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Will Elassoma eat 'Ken's Golden Pearls'?


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#21 Guest_gerald_*

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Posted 23 February 2012 - 07:48 PM

After you've tried garlic-soaking and re-drying fishfood, live blackworms in the fridge might not seem so bad after all to your roommate.

#22 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 23 February 2012 - 07:57 PM

After you've tried garlic-soaking and re-drying fishfood, live blackworms in the fridge might not seem so bad after all to your roommate.

It does smell kind of garlic-y right now, yeah. There's a bowl of steaming garlic clove sitting in the other room and I can smell it over here XD

#23 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 25 February 2012 - 05:17 PM

If you soak them and let them dry out again will they still sink? They would likely stick together so you would have to break them up again, but it might work.

That's an idea. I'm going to try it and post the results here.

Didn't work so well.

I got two cloves of garlic and chopped them up. The first I microwaved in a small amount of water, basically boiling it for a minute. The second I added once the microwave ended, so it stewed in boiling water until it was cool. The idea was to get whatever was in the garlic into the water, whether that was heat released or heat destroyed.

Once it was cool I strained the liquid and added all sizes of Ken's Golden Pearls. It took more than a day to fully dry out. I scraped up the resultant crust and crushed it in a mortar and pestle until it resembled the original Pearls, but now with a garlic scent. It's neat because now my nose knows the difference between fish food with and without garlic. There's probably garlic in the flakes I'm feeding my guppies. Anyway, I added the crushed pearls into the fish tank.

And they sank. There's something about the original shape of Ken's Golden Pearls that makes them ridiculously buoyant. On his sales page he says they look like a raspberry under the microscope; I believe it. There was absolutely no comparison between the buoyancy of the crushed garlic Pearls and the Pearls before soaking. The garlic ones sank within one minute. Heck, the guppy didn't even get a chance to eat them, let alone the Elassoma. I think the snails ended up eating them all.

So, long story short, I did not find soaking Ken's Golden Pearls in garlic to increase their tastiness to the Elassoma. They just sank too fast.

Edited by EricaWieser, 25 February 2012 - 05:18 PM.


#24 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 29 February 2012 - 11:21 AM

Hmm.

I've been feeding the Elassoma gilberti different combinations and timings of live grindal worms, thawed frozen bloodworms cut in half, and Ken's Golden Pearls. Whenever I add them all at the same time, the Elassoma haven't been even remotely interested in the Ken's Golden Pearls. That makes sense; why would they when they have two tastier alternatives.

I've also tried feeding with the golden pearls in the morning and the Elassoma don't emerge from the plants like they do for blood/grindal worms. It's kind of like people who haven't yet had coffee. They need that coffee [worm] smell to entice them.

So I think my new plan is to stop adding golden pearls in the morning or at the same time as the grindal worms. Maybe bloodworms in the morning, pearls when I get home from work, and grindal worms a few hours after that. Then even if some of the fish aren't eating the pearls they won't starve. *nods* That's what I'll try. Maybe then some might learn eat the pearls, to increase the frequency of their feedings.

Edited by EricaWieser, 29 February 2012 - 11:28 AM.


#25 Guest_jetajockey_*

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Posted 07 March 2012 - 12:54 AM

Funny this topic is brought up, I was doing the same thing with mine and ordered some golden pearls from kens as well a few weeks ago. I go through kens for a lot of stuff, he has a marina brand external breeder box that is awesome, and only $10 for the large one.

But anyhow, golden pearls are pretty cool, Ken doesn't actually make them, but he does sell them and is one of my preferred food suppliers (along with angelsplus). I feed golden pearls to my angelfish and livebearer fry. I have been feeding the 300-500 micron to some e.gilberti that I pulled out of the creek a few weeks back, and have noticed a few biting but they don't eat them like they do bloodworms or anything wiggling. I have also seen some pulling them off the bottom, but no idea if they keep them in or spit them out eventually.

I have also been keeping a few small killies in with them during this process to help keep the tank clean but also make them get the hint that this stuff should be eaten, so who knows where it'll go.

#26 Guest_jetajockey_*

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Posted 07 March 2012 - 01:04 AM

Figured I'd add a pic of the external breeder box with a few lovelies in it. Posted Image

#27 Guest_gerald_*

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Posted 09 March 2012 - 11:16 AM

Nice yellow ovaries -- she's ready to go! Just add moss, Nitella or other fine-leaved plants.

#28 Guest_jetajockey_*

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Posted 10 March 2012 - 10:12 PM

Thanks Gerald. I actually had them in a QT over the last few weeks, I ended up with several good looking pairs, as I found a dense population in my last outing. I intend to breed them and eventually (hopefully) start selective breeding for coloration. With any luck I may get a proper captive bred line going one day.


I am on board with the seasonal theories, fishing the exact same areas at different times all throughout last year and this year proves it to me. Mid summer last year there were a few adults, hit and miss, in the fall there were very few males, mostly fry, and then now at spring the adults are everywhere.

#29 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 02 April 2012 - 10:32 AM

So, I think I have to reach the conclusion that Ken's Golden Pearls absolutely cannot compete with live grindal worms. Will Elassoma eat Ken's Golden Pearls? Maybe. But definitely not when live grindal worms are also being fed to the tank.

The grindal worm cultures are now actively producing enough worms to feed the tank with a teaspoon of worms three times a day. It's actually just my one plastic shoe box that's producing so much, the one with two layers deep of a two by two grid of 2" thick by 4" long by 3" wide soft fluffy sponges. The worms super love this substrate. That culture eats four kibbles of Kibbles 'N Bits® a day. The centimeter thick extremely hard dark green scrubby pad culture is still not producing worms very well even after all this time, maybe only a quarter teaspoon a day.

Anyway, my point is, I'm feed the grindal worms to the Elassoma gilberti so frequently that when I add Ken's Golden Pearls they simply turn up their noses and go, "I know you're going to feed me some tasty worms later" and ignore the pearls. So. I'm going ahead and drawing a conclusion on this one. Nope. They don't eat them. Not when there's better food present. And apart from not being able to go away on vacation, there really aren't any major disadvantages to culturing grindal worms. I wish the Ken's Golden Pearls had worked so I could fill an automatic fish feeder with them and then leave for two weeks without worrying about my fish but *shrug* I guess it is not to be. If I go on vacation I'm still going to do that, because the auto feeder is here and the pearls are here and the live plants can handle the nitrogenous waste production. But I doubt that the Elassoma will eat any.

Edited by EricaWieser, 02 April 2012 - 10:36 AM.


#30 Guest_jetajockey_*

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Posted 03 April 2012 - 03:26 AM

I need to get a new grindal culture, I kept them for a few months last year but couldn't figure out a good substrate choice. I used potting soil for awhile and it just failed miserably.

#31 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 03 April 2012 - 01:11 PM

I need to get a new grindal culture, I kept them for a few months last year but couldn't figure out a good substrate choice. I used potting soil for awhile and it just failed miserably.

I updated the "Grindal Worm Tips and Tricks" topic to describe my current sponge substrate setup. Link to topic: http://forum.nanfa.o...ips-and-tricks/




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