This is by far the most helpful video I have ever seen! I didn't realize the fuzzy crap at the top meant it was working and I have thrown away a few cultures that would have developed! Thank you so much for this, incredibly helpful!
I'm so glad it was helpful, but I've learned a lot since then. I hope you can watch this updated video demonstrating an approach that is much faster, reliable and predictable than any of my original attempts. ua-cam.com/video/hw7Wc77jiSs/v-deo.html
Thank you so much for this video. I snicker every time you call them cooties. Now I feel confident in my ability to culture infusoria. It's amazing how little we know about the natural world and decide to bring nature inside without being prepared. Fortunately, my rainbow fish fry spotted Infusoria on the glass inside my nursery tank because I was nervous as heck that I was going to starve them to death. Again, thanks for the video. Going ahead and subscribing just to hear you say cooties again.
Excellent video! I agree, all the other videos leave out exactly how variable the timing of it is. The visuals you provided are spot on, and I wish I had this video when I first started, but like you I mostly had to figure it out for myself. The one thing you left out is the fact that they are highly variable in how long the cultures last, as well. Some cultures will stay active for many weeks, while others are useable for less than two weeks. This can be really important because, I've had cultures crash on me right in the middle of raising out some really valuable fry leaving me with nothing to feed them. It is best to have multiple cultures going, and to start new cultures long before you need them. I've experimented with using lots of different veggies, and I found that the amount of veggies you start with and the type of veggies used, make a lot of difference in both the time to maturity and the duration it lasts for. Carrots take longer to start, but last longer once they get going. Cruciferous veggies like brocoli, work really well but smell SO much worse. Beans are bad for smell too. I have found a 50 50 mix of carrots, and zuccini or other squash, works really well for me. PS I totally agree that live food is essential for raising out egg scatterer fry. This comes from 40 years of fish breeding experience. I don't even bother with hard boiled egg yolk or other such non-living foods. They mostly just foul the water. First food is infusoria, followed by vinegar eels, micro-worms, artemia nauplii, and then finally grindal worms, in that order. Cheers Randy
Sir you are just perfect example of excellence ! I am culturing my infusoria using... pondwater, aquarium water, boiled vegetables , soil , milk . Today is 11th day no change.. I stared 3 cultures two of them turned black and smelling gross. As all three are smelling gross but the third one is still cloudy . You are absolutely right people are fooling that they got infusoria in two days , 7days , 10 days ... But me over 10days not a single organism. Now I feel, better to get paramecium culture fortunately there is a seller in india which gives home delivery in just 275rs(4$) for 100 ml .good to start a culture.
Don't give up. Ten days doesn't sound like a long time in my experience. I've never heard of a culture turning black though. I'm not sure if that's good news or bad news. I'm very curious to hear how your paramecium culture works out. I assume you'll be able to propagate it indefinitely?
Great and very informative video.. I've got four batches of betta fry and I'm at my wits end trying to find suitable live food for them.. I've fed them hard-boiled egg yolk twice a day but they're obviously not feeding, as you rightly pointed out, they need live bait. I've got five different concoctions of infusoria going and finally finally today I saw swirls of them moving vertically downwards exactly as in your video.. I've got my batch ready in about 5 days.. i used a wide lipped jar, i covered the lip with cotton cloth and a rubber band, and, this is very important i think, i swirled the concontion twice a day.. once early morning and after sunset.. Thanks for the video..You could make one on microforms too
I've consistently failed to culture infusoria, but then again, I've always given up way to soon based on your experiences and comments. Time for one more go methinks!
I'm beginning to suspect the daily dose of Excel in my display tank kills off a lot of the micro life. My 10-gallon breeding tank has tons of critters in the water. I'm tempted to try a batch using water from that tank to see if it makes a difference. I should do it while we still have sunny weather.
Haha! Red cabbage, banana peels... I never imagined there were so many ways to culture infusoria. I sometimes think I should take down this video because it seems like misinformation given what I know now. Thanks for sharing.
Lol! I will henceforth refer to infusoria only as "cooties". "What do you mean, 'It stinks'? Of course it stinks! It's cooties! If my baby fish don't get cooties from me, who will they get them from?! Sheesh!" Thanks for the info... and for making me smile.
I tried this for the first time a couple weeks ago and it smelled so bad I thought it was useless after a couple days. I should've waited a lot more...oh well I'm doing it again now that I learned more about how it works.
Don't waste your time with this method. It's too unpredictable. This subsequent video lays out a method that is much more reliable and predictable in its outcome. ua-cam.com/video/hw7Wc77jiSs/v-deo.html
Thank you for this post. I think it’s good to see both the success and failure so we know what to look for when growing infusoria cultures, and that has been missing on other posts on growing infusoria. I’m also going to look at breeding white cloud minnows outside this summer, (Southern Hemisphere summer) but will try inside breeding later on too. Best regards, Brian. (Daughters logged in the ipad)
Thanks, Brian. Good luck with your breeding project(s). I'd love to try breeding WCMM outdoors, but I'm afraid the local raccoons would wreak havoc with any attempt. By the way, you might want to check out the White Cloud Mountain Minnow group on Facebook, if you haven't already.
Thank u so much 4 sharing such precious and hard 2 find info in a simple,short and 2 the point video. I got almost all answers from your video starting 4m when to how.
I just lost my first fry trying to use dry food + microworms... heard that microworm could be food for fries that can’t take bbs after free swimming but it is somehow still too big for gourami fries. I started my infusoria on the same day those first 50 fries were hatched and that infusoria take ages to develop! Now after a week or so there are only 10 out of 150 left and the infusoria is still not ready yet despite that I had a desk lamp shining on it 24/7
Oh man, I feel for you. That"s what frustrates me about infusoria. You have to be thinking so far ahead in order have it ready for your fry. One commenter claimed infusoria can be ready to feed in 12 hours but that's never been my experience. I hope you manage to save the remaining 10 fry. Do you think they might be able to ingest vinegar eels? They seem a bit smaller than micro worms.
