Hi all,
Does anyone else use shrimp to clean eggs I would like to know as i've never heard of this before?
I originally got the idea from here:
http://www.aka.org/aka/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?viewmode=compact&type=&topic_id=783&forum=1 The Apisto, Plec and Cory breeder Larry Waybright "Apistomaster" is one poster on this thread.
I'd used
Asellus (Water Louse) before, and this is a very old idea, and has a real scientific reference. [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asellus_aquaticus"]Asellus aquaticus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@/wiki/File:Asellus_aquaticus.jpg" class="image"><img alt="" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Asellus_aquaticus.jpg/220px-Asellus_aquaticus.jpg"@@AMEPARAM@@commons/thumb/b/b0/Asellus_aquaticus.jpg/220px-Asellus_aquaticus.jpg[/ame]
Oseid, D. (1977)
"Control of Fungus Growth on Fish Eggs by
Asellus militaris and
Gammarus pseudolimnaeus".
Transactions of the American Fisheries Society"
106 pp. 192-195. The species investigated was the American Walleye, so basically a big perch (or Zander).
"
....Egg mortality was 100% where fungus was not controlled. Both Asellus and Gammarus eliminated fungus-related mortality. Gammarus caused about 15% mortality for both eggs and fry. Asellus did not cause mortality for either stage."
The other invertebrate I've used is MTS (Malaysian Trumpet Snail), Ingo Seidel mentions them for egg cleaning in the "Back to Nature guide to L....".
cheers Darrel