# Infusoria confusion



## JamesHockey (Nov 10, 2010)

All I can say is infusiria are a tiny animal thateat the GREEN WATER ( I think)


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## msjinkzd (May 12, 2007)

http://www.calgaryaquariumsociety.com/Articles/Infusoria_And_Paramecium_Cultures.html



> The term "infusoria" is often used in aquarium literature to include all forms of microscopic life (animal and vegetable). Technically, however, infusoria are single-celled animals (protozoans) belonging to the family Ciliata and are quite different than the organisms raised in either "green-water" (single-celled algae and Euglena) or rotifer culture (multicellular invertebrates of the Rotifera). Infusoria were first observed in 1763 by microscopic examination of water, in which hay had been previously soaked. Masters estimates that there are 2,000 to 3,000 different species of infusorian protozoa and describes the genera Paramecium, Bursaria, Blepharisma, Stylonychia, Spirostomum, Volvox, Stentor, Vorticella, and Epistylis in his book (i). However, I doubt that many aquarists will ever find a need to individually identify these microorganisms (unless we can persuade our BAP coordinator to give us points for raising microbes).
> 
> The importance of infusoria to the aquarium hobby is with their culture for use as fry food. Their small size, ranging from 25 mm to 300 mm (a mm = 1/1000 of a mm) makes them an ideal live food for young fry which have just consumed their yolk sac. For comparison, brine shrimp nauplii are around 400 mm to 500 mm in size and are so big that many fry can't consume them until at least a couple of weeks after hatching. Infusoria can be raised on quite a variety of foods. Originally hay was used, but almost any other source of vegetable matter, or even pablum, can be used. Basically, the food is briefly boiled (to help break down the tissue), cooled, placed in a large open-mouthed jar with water, and seeded with a starter culture. Masters provides half a dozen different recipes for culturing infusoria (i) in his book and similar, although less thorough, information can be found in other aquarium books, such as Andrews (iii), Scheurmann (iv), or Ramshorst (v).
> 
> Although infusoria are naturally abundant, collecting a suitable starter culture may require some work. When I first attempted my own culture, by letting a couple of lettuce leaves rot in a liter of water (iii), I believed that the culture would begin from microorganisms on either the leaves or introduced from the air. Although, there were certainly enough bacteria present to decompose the leaves, microscopic examination revealed very few protozoans and what I ended up feeding the fry was mostly water. This type of culture was very inefficient and the large amount of decaying vegetable matter was also unpleasant, and potentially harmful to the fry. It is probably much more efficient to begin an infusoria culture with a known source of material instead of relying on the chance introduction of some protozoans. A high population density of infusorians is required, especially when feeding large numbers of fry.


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## captmicha (Jul 12, 2009)

I looked under my dinky little microscope at 150x at my aged aquarium green water and my rotting vegetable matter water and there were many more little animals in the aged aquarium water and only a couple under the rotting vegetable matter water.


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## SOLAR TANHK (Jun 7, 2008)

let the rotting vege water stand for a few more days. Once the infusoria start to muitiply, the stinky water will clear. Then you can siphon the water to the breeding tank directly during feeding time. You can then top up the culture with your water change waste water-the dirtier the better!!!
If you shine a torch on 1 end of the culture, you should be able a mass of tiny mico oganism moving towards the light.
The idea of the rotting vege water is to culture these critters to feed the fry and not feed the fry with the rotting vege... : ))
Every now and then you can add in more vege matter to keep it going so that you dont have to go through the stinky process again. 
To speed things up, try first to crush,chop or\and boil the waste veges. With the culture already on going, the decaying(stinking time) can be reduce.


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## captmicha (Jul 12, 2009)

Thanks for clearing this up for me. I can't wait till it stops stinking. In the meantime, I had to put it outside on the porch.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

You can take a little of the stinky water and dilute it with aquarium water.


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## captmicha (Jul 12, 2009)

There's a whitish filmy membrane in some places, should I use a strainer to get rid of it?


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

don't worry about that. it's biofilm full of bacteria and protozoans. Poke it down so there's good O2 exchange.


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## captmicha (Jul 12, 2009)

My family must think I'm crazy(ier) because I'm leaving lots of buckets and jars of water around. 

I've let my primary water change bucket sit in my room for about a week and flashed light into it and saw little things so yay, infusoria! I looked at it @ 150X magnification and there's lots of little animals including some that eat others. This one culture has the most out of any of my other cultures and stinks the least. 

That may change because I sprinkled some crushed spirulina tabs and I'm going to boil some lettuce and pour it in. My peacock gudgeon fry will be free swimming soon so I need to take it up a notch and increase the infusoria population. I'm so paranoid that they're going to starve...


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