Thanks Jay for telling the truth and for confirming my experiences, which are similar to yours... UA-cam can be false, for people wanting to have more views with fantastic uploads, showing the best and quickest results. The reality is different. Why can't fishkeepers not be more realistic about the information ? I'm trying yeast now to see if I can speed up the progress (following another fishtuber, but I become more critical about it all)... I love the reality you show !! Good upload.
I've since had great success with the yeast method, ua-cam.com/video/hw7Wc77jiSs/v-deo.html. I highly recommend it. Wow, I could have saved myself so much angst lol.
super simple and just need 3 days to culture. 1. water from the old aquarium or from the filter for starter 2. yeast 3. container (transparent) how to do it 1. mix the yeast with freshwater ( natural water).. how much yeast...half small spoon for 2 liter 2. add to the container (2-liter bottle) old aquarium water 3. add step number 1 to step number 2 4. put in the sun 5. you can see the micro thing in 2 days after feeding the fry and small fish. repeated the step or add more yeast to the container question 1. is smell good or bad.. it will be small good 2. direct feeding the fray from the water with micro things?.. YES
You're welcome. Since posting the video, I've learned a lot more about infusoria culture. Make sure you read through the comments because there's some good information there, as well as in the comments for the follow up video. ua-cam.com/video/UZQ6ZGZMO1k/v-deo.html
So true about the time line and the other videos online. Just wondering why the bottles were sealed as most comments spoke of keeping it open. Thanks for the info. My Dwarft Rainbow fry seem as small as infusoria!
It might just need more time, but who knows? You do have to be patient and willing to experiment. I completely understand why some breeders just don't bother with infusoria. I find it very unpredictable, which is frustrating when I've got newborn fry depending on me for food. Recently I "restarted" a batch that wasn't developing by adding some liquid from a mature culture. My current batch isn't breaking any records either so I added a fresh plant cutting from my aquarium to re-introduce some micro organisms.
@@jaymiller3238 How about introducing bacteria stored in commercial bottles (Example: Seachem Stability, Sechem Prestine, etc.) to infusuria to develop its colany size. Is this idea practicable?
Effective way would be putting dried plantain leaf piece directly into the tank until the water turns to light brown shade because of the Tanine from the plantain which is good for the fishes and to maintain water quality..after few days the infusoria will form without damaging the water quality (actually it stopped my fishes from dying and i don't know why).the fries can find infusoria around the plantain leaf. (you can remove it after 1 -2 week when leaf becomes very thin)
Hey I have betta eggs in the nest rn..so I could just add dry banana leaves to the tank and infusoria would develop by the time the fry starts free swimming?? I do have other containers for infusoria as backup..
You did this the natural way (nothing wrong with that, but...) and that is why it took so long. Boost the bacteria bloom with bread yeast. Boost the green water with spirulina. No need for disgusting decaying vegetables and the smell is bearable. 2 days to a week time and you will have a great culture.
try adding 1 or 2 tablespoon of fish pellets and store them in a dark place, or you can cover the culture container with black cloth or plastic, based on my experience infusoria will begin to appear on day 7 ,i never selaed my culture tank, i put insect net to cover the jar and tie them with rubber band to avoid mosquitos and other insect laying their eggs
For what it's worth, you're the only one I've seen that caps the container. My cultures usually mature in a week to ten days but my containers are open and I stir the scum at the top. Did you try any in something other than capped bottles?
Exactly what I was thinking - with a few exceptions pretty much everything alive runs on oxygen and the more work you want something to do the more oxygen it needs. Oxygen tends to be THE limiting factor, so much so I wonder if simply having the water surface area of a large jar might make all the difference, compared to the surface area of a bottle. I've watched quite a few of the same videos and you seem to be putting a LOT of veggies in a relatively small volume of water. Watch Dave Ramsey's video where he's adding two tiny bits of dried turnip to a jar with a wide neck, and then not putting it in direct light. So you're asking the system to do a huge amount of work without abundant O2. Also, as John is referring to, if you have a thick scummy layer that's going to inhibit gaseous exchange too, so stirring it makes sense to me, just like having some surface ripple on an aquarium.
@@julian.morgan Thanks for the observations! I'll check out the Ramsey video. For my current culture, I used an uncapped bottle with 12 hours of aeration per day and 24 hours of incandescent light. Three weeks in, I have very green water but very few micro organisms visible under a microscope. Maybe I should try limiting the veggies and/or the light.
Here's my experience, you may find it helpful. The organisms you are trying to raise, infusoria, are a collection of critters, not just one type. In order to breed and grow they need to eat, what they eat is bacteria. The bacteria can only grow if they also have nutrients to feed off. They will feed on any organic plant material which is why we put lettuce, broccoli, green beans, cabbage etc into the container. We boil them first in order to speed up their decomposition so that the bacteria have plenty of food. The bacteria don't care what their source of nutrition is, lettuce, broccoli etc all work, the downside is that when these materials break down they absolutely stink - I think you may have briefly mentioned it. It is over a decade since I used any of these vegetables as my initial food source, I now exclusively use banana peels and I don't bother to boil them either. The inside layer of the banana peel is already soft and squidgy before you even start - they are ready to break down right from the off. I have never found it takes more than a couple of days to get the thick bacterial bloom we are looking for. The main advantage to this method is that there is virtually no smell - I keep my cultures on the window sill in my bedroom, I certainly would not do that with a rotten cabbage of broccoli smell permeating the room. I would not say there is no smell at all but any you do get is just faintly sweet and not unpleasant. Every culture I have done this way has been ready to harvest within 10 days and I've been doing it this way for over a decade.
