Re: NANFA-- OT: Aquatic insects and clam shrimp

R. W. Wolff (choupiqu-in-wctc.net)
Tue, 25 May 2004 22:22:52 -0500

> . If anyone
> has tried to keep this unusual animal, I would like to hear about your
> experiences.

I have tried several. Indoors in tubs, aquariums etc they seem to always
fail. But, I have had luck outside with fairy shrimp , clam shrimp , and
other larger than daphnia "micro crustaceans" or whatever. A pool or some
sort, its not important. Buried in the ground in the shade. The water should
be like the water they came from, mine being swamp water that is tannic. The
first year might be dismal. Leave all the leaves and stuff in there until
next spring. Then net them out early, depends where you are that that will
be. Leave some gunk on the bottom, along with a scattering of sand. Some
weeds are fine, but not too many or you cannot see these things. I used
larger pools, 180 gallon preformed and the 6 foot kiddy pools. They both
worked. A hunk of driftwood is nice too. The clam shrimp and fairy shrimp
came back year after year, until I could not stand having a body of water
that big in the yard without fish in it, and they became food. It was pretty
much as simple as that. Build a replica of where they live. The eggs survive
freezing obviously. For some reason , scooping out the debri in the spring
doesn't eliminate all of the eggs. As in the wild, they seem to dwindle and
disappear by atleast mid June.

Other cool things like varvox show up too. A number of "freshwater jelly
fish" and sponges came along too. They return regardless of fish, since the
fish don't seem to feed on them. Well, to clarify, varvox is great fish
food, I meant the jellys and sponges.

Ray
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association"
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association
/ nanfa-in-aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request-in-aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
/ nanfa-digest-request-in-aquaria.net instead.
/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org