone knows of?
 
Thanks, I can't find them on ebay myself, looked there before posting. Searched for 'seed shrimp' and 'seed shrimp ostracod'
 
I think most fish reject seed shrimp for their hard shell, so there is not much food value.
 
Hi all,
66north said:
want to try separate cyclops and seed shrimp (ostracod) cultures this summer
Click to expand...
The Ostracods will arrive on their own, they have persistent cysts which blow about in the wind etc. Rainwater and some dead leaves in a bucket should develop a culture, but a small amount of sediment from a pond will definitely get you an inoculum. You can treat them just like Daphnia.

Copepods (Cyclops) are more difficult to culture, I've only ever had them as "bycatch" out of the Daphnia culture.

cheers Darrel
 
Thanks, I'll see what happens. It's to do with having some big new jars (well old dessicators) to play with and having peacock gudgeons again. They are picky eaters but my old ones very efficiently ate up seed shrimp. I actually want a food that they are good at, while the other more active fish are likely to mostly ignore them.

My daphnia culture is waking up but I'll take a closer look in there and see if any have shown up this year.
 
I think I have some in tub at the allotment, do they look like tiny butter beans?
They're in there with some moina (the small red daphnia) and also some cyclops. Not all of my waterbutts have them, only half strangely, tho the mosqito larvae get into everything. I don't have many atm I think because of the weather, but when they are more I could net them out and send you some in a takeaway box, tho looks like MirandaB will have you covered!

When they're booming I feed mine to my fish, apistos, sparkling gourami and kuhli loaches do eat them very happily, no complaints. I find they're good for bottomfeeding and shy fish which might otherwise miss out on live foods, usually they manage to last a day or two and get all over the tank before they're hunted down.
 
Normally I ask nicely at an MA or a WOW fish store, if I can scoop some out of the pond plant tables. Most say its ok to catch them and take them with you.
 
I've got these in my allotment water butts as well, with bloodworm and daphnia. Like the others they do get eaten but only after all the bloodworm and daphnia. They seem great for extending the time live food lasts to a few days, so happy to have them in the mix.
They boom in the summer for me and I don't really notice them in the winter. I didn't add them down the allotment but they have done fine to the buckets at home where I have, so should be very easy to culture.
 
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