Thanks! I'll definitely give that method a try. What signs to you use to determine the culture is ready to harvest? How long does the culture last, and how do you know when it's finished?
@@jaymiller3238 After the initial bacterial bloom the water will begin to clear down which is a sign that the infusoria is consuming the bacteria. I shine a light through the container and use a magnifying glass to confirm they are there. This starts around the 5 day mark and by day 10 it's usually swarming with them. I can feed every day for a couple of weeks at which point I tend to bin it and start again. I usually have more than one culture running at a time, as soon as I have a healthy number of critters on day 10 I start a second culture using a turkey baster full of the first culture to seed the second one. The second culture is ready to go well before the first culture is exhausted. I don't really know how long a culture would last but I guess there's no reason why you couldn't keep it going almost indefinitely as long as you keep feeding it; I find it easier to just get a second culture underway so that it is ready before the first culture is exhausted. I have seen other people use rice or even yeast rather than banana peel - I've never tried those methods, I find the banana method so successful I see no reason to change it.
Give a try to this method may it help. Use cabbage leafs also and stire the culture from second day. I got better results in short period of time. Hope it helps.
Good informative video, Jay. Some observations I made which are different from some of the other videos I watched is that you used a soda bottle which has a very small opening instead of say, a mason jar. Also, the bio load you placed in there initially gave the bacteria a lot of work to do before the cooties can begin feeding on them. One video I watched showed the guy dropping in two cubes of dried turnip about the size of a pair of dice and he had his cooties ready in just over a week. So perhaps the small opening (minimal surface area for oxygen transfer) coupled with the heavy bio load might have delayed it a bit. Those are just my initial thoughts. On another note, the Golden White Cloud tank looks great! Could you give us a rundown on what plants and equipment you used and where did you get your microscope? Thank you for a great video.
Thanks for the suggestions, Jay. After hearing that from a couple of viewers, I tried a batch with active aeration and a 12-hour photoperiod. That produced beautiful green water but no infusoria. I'd like to see the turnip video. My microscope is the AmScope M150C, purchased on Amazon.
People don’t know that ammonia while good for the bacteria, is not so good for the infusoria. You can take out some of the bacteria water and add fresh water to cut the ammonia level. This will speed up infusoria production. Also, you don’t need to start all over when making a new batch. Just seed new batch with the old batch.
Hi, I started my infusoria culture and it clouded up very quickly. In a couple of days, I used a baster to drop cloudy water into my Endlers livebearers tank. All the babies and the rest of the fish were very interested in the clouds and I thought I was done. I’ve put some of my culture into my other tanks and the fish seem delighted by it. I’m starting to understand that the clouds are bacteria and not little beings that you can see. But the fish seem very happy. What is going on?? Is there a problem with feeding fish fry the cloudy water?
Thanks for letting me know as I have recently started two jars and have been wondering when, and if in time, I will have ''cooties'' for my fry that are yet to hatch! I have parent Rice Fish. Love your sense of humour, too. Since it 'stinks' so much where on earth will I keep it during the winter months. Maybe they can withstand our cold English weather.
I've been getting some comments lately indicating that it shouldn't stink, that I'm overloading the culture with nutrients and not providing enough oxygen. Using a wider mouthed container has made a difference.
@@jaymiller3238 it's a good thing haha. Becuase I've been searching a ton of videos about these and everyone is tellin' yadayadayada, and this one is very informative. And rn I'm worried that I might loose some fry from starving because I'm not seeing critters in my culture yet.
Great video Jay. I'm a novice but I'm curious, were there any air holes drilled in the bottlecaps or do you even need them? Going to take a stab at growing my own.
Thanks, Steven. To be honest, I almost feel like this video is misinformation, given all I've learned from the generous and helpful comments from viewers. I guess that's the nature of learning. I didn't drill holes in the bottle caps, just kept them very very loose, but yes, the culture does need oxygen.
One thing you did not mention or maybe you didnt do is to also mix it lightly once in a while so to have oxygen infusion on water, just one of the methods i saw on youtube.
Yeah I just shook the bottles once a day. In a subsequent attempt, ua-cam.com/video/UZQ6ZGZMO1k/v-deo.html, I added 24-hour aeration but that only resulted in beautiful green water lol
Thank you so much I thought I was doing something wrong as nobody mentions how long or even if the culture would smell for, I am at the stage were the smell is getting the best of me. I have a very sensitive nose I can actually smell the difference in each stage. The first stage just stinks to the point you wonder if its worth it. Can you imagine when visitors come yo visit. I stopped people coming to my house. stage two it starts to smell different its a thickly in the throat its bordering on bearable week three still the same but the smell has a kind stinky sweetness to it haven't got to stage five you have made it easyier to go foreword I was feeling like I wanted to give up. Thank you for really telling us the plain truth I have to add why do people say I even read science papers the all say it will only smell for a couple of days ummm it stinks does it ever stop?
I've got to say, my most recent experience makes me think I actually know nothing about infusoria. Since posting this video I've never achieved the final stage with visible streaming clouds of cooties. Based on the advice of A Gamers Wife, I tried culturing my last batch under 24/7 light with aeration for 12 hours per day. Three weeks later, the water is clear with a greenish tint-and no micro organisms visible under a microscope. WTH do I know?!
@@jaymiller3238 I have to start all over again. I am doing an eco culture snails scuds paramecium and daphnia my culture is contaminated with cyclops i was wondering why my daphnia was dwindling. Its hard the smell is obnoxious to my nose no matter how much cing film i use lol
@@NessysSanctuary Gah! I hope I never have to deal with cyclops [knock on wood]. Hang in there. You never know what's going to happen when you try to manage Mother Nature.
