THE SEVENTH DAY - ALL YOU CAN EAT BUFFET

I have been running brine shrimp culture for a couple of days now, starting a new batch every morning. I feed the fry a couple of times a day and since the baby brine shrimp is a live culture, the fry can eat all they want and can, and the food is always there. Brine shrimp will stay alive in fresh water for up to five hours.

Baby brine shrimp nutritional analysis (according to San Francisco Bay Brand, Inc.) - crude protein - min 55%, crude fat - min 18.3%, crude fiber - max 19%, beta carotene (hence the orange color), lipids, essential unsaturated fatty acids.

In addition, I started to add some algae from the walls of the main pond. The suspension of live brine shrimp, green algae and diatoms should give enough nutrition for rapidly developing ranchu.

Brine shrimp (Artemia salina): left - immature stage (nauplii), right - 24 hr old
Photo from Virginia Cooperative Extension website   

Ranchu fry bellies filled with orange brine shrimp nauplii

Not so pretty algae film on the pond's wall, but oh so tasty!

THE SIXTH DAY OF MIRACLE - BREAKING FREE

Some of the ranchu fry are starting to swim and are buoyant on their 6th day and this means they are hungry and are looking for food. For at last a month they will be eating daily hatched brine shrimp as their main diet. I will be also giving the fry some algae scraped from the main pond walls. At this time, their growth rate is enormous, as well as their appetite. More and more fry become free swimming and spending less time attached to the bottom and the sides of the tub.

The nursery tub equipped with the heater, air stone and adjusted water flow

RANCHU FRY FOOD. THINKING AHEAD

I have been preparing for baby ranchu coming. Whether I am successful or not to hatch them this time, I have prepared some special foods for their first stages of development, in addition to frozen bloodworm and brine shrimp, and pellets that I already have for when the baby ranchu grow up a little.

From Brine Shrimp Direct I got San Francisco Strain Brine Shrimp Eggs for a smaller sized nauplii (crustacean larvae). Yes, I am going to hatch live brine shrimp to feed ranchu fry. The seller have included a sample of BSD Freshwater Slow Sinking Pellet, 0.6 mm (protein min 50%, lipids min 8%, fiber max 4%, ash max 12%, astaxanthin 80ppm, moisture max 8%), which I will try at a later time, while getting ranchu used to a pellet food.

From Kens Fish I ordered Ken's Premium Golden Pearls, 5-50 microns (protein min 60%, lipids min 8%, ash max 15%, vitamins: C 200 ppm, E 400 ppm, astaxanthin 500 ppm, moisture (max) 8%). Rob Crosby (Virginia Ranchu on GoldFish Keepers website) recommended them as an occasional substitute, when brine shrimp hatching are delayed.

I have also been cultivating Wolffia, as a very nutritious supplement for ranchu fry. Read about it in my previous post "Wolffia - Super Plant, Super Food"

1 - San Francisco Strain Brine Shrimp Eggs; 2 - BSD Freshwater Slow Sinking Pellet; 3 - Ken's Premium Golden Pearls