We have been working on some BAP Projects lately, and after a number of false starts, finally are hopeful about this batch of Mikrogeophagus Ramirezi.
Here's a brief video showing a bit of the daily care required to make it through the first several weeks:
Okey dokey. I'll aim to put some in for the November auction. The only reason I haven't before is because these 'pure' cultures invariably become contaminated by other creatures over time if you're not raising them under laboratory conditions. Every 6-12 months, one or more of the cultures crashes because something with a bigger mouth got in there and ate 'em all up. If this happens, I dump everything into a bucket with leaves, bark, and java moss to make a 'high-octane infusoria blend' and feed that to fry. In the meantime, I sterilize everything and start over with new cultures which take a few weeks to get established. The cultures I have now are relatively new and going strong.
Put some paramecium in the auctions!
Fantastic! Your persistence is admirable. I learn a lot from watching your experiments.
Like you, I'm also working with a number of species that have really small fry. Paramecium cultures sourced from Carolina Biological Supply work very well for me. They are kept in 2 liter bottles with gentle air and fed 1 or 2 boiled wheat berries every few days. The wheat berries are boiled for 10 minutes to kill impurities and soften the berries so that bacteria grow on them which in turn feed the paramecium. I also keep rotifer, euglena, and blepharisma cultures, but paramecium is definitely the favorite of fry. They have to hunt the paramecium unlike rotifers and BBS which just sit there waiting to be eaten. It's really fun to watch fry develop hunting strategies for the paramecium. It keeps them (and me) occupied for hours.
Awesome! They look great! Good luck!