@@jaymiller3238 Thanks lol funny thing the one with the cyclops is streaming bacteria the way they show on UA-cam, Yep mother Nature defiantly has a sense of humor lol
I know this is an old video so I'm not sure if you're still replying to comments on it. I was wondering how long a mature culture lasts for? Is there a way to keep it going longer? And does seeding a new culture with critters from an existing one help speed it up?
I was wondering how long a mature culture lasts for? Jay - It's hard to remember. Four to six weeks? Is there a way to keep it going longer? Jay - Several commenters mentioned feeding the culture periodically. And does seeding a new culture with critters from an existing one help speed it up? Jay - In my experience, yes.
The method described in this video is very smelly. Perhaps you missed the ending. The method described in this video ua-cam.com/video/hw7Wc77jiSs/v-deo.html has some smell but not as bad.
I'm not an expert, but my most recent attempt, with aeration and 24/7 light, turned into green water. There were a few infusoria present under a microscope but not many. They would have to be introduced to the culture of course.
so green water not good for culture infusoria because green water is chlorella, green water is good for culture Daphnia moina and Daphnia magna, its food for fray after 2 weeks, and also good for adult fish, specially betta and guppy.
ok very interesting. i put some pond water in a glass with some moss and left it in my window and saw little things all over. ive been trying to identify them sense. seems i have daphnia and infusoria.
@@jaymiller3238 I guess unless the pond contained fish of course, but I find it hard to tell, I mean I once took some water from a pond thinking it had no fish and then weeks later saw a little boy fishing and he had caught a small rud.
I have silvertip tetra fry who will be free swimming in 2 days, and my 4 days old infusoria glass jar is still very cloudy. Gonna try making the ground up spirulina + flake food powder, and feed them the part that stays floating in the water.
I could only do that during late spring through early fall since I live in Toronto. I actually don't mind the smell as long as it stays in the bottle lol. I do worry that one day I'll knock over a bottle and soak all the cushions on the window seat. Yikes!
great video. How long will a successful culture last? Any tips to keep it thriving? How do you avoid divorce when the wife has had enough of the smell? lol
Haha I don't have a wife so it's not my problem. Once the culture is ready, I feed about 1/4 cup twice a day, so a 2-litre bottle will last about 16 days. I don't try to keep it thriving. I don't know if that's possible. I just start a new culture every 2 weeks. It's an interesting question, though.
Oh yes, I did try that. I don't recall that it made a lot of difference. Then again, there are so many variables involved. Who knows what makes a difference and what doesn't? Some days I think I should take this video down because I still have so much to learn about infusoria. Like they say, we don't know what we don't know.
Happy Diwali ; totally agree with your remarks about time period this type of culture takes. can I have your email address to have your opinion about some other queries for culturing rotifiers/infusoria
You might have noticed some comments suggesting that, by capping the bottles even loosely, I wasn't providing enough aeration, hence the smell. Since making this video, I tried making a batch with 12 hours of aeration per day and 24/7 lighting. The water turned very green but I didn't get much in the way of living creatures. I still think I'm not seeding the cultures with a sufficient amount of microscopic critters.
Super helpful video! Absolutely right that other videos with images seen under a microscope did not help me!
This is by far the most helpful video I have ever seen! I didn't realize the fuzzy crap at the top meant it was working and I have thrown away a few cultures that would have developed!
Thank you so much for this, incredibly helpful!
I'm so glad it was helpful, but I've learned a lot since then. I hope you can watch this updated video demonstrating an approach that is much faster, reliable and predictable than any of my original attempts.
ua-cam.com/video/hw7Wc77jiSs/v-deo.html
Thank you so much for this video. I snicker every time you call them cooties. Now I feel confident in my ability to culture infusoria. It's amazing how little we know about the natural world and decide to bring nature inside without being prepared. Fortunately, my rainbow fish fry spotted Infusoria on the glass inside my nursery tank because I was nervous as heck that I was going to starve them to death. Again, thanks for the video. Going ahead and subscribing just to hear you say cooties again.
Excellent video! I agree, all the other videos leave out exactly how variable the timing of it is. The visuals you provided are spot on, and I wish I had this video when I first started, but like you I mostly had to figure it out for myself.
The one thing you left out is the fact that they are highly variable in how long the cultures last, as well. Some cultures will stay active for many weeks, while others are useable for less than two weeks. This can be really important because, I've had cultures crash on me right in the middle of raising out some really valuable fry leaving me with nothing to feed them. It is best to have multiple cultures going, and to start new cultures long before you need them. I've experimented with using lots of different veggies, and I found that the amount of veggies you start with and the type of veggies used, make a lot of difference in both the time to maturity and the duration it lasts for. Carrots take longer to start, but last longer once they get going. Cruciferous veggies like brocoli, work really well but smell SO much worse. Beans are bad for smell too. I have found a 50 50 mix of carrots, and zuccini or other squash, works really well for me.
PS I totally agree that live food is essential for raising out egg scatterer fry. This comes from 40 years of fish breeding experience. I don't even bother with hard boiled egg yolk or other such non-living foods. They mostly just foul the water. First food is infusoria, followed by vinegar eels, micro-worms, artemia nauplii, and then finally grindal worms, in that order.
Cheers
Randy
Sir you are just perfect example of excellence !
I am culturing my infusoria using... pondwater, aquarium water, boiled vegetables , soil , milk .
Today is 11th day no change..
I stared 3 cultures two of them turned black and smelling gross.
As all three are smelling gross but the third one is still cloudy .
You are absolutely right people are fooling that they got infusoria in two days , 7days , 10 days ...
But me over 10days not a single organism.
Now I feel, better to get paramecium culture fortunately there is a seller in india which gives home delivery in just 275rs(4$) for 100 ml .good to start a culture.
