I've noticed that julisia are really fond of flakes. We use mostly live and frozen foods, but these topminnows aren't bashful about taking flakes or other dry foods.
J.R.
>
> From: "Bruce Stallsmith" <fundulus_at_hotmail.com>
> Date: 2002/01/12 Sat PM 07:45:43 EST
> To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
> Subject: NANFA-- A Fundulus observation
>
> I've been keeping a variety of Fundulus species over the past two years and
> now I realize that there's some pattern to their feeding habits in
> captivity. There's a big difference between studfishes (northern and
> southern, catenatus and stellifer respectively) on one hand and topminnows
> on the other (notti, notatus, olivaceus, chrysotus). The central difference
> is acceptance of flake foods: the studfishes won't, and the topminnows will.
> I've been growing out a group of catenatus from the Paint Rock River, AL,
> system on a diet of chopped earthworms and blackworms for about a year now,
> and the original two look great; some more recent additions are still coming
> up to snuff. A group of stellifer from Raccoon Creek, GA, adults and YOY,
> are starting to bulk up on the same diet after several months.
>
> I give the live foods to the topminnows too, but they don't visibly lose
> weight if they're only on flakefood for a week.
>
> This observation was largely inspired by talking to Charlie Grimes about
> keeping and conditioning rainbow shiners, Notropis chrosomus. They also are
> happy to take flakefood, but mine look much better after sustained feedings
> of various worms and bugs (it's a greenhouse, I got bugs...). Charlie's
> rainbows, from the same location in Collinsville, AL, didn't look nearly as
> colorful on a flake-only diet.
>
> None of this is new, that natives will do better with more live foods. But
> it's easy to fall into a rut and let things slide from day to day, I know I
> do!
>
> --Bruce Stallsmith
> Huntsville, AL, US of A
>
>
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