Ostracods-pics

[paris]

sorry folks-dont get down to this section much, but i think this is the right place to post pics of these guys, i have a full colony of these in a 10 gallon tank. to round them up its pretty easy, i dont need to net them i just grab a patch of elodea and shake it into a cup of water. they eat decaying plants-so i have no need to create 10 gallons of green water.

all of my larvae love these...

 

[joeri]

I think I may have a variant of these. Mine look more orange, but once in a while they look greenish. I use them for my larves too.

Maybe mine don't get enough food, so they stay orange. Not sure, as I don't know what little animals I have.

 

[jennifer]

Those are surprisingly large ostracods. Mine are much smaller, about the size of newborn daphnia.

 

[joseph]

I've never seen those in my tanks or tried them so none of this is experience. They are accused of eating fish(killifish) eggs so perhaps keep them out of adult tanks to be safe. Generally considered a pest as fish don't seem to eat them.

They do sound like a great food for newt larvae though! How fast do they reproduce compared to daphnia?

 

[paris]

not as fast in the reproduction area-but i havent tried filling the tank with tons of dead leaves yet-i see them attach to the decaying parts of plants in aquatic set ups as well as the occasional drowned cricket-so im sure more food would = more of them. i gave a coworker a starter culture to put in her bowl with her beta and she likes them.

 

[paris]

check out this one i found in the tank....its huge! (normal one next to it)...ane even a little pretty....

here is my best cleaned up close up....

 

[joeri]

Amazing shot Paris!

 

[joeri]

Hey Paris,

by accident I found out that my little creatures reproduce extremely fast when given yeast. I'm not 100% we have the same though.
Mine seem to fit the description given here(http://www.eeob.iastate.edu/faculty/DrewesC/htdocs/ILL-p12.JPG) as far as I can judge 1mm animals without any enlargement tool.

In my morf/juvies tanks they feast on leftovers and dead leaves, but in my culture tank they started reproducing extremely fast on yeast. (I was actually trying to culture some daphnia)

 

[stipe]

yeast helps alot