Don't give up. Ten days doesn't sound like a long time in my experience. I've never heard of a culture turning black though. I'm not sure if that's good news or bad news. I'm very curious to hear how your paramecium culture works out. I assume you'll be able to propagate it indefinitely?
@@jaymiller3238 thank you!
Great and very informative video..
I've got four batches of betta fry and I'm at my wits end trying to find suitable live food for them.. I've fed them hard-boiled egg yolk twice a day but they're obviously not feeding, as you rightly pointed out, they need live bait.
I've got five different concoctions of infusoria going and finally finally today I saw swirls of them moving vertically downwards exactly as in your video..
I've got my batch ready in about 5 days.. i used a wide lipped jar, i covered the lip with cotton cloth and a rubber band, and, this is very important i think, i swirled the concontion twice a day.. once early morning and after sunset..
Thanks for the video..You could make one on microforms too
Excellent well balanced informative video on how to propagate infusoria.
I've consistently failed to culture infusoria, but then again, I've always given up way to soon based on your experiences and comments. Time for one more go methinks!
I'm beginning to suspect the daily dose of Excel in my display tank kills off a lot of the micro life. My 10-gallon breeding tank has tons of critters in the water. I'm tempted to try a batch using water from that tank to see if it makes a difference. I should do it while we still have sunny weather.
I used red cabbage the water is really pretty and changes color. Nearly every day it is a new hue.
Haha! Red cabbage, banana peels... I never imagined there were so many ways to culture infusoria. I sometimes think I should take down this video because it seems like misinformation given what I know now. Thanks for sharing.
Lol! I will henceforth refer to infusoria only as "cooties".
"What do you mean, 'It stinks'? Of course it stinks! It's cooties! If my baby fish don't get cooties from me, who will they get them from?! Sheesh!"
Thanks for the info... and for making me smile.
I tried this for the first time a couple weeks ago and it smelled so bad I thought it was useless after a couple days. I should've waited a lot more...oh well I'm doing it again now that I learned more about how it works.
Don't waste your time with this method. It's too unpredictable. This subsequent video lays out a method that is much more reliable and predictable in its outcome. ua-cam.com/video/hw7Wc77jiSs/v-deo.html
Thank you for this post. I think it’s good to see both the success and failure so we know what to look for when growing infusoria cultures, and that has been missing on other posts on growing infusoria. I’m also going to look at breeding white cloud minnows outside this summer, (Southern Hemisphere summer) but will try inside breeding later on too.
Best regards, Brian.
(Daughters logged in the ipad)
Thanks, Brian. Good luck with your breeding project(s). I'd love to try breeding WCMM outdoors, but I'm afraid the local raccoons would wreak havoc with any attempt. By the way, you might want to check out the White Cloud Mountain Minnow group on Facebook, if you haven't already.
Thank u so much 4 sharing such precious and hard 2 find info in a simple,short and 2 the point video.
I got almost all answers from your video starting 4m when to how.
I just lost my first fry trying to use dry food + microworms... heard that microworm could be food for fries that can’t take bbs after free swimming but it is somehow still too big for gourami fries. I started my infusoria on the same day those first 50 fries were hatched and that infusoria take ages to develop! Now after a week or so there are only 10 out of 150 left and the infusoria is still not ready yet despite that I had a desk lamp shining on it 24/7
Oh man, I feel for you. That"s what frustrates me about infusoria. You have to be thinking so far ahead in order have it ready for your fry. One commenter claimed infusoria can be ready to feed in 12 hours but that's never been my experience. I hope you manage to save the remaining 10 fry. Do you think they might be able to ingest vinegar eels? They seem a bit smaller than micro worms.
Thanks Jay for telling the truth and for confirming my experiences, which are similar to yours... UA-cam can be false, for people wanting to have more views with fantastic uploads, showing the best and quickest results. The reality is different. Why can't fishkeepers not be more realistic about the information ? I'm trying yeast now to see if I can speed up the progress (following another fishtuber, but I become more critical about it all)... I love the reality you show !! Good upload.
I've since had great success with the yeast method, ua-cam.com/video/hw7Wc77jiSs/v-deo.html. I highly recommend it. Wow, I could have saved myself so much angst lol.
Very informative, thank you.
super simple and just need 3 days to culture.
1. water from the old aquarium or from the filter for starter
2. yeast
3. container (transparent)
how to do it
1. mix the yeast with freshwater ( natural water).. how much yeast...half small spoon for 2 liter
2. add to the container (2-liter bottle) old aquarium water
3. add step number 1 to step number 2
4. put in the sun
5. you can see the micro thing in 2 days
after feeding the fry and small fish. repeated the step or add more yeast to the container
question
1. is smell good or bad.. it will be small good
2. direct feeding the fray from the water with micro things?.. YES
Interesting method. Thanks!
This video cleared my delusionary mind. thank you
You're welcome. Since posting the video, I've learned a lot more about infusoria culture. Make sure you read through the comments because there's some good information there, as well as in the comments for the follow up video. ua-cam.com/video/UZQ6ZGZMO1k/v-deo.html
Thanks a lot sir very helpful from the first minute itself ....
And I appretiate your wonderful explaination.
You're welcome. So glad to hear it was helpful.
So true about the time line and the other videos online.
Just wondering why the bottles were sealed as most comments spoke of keeping it open.
Thanks for the info. My Dwarft Rainbow fry seem as small as infusoria!
The bottles were only very loosely capped and shaken once in a while for aeration. Your comment about Rainbow fry made me laugh. So true.
This made me laugh, and thanks so much. This was a good, quite good video, guy!
Glad you enjoyed it!
