Please stay with me while I make the connection to native fishes...
I had the opportunity to go to Reef-A-Palooza Orlando this weekend. This expo is primarily focused on saltwater reef keeping and especially corals. I primarily keep freshwater fishes, my two saltwater tanks are fish-only with native brackish/saltwater killifish (i.e., not reef), and I don't currently keep any corals; however, the event was local and gave me a chance to spend some time with the friend who invited me so I decided to go and see what I could learn. In addition to a lot of great saltwater info that expanded my knowledge, I also came across info that either related to freshwater fish keeping of natives or raised questions related to freshwater in general.
1) I found out that Reef Nutrition offers different size fry food that starts at a 75 micron powder and increments up through about 7 sizes to a 2.3 micron pellet. Although I have not used this product yet, it appears to be comparable to Brine Shrimp Direct's Golden Pearl diet that I have used successfully. Has anyone used the Reef Nutrition fry food? If so, what was your experience? Also, does anyone know how it compares to the BSD Golden Pearl Diet?
2) Reef Nutrition also has a turn-key rotifer culturing system that appears to be very easy to setup and use. I am thinking about using this system with brackish fry in the future. Based on what I understood from their representative's explanation, the rotifers can also be cultured at a very low salinity and then diluted even further before feeding to freshwater fish that are in low levels of salt. I am curious if anyone has experience with feeding rotifers to freshwater fishes and, if so, what is your experience?
3) I was very intrigued by the company AlgaGen and had a fascinating conversation with their founder and lead scientist. Among other things, the company offers a wide range of phytoplankton and copepods. I know that many people want to get rid of green water from their ponds and aquariums, but there are also those of us who culture and feed green water algae as a fry food. The conversation with AlgaGen made me wonder if anyone is specifically culturing freshwater algae for food. Would a "pure" freshwater strain matter for any freshwater fry? I realize that most freshwater fry can move quickly to vinegar eels, micro worms, baby brine shrimp (BBS), and other similar live and/or powdered foods very quickly and may only need green water for a couple of days of their development cycle.
4) I received a few large samples of Chemi-Pure Green which is a product that comes in a mesh bag and filters organics, tannins, odors, toxins, and clarifies the water. The directions say to put the bag in a high flow area (e.g., a sump, canister filter, HOB, etc.) in order for the product to be able to help filter the water. Does anyone have an experience with this product, if so, what is your experience?
I also picked up some random pieces, including micro ball valves from Two Little Fishies, in an attempt to improve my brine shrimp hatching system. Additionally, I met many reps from a wide range of vendors, reconnected with several other reps that I had known from when I was active in the saltwater community, and generally had an enjoyable time. For those of you who are involved in the native saltwater space, the team from Reef2Reef (including ASKBRS, Bulk Reef Supply, and the R2R forum) was an excellent source of information and can be readily found online.