# I need infusoria for my zebra danio fry



## Cadiedid (Oct 26, 2011)

Can anyone suggest any source of live infusoria that I may be able to get my hands on immediately? I do not have time to grow a culture as I have unplanned babies and had been told they could eat newy hatched brine shrimp and have since found out that those are too small for danio fry this small. I am worried they are starving and that I will lose the whole bunch if I don't get them the proper food and fast, but I am coming up empty-handed in my search for someone with an active culture already going. 

If I got several bunches of anacharis from a pet store, would that likely harbor enough infusoria to hold my babies over while I grow a culture? Any other ideas where I could get them from? I have had suggestions to feed ground up hard-boiled egg yolk or Liquifry (which I can't find anyway) but several sources have listed these as being too big for their tiny mouths. Several reputable sites claim that there are no commercially available foods small enough for fry at this stage and that infusoria are the only option until they are a little bigger. :fish9:


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## Russell (Jun 20, 2011)

Found this thread http://www.aquariumforum.com/f86/making-infusoria-13306.html
It leads to this site Infusoria Culture
I accidentally ended up with hordes of Zebra Danio fry by saving the used water, including the gravel vacuum stuff, from my aquarium into a five gallon hex full of plants, mostly elodea. I had no filter going and the natural surface scum was avidly eaten by the fry--clearly it was a natural infusoria. So my suggestion is to vacuum your gravel into your fry tank and dump those plants in until get a culture going.
They did great, BTW, until I started putting the platy babies in the Hex5. Talk about gone in 60 seconds. I'll know better next time.


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## Cadiedid (Oct 26, 2011)

Russell-

Thanks so much. I'm reassured by your story of an unintentional infusoria culture because today I got to thinking about what exactly an infusoria culture is and why they happen and it dawned on me that I am constantly finding kids' sandbox buckets and juice cups and whatnot lying around in my back yard that my children have carelessly left behind. So, I went on a little hunt for yucky rainwater and found an empty baby yogurt container of all things (makes me sound like such a wonderful groundskeeper, huh?) with a bit of water, some bits of green stuff, and clearish water with tiny suspended particles in it. I crossed my fingers and dropped a few drops of the stuff in my tank and it did seem like the babies were interested in it! (Their mouths are too small to see if they are eating but it seemed like feeding behavior.) 

Next I ran to the pet store and bought several bunches of anacharis, cabomba, hornwort and frill and brought those home and chucked them in too. I figure the plants will be beneficial anyway, so we shall see.

I now have an infusoria culture started with a couple snails, some snail leavings, some crushed anacharis and some water from the yogurt container. 

BTW-Too bad about your danio fry. Don't you hate those moments when you just want to slap yourself on the forehead? Good deal for the platys, though!


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