This is very helpful
Thanks I watched marks aquatics and tried to make it but I couldn't do it now watching this I will leave it longer
It might just need more time, but who knows? You do have to be patient and willing to experiment. I completely understand why some breeders just don't bother with infusoria. I find it very unpredictable, which is frustrating when I've got newborn fry depending on me for food. Recently I "restarted" a batch that wasn't developing by adding some liquid from a mature culture. My current batch isn't breaking any records either so I added a fresh plant cutting from my aquarium to re-introduce some micro organisms.
@@jaymiller3238 How about introducing bacteria stored in commercial bottles (Example: Seachem Stability, Sechem Prestine, etc.) to infusuria to develop its colany size. Is this idea practicable?
Bravo007 Hmm interesting idea. That would be a good thing to try.
Effective way would be putting dried plantain leaf piece directly into the tank until the water turns to light brown shade because of the Tanine from the plantain which is good for the fishes and to maintain water quality..after few days the infusoria will form without damaging the water quality (actually it stopped my fishes from dying and i don't know why).the fries can find infusoria around the plantain leaf.
(you can remove it after 1 -2 week when leaf becomes very thin)
Hey I have betta eggs in the nest rn..so I could just add dry banana leaves to the tank and infusoria would develop by the time the fry starts free swimming?? I do have other containers for infusoria as backup..
You did this the natural way (nothing wrong with that, but...) and that is why it took so long.
Boost the bacteria bloom with bread yeast.
Boost the green water with spirulina.
No need for disgusting decaying vegetables and the smell is bearable.
2 days to a week time and you will have a great culture.
try adding 1 or 2 tablespoon of fish pellets and store them in a dark place, or you can cover the culture container with black cloth or plastic, based on my experience infusoria will begin to appear on day 7 ,i never selaed my culture tank, i put insect net to cover the jar and tie them with rubber band to avoid mosquitos and other insect laying their eggs
Hey thanks for the suggestion. I'll give it a try.
Very helpful, thank you for documenting! Did you try using yeast at some point?
Yes. After all that drama, yeast turned out to be the method that works best for me. ua-cam.com/video/hw7Wc77jiSs/v-deo.html
Wow....thank you soooo much....learned a lot!!!😃👍🏻🐟
You're welcome! Make sure to check out my latest update on this topic, because I've learned so much more since making this video. @
Hey, thanks for this. Very helpful!!!! I need these critters for my beta fry.
Glad to hear it! Make sure to check out the updated video link to in the description. Good luck with your fry!
@@jaymiller3238 awesome thanks 👍
For what it's worth, you're the only one I've seen that caps the container. My cultures usually mature in a week to ten days but my containers are open and I stir the scum at the top. Did you try any in something other than capped bottles?
Hmm, never gave it a thought. What are you thinking, more oxygen? The caps are on very loosely by the way.
@@jaymiller3238 yeah that would be my idea... More air more aerobic bacteria.
@@jmboulware Worth a try. Thanks.
Exactly what I was thinking - with a few exceptions pretty much everything alive runs on oxygen and the more work you want something to do the more oxygen it needs. Oxygen tends to be THE limiting factor, so much so I wonder if simply having the water surface area of a large jar might make all the difference, compared to the surface area of a bottle. I've watched quite a few of the same videos and you seem to be putting a LOT of veggies in a relatively small volume of water. Watch Dave Ramsey's video where he's adding two tiny bits of dried turnip to a jar with a wide neck, and then not putting it in direct light. So you're asking the system to do a huge amount of work without abundant O2. Also, as John is referring to, if you have a thick scummy layer that's going to inhibit gaseous exchange too, so stirring it makes sense to me, just like having some surface ripple on an aquarium.
@@julian.morgan Thanks for the observations! I'll check out the Ramsey video. For my current culture, I used an uncapped bottle with 12 hours of aeration per day and 24 hours of incandescent light. Three weeks in, I have very green water but very few micro organisms visible under a microscope. Maybe I should try limiting the veggies and/or the light.
Thank you for answering a lot of my question. 👏🏾
Here's my experience, you may find it helpful. The organisms you are trying to raise, infusoria, are a collection of critters, not just one type. In order to breed and grow they need to eat, what they eat is bacteria. The bacteria can only grow if they also have nutrients to feed off. They will feed on any organic plant material which is why we put lettuce, broccoli, green beans, cabbage etc into the container. We boil them first in order to speed up their decomposition so that the bacteria have plenty of food.
The bacteria don't care what their source of nutrition is, lettuce, broccoli etc all work, the downside is that when these materials break down they absolutely stink - I think you may have briefly mentioned it.
It is over a decade since I used any of these vegetables as my initial food source, I now exclusively use banana peels and I don't bother to boil them either. The inside layer of the banana peel is already soft and squidgy before you even start - they are ready to break down right from the off. I have never found it takes more than a couple of days to get the thick bacterial bloom we are looking for.
The main advantage to this method is that there is virtually no smell - I keep my cultures on the window sill in my bedroom, I certainly would not do that with a rotten cabbage of broccoli smell permeating the room. I would not say there is no smell at all but any you do get is just faintly sweet and not unpleasant. Every culture I have done this way has been ready to harvest within 10 days and I've been doing it this way for over a decade.
Thanks! I'll definitely give that method a try. What signs to you use to determine the culture is ready to harvest? How long does the culture last, and how do you know when it's finished?
@@jaymiller3238 After the initial bacterial bloom the water will begin to clear down which is a sign that the infusoria is consuming the bacteria. I shine a light through the container and use a magnifying glass to confirm they are there. This starts around the 5 day mark and by day 10 it's usually swarming with them. I can feed every day for a couple of weeks at which point I tend to bin it and start again. I usually have more than one culture running at a time, as soon as I have a healthy number of critters on day 10 I start a second culture using a turkey baster full of the first culture to seed the second one. The second culture is ready to go well before the first culture is exhausted. I don't really know how long a culture would last but I guess there's no reason why you couldn't keep it going almost indefinitely as long as you keep feeding it; I find it easier to just get a second culture underway so that it is ready before the first culture is exhausted.
