soup anyone?

[guppymax]

I just set up my first African cichlid tank with Melanochromis auratus. I seem to be plagued with duckweed and little snails so I threw some duckweed complete with snails in there and said here eat that. The fish seem to stay on the bottom and the duckweed stays on the top. So how can I make that sink to the bottom where they are? A mortar and pestle approach did not work so I liquefied the duckweed/snail soup in the blender. Did I mention how lucky I am to have a woman that can put up with me and my silly iedas? Duckweed soup sure does make water green. So I poured some in a BBS net and rinsed out the color. Sure enough the pulp that was left in the net sank to the bottom. The guppy that normally fears for her life near the top left over from cycling the tank came down and ate a lot but the Melanochromis auratus were not interested.

I usually feed half my BBS to the fish and replace that half of the water and let the other half of the BBS grow out another day. I enrich them with my secret concoction. Today I took that water and rinsed the color from the duckweed soup into the hatchery for the BBS to eat. Then I rinsed the pulp some more with fresh water to feed to the cory catfish. They are one per tank with the guppies now to condition them for breeding? Anyway they were only slightly interested but the guppies ate a whole lot. A lot of pulp is missing today in the Melanochromis auratus tank.

Here are some links to try to justify my behavior:

http://www.mobot.org/jwcross/duckweed/feed-supplement.htm

http://www.cipav.org.co/lrrd/lrrd7/1/3.htm

http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Links/My_Links_Pages/duckweed_01.html

http://www.p2pays.org/ref/09/08875.htm

http://www.geocities.com/landesman.geo/SDabstract4.htm

max

[semper]

Re: soup anyone?

very interesting

[Adiemus]

Re: soup anyone?

max, you are out of control! :)

[guppymax]

Re: soup anyone?

I know but its fun to be omnipotent. The Melanochromis auratus are devouring the soup now.

max

[guppymax]

Re: soup anyone?

The Melanochromis auratus learned that the soup comes from the top so they eat it on the way down now and they are starting to eat whole floating duckweed plants.

max

[PhishPhreek]

Re: soup anyone?

Yes, I too have a duckweed problem.......
I used to have a giant gourami that loved it but he got too big.

The soup sounds like a great way to make green water for my daphnia cultures.   might even make a good fry food

Thanks

[charliefoxtrot]

Re: soup anyone?

I can already see this bunch is going to be a little more out there.  :)

Never understood why duckweed is such a problem as long as you got the right filter.  I've got a couple of tanks covered in it and I think it's cool.

[PhishPhreek]

Re: soup anyone?

First I had java moss - great for raising fry
then I got crystalwart - beautiful, the fry like it and the bigger fish love it but it killed off the java moss
then the duckweed invaded -  it killed off the crystalwart and leaves the tank dark and barron....
And then I discovered that Harvey likes to eat duckweed...........
now I have java moss again.

[PhishPhreek]

Re: soup anyone?

Has anyone tried raising daphnia on puree of duckweed ?

[Spot86t]

Re: soup anyone?

And then I discovered that Harvey likes to eat duckweed..........

Who is Harvey?  Or rather, what kinda fish is he?

[PhishPhreek]

Re: soup anyone?

Harvey is an albino Giant Gourami.   I got him in '99  when he was about 3".  He ate goldies at that time.  At 5" he moved on to goldfish.   At 8" he lost interest in live food and I would feed him half a head of leatus or cabbage twice a week. At 12", I discovered he would eat the floating plants that were trying to take over my other tanks.  So I would scoop large quanaties of crystalwort and duckweed complete with guppies, platties and whatever else was in the plants when I scooped.   The little fish did quite well in Harvey's 140g as he would not bother to chase them but any of them that hid in the crystalwort or duckweed that he had chosen to snack on became a high proteen additive.   When I moved to Texas City in 2005, I had no room for the 140, so 24"Harvy & tank went to live with a friend.  The tank is the focal point of the living room and 32" Harvey spends his days watching soaps.