Re: [GSAS-Member] food for baby koi

[Steev Ward <steevward@yahoo.com>]

Yes, I've noticed that there are fewer mosquitos these days. It's almost as if 
there is
a government conspiracy to cut down on mosquito populations. Oh, wait - there 
is. 

If you can't find mosquito eggs sometimes you can find bloodworm (midge) eggs. 
You can
just throw them in with the babies. I've noticed that some of my outdoor 
containers
don't get any mosquito larvae. Others, with something smelly in them like dead 
leaves
or grass, get a lot of egg rafts. Sometimes I through a bit of dirt in there 
too.

Baby brine shrimp are GREAT for baby koi. Ground up flakes or granuals are 
pretty good
if you use a high protein type and you clean up the mess afterwards. Other 
things I've
used are: microworms, walterworms, bosmina/chydoras (daphnia-like crustaceans 
that you
have to raise yourself), grindal worms (when they are old enough), powdered 
spiruluna
(works pretty well), powdered bloodworms (from the freeze-dried), powdered krill
(ground with a mortar and pestle - good food!), and bits of hard-boiled-egg 
yolks. 

Steev


--- Betty Goetz <haika@drizzle.com> wrote:

> I've been watching every day but I don't think that the smallest are prey
> yet to the biggest. The biggest one is probably the one catching the few
> mosquito larvae I find that are small enough for this tank. Otherwise, I
> think the feeding opportunities are pretty uniform. But I do need to get a
> 'sorting' tank set up for the biggest ones. I'm just starting to see some
> black mottling on some...just in the past couple days. I wish I could find
> more mosquito egg rafts to put in this tank! I'm going to try some frozen
> baby brine also.
> 
> I've been watching the color developing on my shubunkin fry also and just
> yesterday noticed spots where there might be orange eventually....the
> black mottling has been apparent for quite awhile. I don't know when these
> shubunkin fry hatched, as they were netted out of my great blue heron
> ravaged above ground ponds. The largest are an inch long now. I know with
> my 'regular' comets, I don't get orange until the next summer.
> 
> I wish I had lots of daphnia but this new place doesn't seem to 'grow'
> live food as well as my old place. I'm still experimenting with placement
> of my culture tubs. I'm not even getting many mosquito larvae!!!
> 
> Betty Goetz
> 
> > Yes, the growth rates are extremely variable. It is hard to know how much
> > of that is
> > due to individual genetic variation, but mostly it is a simple function of
> > food intake.
> > Because the fry are capable of eating an enormous amount, or of just
> > browsing on
> > detritus a small difference in the food uptake in a single day can result
> > in one fish
> > being able to eat a larger organism than another is able to on a
> > successive day. That
> > leads to a snowballing acceleration in growth for the biggest ones.
> >
> > When the size difference becomes great enough (like the 5x you mentioned)
> > the biggest
> > ones are able to EAT the smallest ones - resulting in another spike in
> > their growth
> > rate, because the Cannibals grow much faster than the fish eating just
> > flake food (more
> > protein). So ove time - depending on the food available - you can end up
> > with fewer
> > fish, consisting of a few "Lunkers" and a bunch of medium sized hangers
> > on. This
> > happens with many other species of fish as well, like salmon or trout in a
> > stream. I
> > prefer to separate out those "Cannibals" into a different container so
> > that the others
> > can survive, but that can be a lot of work if you try to keep it up very
> > long. Keeping
> > a bunch of live Daphnia in there seems to help to. When they get bigger
> > they are less
> > apt to eat each other.
> >
> > I need to go sort mine now come to think of it. AND I can look for
> > interesting colors
> > (although it has barely begun to show).
> >
> > Steev
> >
> >
> > --- Betty Goetz <haika@drizzle.com> wrote:
> >
> >> I've been surprised by how variable the growth rates are. Unless there
> >> are
> >> different hatch dates on the batch???? I've got one that's ~5x larger
> >> than
> >> the smallest fry in my inside tank. And I'm starting to see mottling on
> >> some where for the longest time there were just bright light gold. At
> >> least now I know most are large enough to take flake food which is a
> >> relief. I'm very low on live food. Where are all the mosquito larvae
> >> this
> >> year????
> >>
> >> Betty Goetz
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > 


      
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