I have seen other people use rice or even yeast rather than banana peel - I've never tried those methods, I find the banana method so successful I see no reason to change it.
@@andystokes8702 the bacteria bloom is never the problem. it's the start of the infusoria culture that seems to be hard in some cases (here is well).
Give a try to this method may it help.
Use cabbage leafs also and stire the culture from second day. I got better results in short period of time. Hope it helps.
Thanks! Do you boil the cabbage first?
My friend you can create infusoria with in 12 hour from the culture setting time.for that you want to use green algae water and yeast
That's remarkable. Can you point me to some videos that demonstrate this approach?
Thanks for the learning
It goes faster with yeast. Aquarium water, some mess from filter and add little yeast. You will get it mature in 1-2days😉
Yeah, thanks. That's the method I've been using for the past few months. ua-cam.com/video/hw7Wc77jiSs/v-deo.html It does work like a charm.
Good informative video, Jay. Some observations I made which are different from some of the other videos I watched is that you used a soda bottle which has a very small opening instead of say, a mason jar. Also, the bio load you placed in there initially gave the bacteria a lot of work to do before the cooties can begin feeding on them. One video I watched showed the guy dropping in two cubes of dried turnip about the size of a pair of dice and he had his cooties ready in just over a week. So perhaps the small opening (minimal surface area for oxygen transfer) coupled with the heavy bio load might have delayed it a bit. Those are just my initial thoughts.
On another note, the Golden White Cloud tank looks great! Could you give us a rundown on what plants and equipment you used and where did you get your microscope? Thank you for a great video.
Thanks for the suggestions, Jay. After hearing that from a couple of viewers, I tried a batch with active aeration and a 12-hour photoperiod. That produced beautiful green water but no infusoria. I'd like to see the turnip video. My microscope is the AmScope M150C, purchased on Amazon.
@@jaymiller3238
Check out this video
ua-cam.com/video/M7Ht0eiXjnM/v-deo.html
So, unless water gets clear infusoria not developed, right?
People don’t know that ammonia while good for the bacteria, is not so good for the infusoria. You can take out some of the bacteria water and add fresh water to cut the ammonia level. This will speed up infusoria production. Also, you don’t need to start all over when making a new batch. Just seed new batch with the old batch.
Thanks for that suggestion. I never considered the ammonia factor but it makes sense.
Hi, I started my infusoria culture and it clouded up very quickly. In a couple of days, I used a baster to drop cloudy water into my Endlers livebearers tank. All the babies and the rest of the fish were very interested in the clouds and I thought I was done. I’ve put some of my culture into my other tanks and the fish seem delighted by it.
I’m starting to understand that the clouds are bacteria and not little beings that you can see. But the fish seem very happy. What is going on?? Is there a problem with feeding fish fry the cloudy water?
I doubt if feeding cloudy water is a problem, but as you say, that's probably just bacteria, not infusoria.
Dat is infusoria
The cloudy water is likely bacteria and infusoria. The livebearers are eating the infusoria and ignoring the bacteria.
Excellent video thanks Jay George in uk
Thanks for letting me know as I have recently started two jars and have been wondering when, and if in time, I will have ''cooties'' for my fry that are yet to hatch! I have parent Rice Fish. Love your sense of humour, too. Since it 'stinks' so much where on earth will I keep it during the winter months. Maybe they can withstand our cold English weather.
I've been getting some comments lately indicating that it shouldn't stink, that I'm overloading the culture with nutrients and not providing enough oxygen. Using a wider mouthed container has made a difference.
Great video, very informative indeed !!!
Bravo007 Thanks! I’m glad to hear it was helpful.
Thanks!
this is what called "content"
Uhm, is that a good thing or a bad thing?
@@jaymiller3238 it's a good thing haha. Becuase I've been searching a ton of videos about these and everyone is tellin' yadayadayada, and this one is very informative. And rn I'm worried that I might loose some fry from starving because I'm not seeing critters in my culture yet.
Great vid!!
Thanks! I gotta do an update. Tried a new approach that [spoiler alert] ultimately fizzled.
Very informative thank you 😊👍👍
You're welcome!
Great video Jay. I'm a novice but I'm curious, were there any air holes drilled in the bottlecaps or do you even need them? Going to take a stab at growing my own.
Sorry, just saw this question answered further down in the comments. Thanks
Thanks, Steven. To be honest, I almost feel like this video is misinformation, given all I've learned from the generous and helpful comments from viewers. I guess that's the nature of learning. I didn't drill holes in the bottle caps, just kept them very very loose, but yes, the culture does need oxygen.
@@jaymiller3238 Thanks Jay and good luck to you on future cultures
One thing you did not mention or maybe you didnt do is to also mix it lightly once in a while so to have oxygen infusion on water, just one of the methods i saw on youtube.
Yeah I just shook the bottles once a day. In a subsequent attempt, ua-cam.com/video/UZQ6ZGZMO1k/v-deo.html, I added 24-hour aeration but that only resulted in beautiful green water lol
Thank you for this. It helped a lot. Tc
Thank you so much I thought I was doing something wrong as nobody mentions how long or even if the culture would smell for, I am at the stage were the smell is getting the best of me. I have a very sensitive nose I can actually smell the difference in each stage. The first stage just stinks to the point you wonder if its worth it. Can you imagine when visitors come yo visit. I stopped people coming to my house. stage two it starts to smell different its a thickly in the throat its bordering on bearable week three still the same but the smell has a kind stinky sweetness to it haven't got to stage five you have made it easyier to go foreword I was feeling like I wanted to give up. Thank you for really telling us the plain truth I have to add why do people say I even read science papers the all say it will only smell for a couple of days ummm it stinks does it ever stop?
