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Feeding Larvae / Fry After Dark
#1
Guest_centrarchid_*
Posted 15 January 2013 - 05:26 PM
#2
Guest_EricaWieser_*
Posted 15 January 2013 - 08:22 PM
#3
Guest_gerald_*
Posted 16 January 2013 - 07:54 PM
Does anyone feed small fish when lights are down / at low levels. Especially folks that rear relatively large numbers in tanks / aquaria. Sometimes we do, sometimes not. For some types of fish I rear it can make a huge difference although with others no benefits are evident.
#4
Guest_centrarchid_*
Posted 16 January 2013 - 08:07 PM
I was wondering if others explored applying feeds during night with other species, in addition to daytime feedings.
#5
Guest_EricaWieser_*
Posted 16 January 2013 - 09:00 PM
oh, that's what you're talking about. Yes, I specifically use a food that stays alive after adding it to the tank on purpose because I find that fry that can forage for food at any time grow faster than fry fed at only specific times. Microworms stay alive and wiggling in fresh or saltwater for two or three days. I add them to the tank once a day. Whenever I stop adding microworms to the tank and feed only crushed flake (for example this week, as I am harvesting from my microworms solely to make seed cultures to sell at a convention on Saturday), the stomachs of the fry are less full. You can see the difference just by looking at them. Although I should note that there is a certain level of baseline foraging in any well established tank. When I left for a week for Christmas and came back and turned the lights on again, the fry had grown even with no feeding of the tank whatsoever. The microworms would have only lasted a few days. I've got to imagine they're foraging on rotting flakes or tiny bugs or something. But yeah, baby fish grow fastest when food is constantly available, not batch fed. *nods* I agree.In past we restricted feedings of larval fishes (sunfishes mostly) to between 0800 and 1700 with intervals of about 2 hours. Growth rates were inferior to pond setting. I began playing around with collecting larvae from ponds at night and evidence suggested feeding was not restricted to corresponding times fish were fed in lab and even indicated feeding occured after dark. So we started feeding at 2-hour intervals around clock and started getting awsome growth like in a well managed pond. Labor inputs were not cost effective so we backed off on intervals but made so forage was availble at all times, even when lighting simulated darkness. Darkness in pond or how we rear now is not really the absence of light like many indoor rearing efforts are capable of realizing.
I was wondering if others explored applying feeds during night with other species, in addition to daytime feedings.
Edited by EricaWieser, 16 January 2013 - 09:01 PM.
#6
Guest_gzeiger_*
Posted 22 January 2013 - 07:47 PM
#7
Guest_centrarchid_*
Posted 23 January 2013 - 08:01 AM
#8
Guest_Skipjack_*
Posted 23 January 2013 - 06:04 PM
#9
Guest_gzeiger_*
Posted 26 January 2013 - 02:47 PM
The heat problem could be solved with a segregated raceway, so that the same water flowed through all treatments but the fish were separated by screens.
#10
Guest_centrarchid_*
Posted 26 January 2013 - 03:29 PM
I want to upload image but cannot figure how to do it.
#11
Guest_gzeiger_*
Posted 26 January 2013 - 05:26 PM
#12
Guest_centrarchid_*
Posted 26 January 2013 - 06:27 PM
#13
Guest_centrarchid_*
Posted 28 January 2013 - 10:02 PM
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