Looking for a perfect infusoria culture? Bill, one of our forum regulars, shares his. It's well worth trying!
"Okay, here goes, I'm about to reveal my secret for the perfect infusoria culture, it has been a tight secret for a very long time and now you are about to recieve it. I only ask that when it works and you show your friends credit me please, as the GOD that I am.
Just take an ordinary pint jar and fill it either with water from a filter that has been in a tank going for at least a year, or more easily pull over to the side of the road and gather some water from a canal or pond.
Go to the grocery store and buy a turnip. Yes, a turnip. Peel the turnip, cut the white inside part into small 1/2 inch squares. Take the pint of water and drop two of these squares into the water,they will float like ice cubes. Eat the rest of the turnip, they are very healthy and taste wonderful raw. After 5-6 days the turnip pieces will have started to decompose and will be filled with visible infusoria. I take a three cc syringe and put the open tip onto a floating turnip cube and push it gently just under the surface drawing water into the syringe from the side of the turnip. If you take a clear shot glass or similar vessel, and fill it with the water you just gathered from the turnip cube you will see hundreds if not thousands of tiny one celled creatures moving about. Simply dump this into the fry tank a few times a day. Zebra danios can take newly hatched brine shrimp from 2-3 days old and the infusoria will get them off to a smashingly strong start.
On keeping the culture going, just get a second pint jar, fill it with water from the aquarium, put two cubes in it, wait two or three days and draw out some infusoria from the first jar to inoculate the next. You can keep cultures going till the end of time like this.
The advantage of doing it this way is that you will always have a clear culture, no green water, no stink, perfect culture.
Have fun, Bill"
"Okay, here goes, I'm about to reveal my secret for the perfect infusoria culture, it has been a tight secret for a very long time and now you are about to recieve it. I only ask that when it works and you show your friends credit me please, as the GOD that I am.
Just take an ordinary pint jar and fill it either with water from a filter that has been in a tank going for at least a year, or more easily pull over to the side of the road and gather some water from a canal or pond.
Go to the grocery store and buy a turnip. Yes, a turnip. Peel the turnip, cut the white inside part into small 1/2 inch squares. Take the pint of water and drop two of these squares into the water,they will float like ice cubes. Eat the rest of the turnip, they are very healthy and taste wonderful raw. After 5-6 days the turnip pieces will have started to decompose and will be filled with visible infusoria. I take a three cc syringe and put the open tip onto a floating turnip cube and push it gently just under the surface drawing water into the syringe from the side of the turnip. If you take a clear shot glass or similar vessel, and fill it with the water you just gathered from the turnip cube you will see hundreds if not thousands of tiny one celled creatures moving about. Simply dump this into the fry tank a few times a day. Zebra danios can take newly hatched brine shrimp from 2-3 days old and the infusoria will get them off to a smashingly strong start.
On keeping the culture going, just get a second pint jar, fill it with water from the aquarium, put two cubes in it, wait two or three days and draw out some infusoria from the first jar to inoculate the next. You can keep cultures going till the end of time like this.
The advantage of doing it this way is that you will always have a clear culture, no green water, no stink, perfect culture.
Have fun, Bill"
Comments
I am doing a science experiment, does anyone have any ideas how to turn culturing infusorias into an experiment?
you could add a toxin to the water (lemon juice, vinegar) and see if it affects the growth of the culture?
start the culture from pondwater the drink it and see if you are still alive the next day
HOW LONG BEFORE YOU START A NEW JAR, AND WHAT ARE THE SIGNS TO START IT?
I am SO glad tohave found this site. After reading it, I immediately went to a local Asian supermarket and bought one good size of turnip (daikon?), it only costs me 0.75 cents. I left the container in the yard in the shade, it can still gets to mid 80 degree in the afternoon. BTW, the turnip does taste good. Thank you so much! I now have eggs in tank waiting to hatch, incl. corycat, BN pleco, also lots of babies guppies (in a seperate tank).
I tried this, why my turnip isn’t floating they sunk? the water also become cloud, and do I have to expose the jar to a sunlight?
I tried using spinach and the water turned cloudy, then clear. However, the water is really smelly. Should I still feed the water to my guppies or should I start a new culture. The spinah has floated to the top and there is a film of I don’t know what on top forming a layer.