I've got to say, my most recent experience makes me think I actually know nothing about infusoria. Since posting this video I've never achieved the final stage with visible streaming clouds of cooties. Based on the advice of A Gamers Wife, I tried culturing my last batch under 24/7 light with aeration for 12 hours per day. Three weeks later, the water is clear with a greenish tint-and no micro organisms visible under a microscope. WTH do I know?!
@@jaymiller3238 I have to start all over again. I am doing an eco culture snails scuds paramecium and daphnia my culture is contaminated with cyclops i was wondering why my daphnia was dwindling. Its hard the smell is obnoxious to my nose no matter how much cing film i use lol
@@NessysSanctuary Gah! I hope I never have to deal with cyclops [knock on wood]. Hang in there. You never know what's going to happen when you try to manage Mother Nature.
@@jaymiller3238 Thanks lol funny thing the one with the cyclops is streaming bacteria the way they show on UA-cam, Yep mother Nature defiantly has a sense of humor lol
I know this is an old video so I'm not sure if you're still replying to comments on it. I was wondering how long a mature culture lasts for? Is there a way to keep it going longer? And does seeding a new culture with critters from an existing one help speed it up?
I was wondering how long a mature culture lasts for? Jay - It's hard to remember. Four to six weeks?
Is there a way to keep it going longer? Jay - Several commenters mentioned feeding the culture periodically.
And does seeding a new culture with critters from an existing one help speed it up? Jay - In my experience, yes.
Thanks. Only thing I'm left wondering about - is there any smell from this?
The method described in this video is very smelly. Perhaps you missed the ending. The method described in this video ua-cam.com/video/hw7Wc77jiSs/v-deo.html has some smell but not as bad.
Hey Jay, what can you say about green water (it turned green after few weeks of clean water with infusoria) ? Do you find infusoria there?
I'm not an expert, but my most recent attempt, with aeration and 24/7 light, turned into green water. There were a few infusoria present under a microscope but not many. They would have to be introduced to the culture of course.
so green water not good for culture infusoria because green water is chlorella, green water is good for culture Daphnia moina and Daphnia magna, its food for fray after 2 weeks, and also good for adult fish, specially betta and guppy.
Do we need to keep the bottle lid open or closed all the time? doesn't the culture need oxygen to grow bacteria?
Yes! The lid should always be loose so the culture can breathe. Some people recommend stirring the culture daily? to aerate the water.
2 to 3 days me
ok very interesting. i put some pond water in a glass with some moss and left it in my window and saw little things all over. ive been trying to identify them sense. seems i have daphnia and infusoria.
Sounds so simple. I should give that a try.
@@jaymiller3238 I guess unless the pond contained fish of course, but I find it hard to tell, I mean I once took some water from a pond thinking it had no fish and then weeks later saw a little boy fishing and he had caught a small rud.
Super 👌👌👌👏👍👍👍👍👍
I have silvertip tetra fry who will be free swimming in 2 days, and my 4 days old infusoria glass jar is still very cloudy. Gonna try making the ground up spirulina + flake food powder, and feed them the part that stays floating in the water.
I've heard a lot of successful breeders do that rather than messing about with infusoria. Let us know how you get along.
Have you ever tried keeping the culture outdoors? It sure does reek!
I could only do that during late spring through early fall since I live in Toronto. I actually don't mind the smell as long as it stays in the bottle lol. I do worry that one day I'll knock over a bottle and soak all the cushions on the window seat. Yikes!
Jay Miller I was going to do it in a more open container but now I’ve changed my mind to a soda bottle.
@@jaymiller3238 what’s wrong with Toronto?
great video. How long will a successful culture last? Any tips to keep it thriving? How do you avoid divorce when the wife has had enough of the smell? lol
Haha I don't have a wife so it's not my problem. Once the culture is ready, I feed about 1/4 cup twice a day, so a 2-litre bottle will last about 16 days. I don't try to keep it thriving. I don't know if that's possible. I just start a new culture every 2 weeks. It's an interesting question, though.
It probably took so long because you had the lids on and such a small opening. They need oxygen. You also need to stir it 3 times a day for aeration.
Yeah, I got that advice from several viewers so I tried a culture with 24/7 aeration but I just ended up with green water.
@@jaymiller3238 The only other factor I can think of is sun exposure. Perhaps not enough sunlight?
😆
use yeast instead of green leaf
Yeah, thanks. I eventually landed on that method. ua-cam.com/video/hw7Wc77jiSs/v-deo.html
You never consider to inoculate a fresh culture from a 'mature', to speed up maturation?
Oh yes, I did try that. I don't recall that it made a lot of difference. Then again, there are so many variables involved. Who knows what makes a difference and what doesn't? Some days I think I should take this video down because I still have so much to learn about infusoria. Like they say, we don't know what we don't know.
I wish I watched that video before I threw away my culture down the toilet earlier today...
Sorry to hear that. How old was the culture?
@@jaymiller3238 2 weeks
Happy Diwali ; totally agree with your remarks about time period this type of culture takes. can I have your email address to have your opinion about some other queries for culturing rotifiers/infusoria
This culture smell so good ya bad..??👍
Bad
I threw away since they were stink 😅 dang
You might have noticed some comments suggesting that, by capping the bottles even loosely, I wasn't providing enough aeration, hence the smell. Since making this video, I tried making a batch with 12 hours of aeration per day and 24/7 lighting. The water turned very green but I didn't get much in the way of living creatures. I still think I'm not seeding the cultures with a sufficient amount of microscopic critters.
But does it stink?
😜
Thanks for the learning