Ram-Ashwin@cs.yale.edu (Ashwin Ram) (02/19/88)
In article <23207@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> Ram-Ashwin@cs.yale.edu (Ashwin Ram) writes: >[problem with parasites/worms in tank deleted] Thanks for all the suggestions. Most people seemed to think they were 'nematodes' and might or might not have been parasites. In any case, I broke everything down and reassembled the tank after washing the gravel well. Seems to have stabilized things. One thing I'm now wondering about is exactly what one should and shouldn't feed little critters. I got a lot of comments about food; since there seems to be some interest in this, I'll summarize the food-related comments I got (below). Any other comments on (a) flake, (b) freeze-dried, (c) frozen, and (d) live food (which kind?), with respect to (a) how nutritious it is, (b) how safe it is, (c) how good it is for the fish? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: dougf@tybalt.caltech.edu (Douglas J. Freyburger) "Roundworms" are simple animals, many species are not parasites, and many are. They are nothing but mouth intestine and anus. I think the phylum name is "nematode" or "nemihelmenthys". They probably didn't come from the brine shrimp. Few beasts can survive all the salt they need. They might have been from the bloodworms. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: richman%uxe.cso.uiuc.edu@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu (Mike Richman ) ... feed only flake food and freeze-dried food. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: David Shlapak <rondo!rutgers!psuvax1!david%harvard.UUCP@YALE.ARPA> Well, I can answer one of your questions: Live food *is* unsafe unless you take enormous precautions to prevent contamination. The frozen bloodworms should have been fine (provided you bought them from a reputable source, as opposed to "Joe's Generic Frozen Fish Food"), but live brine are a definite risk. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) there were these little wiggly things, about 2-4 mm long. I fed only dried food in those days, but one of the dried foods was freeze dried tubifex. Where did they come from ? Bought any plants lately ? They, in all likelyhood cannot have come from brine shrimp as marine parasites don't fare too well in freshwater. But the plants are suspect. It *is* possible thay came in on frozen food. One of the better foods for very young fish is microworms, which you culture on oatmeal. These cultures only last a week. So you have to keep making new ones. Well it turns out that you can freeze them, and they do just fine. I'm not certain that any parasite could survive freeze drying, but it wouldn't surprise me. I've used frozen bloodworms with no problems. I have trouble with live tubifex. Fish always seem to get "the crud" after I use them. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: rct@occrsh.ATT.COM (Bob_Tracy) Live food is a bummer unless your fish absolutely require it, and then one has to be extremely careful to monitor the tank for parasites and other undesirables that are introduced into the tank with the food. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Ashwin Ram -- ARPA: Ram-Ashwin@cs.yale.edu UUCP: {decvax,ucbvax,harvard,cmcl2,...}!yale!Ram-Ashwin BITNET: Ram@yalecs