GREEN WATER
JR Baker

Green water is actually water with lots of little tiny green plants growing in it. These plants (micro organisms) are great food for other small things. Very small fish fry as well your daphnia culture and other homegrown fish foods thrive on green water. These microorganisms are similar in size to infusorians and yeast. If you have access to a microscope, check them out….. These little plants need water, light and fertilizer. Place your green water starter in a clear container with aged water that has had the chlorine and other harmful chemicals removed. Place the container in a window where it will get plenty of sunlight. As needed (twice a week), siphon off a third of your green water culture and replace it with dirty water siphoned from the bottom of your fish tank. The water removed from the bottom of fish tanks is heavy with fish wastes and as such provides a good fertilizer to grow the tiny green plants. If you don't have wastewater from cleaning fish tanks, you may substitute aged water with just a bit of aquatic or non-aquatic plant fertilizer. So the cycle is complete. The fish eat and make waste. The waste decomposes and fertilizes the microorganisms. The daphnia eat the green water and in turn become food for the fish.


How to have fun and grow Infusoria
JR Baker

First buy or scrounge
1 turkey baster (super large eyedropper)
1 can chunky fruit cocktail
1 gallon of cheap red wine (in a clear or light green bottle)
1 funnel with a large neck (small enough to fit in the bottle)
1 punch bowl
1 saucepan
1 food processor or mixer.
A large block of ice

First add the ice, fruit cocktail and red wine to the punch bowl and set aside.
Soak the wine bottle in hot water.
Hunt in your refrigerator for old green vegetables past their prime, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, lettuce, etc.
Boil the old vegetables in de-chlorinated water in a medium saucepan until sterile.
Puree the vegetables in a food processor (chop small enough to go through the funnel) and allow to cool.
Clean the labels of off the large (gallon) wine bottle, and rinse with hot water (sterilize).
Pour your veggie soup mixture through the funnel into the clean wine bottle.
Fill the wine bottle with de-chlorinated water but leave a 2" space below the neck.
After the mix is room temp, add the squeezing from a dirty sponge filter that is currently in use (infusorians starter culture).
Cover the jug with a piece of cloth and a twist tie or rubber band and place the wine jug out of the way.
Pat yourself on the back and drink the wine punch (Sangria).
The veggie mix will float for 3 days and then sink, leaving a cloudy liquid (infusorians).
Suck the infusorians out of the bottle with the turkey baster and add to your fry tank as needed.
If the tank is still cloudy from the last feeding, do not add any more!
When the jug starts to turn clear, it's time to make a new batch. (new bottle of wine optional)


MICROWORMS
NEMATODES
JR Baker

Microworms are slightly smaller that BBS and the perfect food of baby bettas their first two weeks. For those of you who have tanks with fry of mixed sizes, continue to feed microworms for the smaller fry. And you can always feed microworms when your bbs has a bad hatch.

To grow microworms, you need 4 things. You need a sealed container to keep the critters in. You need a culture, active yeast and you need a start of Microworms.

Any plastic container with a snap on lid will do. I have used containers from yogurt cups to butter tubs. Use what is available and as you gain experience you will know what size fits your needs better. Before you start, sterilize your container and if you do not plan to access the container every day, punch a few small holes in the lid with an ice pick for air.

Many different culture mediums are being used and what works best for your friends, may not work best for you. Try these until you find one you like Prepared mash potato flakes mixed with water
Oatmeal and milk
Cornmeal mixed with water
Instant rice
Baby cereal

Mix your culture; place a half-inch in the bottom of your container (The microworms live on the surface and any extra depth serves no purpose) cover with the lid to keep the flys out and let it cool to room temp. (fly larva make good betta snacks but mess up your culture).

After the culture has cooled off, remove the lid and stir in about 1/2 tsp active yeast and sprinkle a little extra on the surface.

Add microworms to your culture and replace the lid. Within days you will see a sea of shimmering glistening fluid-like surface in the light. That glistening is the worms wiggling

There are many ways to harvest microworms but I use an old watercolor paint brush (bend the ferule - little metal head that holds the bristles - to a 45 degree angle), you get a fan shape, which works great to scrape them off the side of the container. Then swish the brush in the tank to feed the fry

Giant Russian Daphnia JR Baker

One of the most popular live food for Bettas is Daphnia. They are small freshwater crustaceans. Giant Russian Daphnia are the largest of the daphnia and can reach a size of 1/4 of an inch in diameter.
The daphnia has both sexual and asexual phases. Under optimum conditions all daphnia in the colony are female and may produce more than 100 young females per brood but the average brood size is 13. A female may have as many as 25 broods in its lifetime, but the average is about 6. The female will start to reproduce at about 4 days old repeating every 3 days. A rough calculation shows they can double every 24 hours
Two or three times a week remove 10% of the water in your Daphnia tank filter through a net and feed the daphnia to your Bettas. Refill the tank (use green water if you have it). If the water quality is poor, Daphnia will produce male children and when they mature, the adult females will produce only eggs which drop to the bottom and wait for next spring to hatch.
Daphnia are heavy filter feeders and eat a wide variety of tiny organisms such as bacteria, Euglena, protozoa, yeast as well as powdered egg yoke and other particles of appropriate size. Add Hermit Crab food as a source of calcium to your culture (in order to grow their exoskeletons Gut-loading is a technique where one feeds the daphnia a substance that one wants the fish to receive. Go to toysRus (high turnouver and freshest source) and buy water soluble baby vitamins. Use some papreaka from your spice rack. There are lots of good things available. The Daphnia are fully capable of metabolizing spirulina, marigold petals, carrot oils and other carotenoid rich foods into their own bodies so that the Daphnia become color foods to improve your Bettas appearance!

Remember the saying, "you are what you eat". It's especially true for your fish.

Daphnia gravitate towards the light, so keep a low wattage bulb on at night.

These giant daphnia cannot survive outside in our local summer heat so be sure to keep some in the A/C to start over next fall.

There is no problem with providing too much live green algae but daphnia require lots of oxygen and some foods will foul or useup the oxygen in the water. Avoid using an air stone as the tiny air bubbles can be a problem for the daphnia. A small fountain pump with a water spray is better than an airstone.


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