Stimulating appetite in fry

This is my first batch (300) of fry so I don't claim to be an expert, but I may have stumbled onto something by chance.

They're 3-4 days old now, and I was ready with both BBS and microworms.

I'd read that the BBS was the best for them, so I've only fed that to them, but have found that they feed for about an hour then stop, and the BBS swim around until they die.

Last night just for the sake of it I wipe the inside of my microworm culture and put some in.

They absolutely switched on fully and started eating furiously.

This morning same thing, fed them BBS and they stopped after about an hour, added microworms and they're eating furiously.

Same thing this evening (I feed them twice a day).

I should point out that they don't just eat the microworms, it makes them start eating BBS again as well.

This may not happen for all, but is definitely happening with my lot.

Because BBS are said to have a better nutrient content, I put them in first and leave them till they stop eating.

I also change the water twice a day (before feeding), and leave them to settle down for half an hour after that before feeding.

I've culled about 10 so far for obvious defects, and haven't had one die yet.

They are growing, but are still only around 8-14mm.

They laid around for 2-3 days before they started taking food, so I expect they're starting to liven up.

Maybe it has a catnip effect, or is the potatoes they like with their meat??

BBS start to be affected by the freshwater after about an hour - they may slow down and your larvae are still too small to respond to slow or unmoving food.
When you add the microworms they are all lively and wriggly - hence your larvae going mad for them and chomping at anything.

This is a useful tip for when you switch to bloodworms - for the first couple of weeks I mix live and frozen bloodworms so that the little axies get the idea, then I can switch over to just frozen.

auntiejude said:

BBS start to be affected by the freshwater after about an hour - they may slow down and your larvae are still too small to respond to slow or unmoving food.
When you add the microworms they are all lively and wriggly - hence your larvae going mad for them and chomping at anything.

This is a useful tip for when you switch to bloodworms - for the first couple of weeks I mix live and frozen bloodworms so that the little axies get the idea, then I can switch over to just frozen.

Click to expand...

Cheers,

Yes, the microworms are much more wriggly.

That's most likely the reason for sure.