PlanetCatfish.com

hi,
i was wondering if any people out there culture and/or feed live gammarus to their fish? and if so have you had any parasite problems with them? i was considering starting a culture so i could feed some to my plecs but have heard of problems with parasites when feeding gammarus and the like from a few aquarists i have chatted with.

Cultured Gammarids would be no problem, wild collected ones are known for carrying the intermediate stages of acanthocephalan (thorny-headed worms) which are fish parasites. Once you got to the first cultured generation there would no issue with this.

so if i only feed gammarus that have been hatched from the culture and not the initial ones (starters) then i shouldn't have any problems with parasites?

I feed them dry (they're sold as "turtle-food")
or from the fridge; my fish love them, and I never had trouble with them.

but those are guaranteed without diseases; I've no experience with live ones.
this species is -almost- extinct over here (or very very rare), it's an indicator for clean water.

thanks for the info. i got a reply from a suplier of liver gammarus and they said they culture theirs in tanks indoors and not outside in ponds. i think i'll order some and starta culture and then trying the subsequent generation of gammarus to try to prevent parasites.

What do you want to feed them to?
Amphipods can be difficult for some fish to catch and eat.
Good for exercise though!
Pete

i was going to try them with my L91 and i was thinking of getting some pseudacanthicus for my birthday present to myself and figured i try it with them to. if they are to fast to catch/eat i suppose i could always freeze them (to kill) before giving them to the fish. do you think L91 could chase em down?

LOL!

no, they're waaayyyyy too fast for Loricariids!
if you have Pimelodus, Pimelodella or Synodontis or nocturnal chasers like Tatia, Amphilius and similar fish; they're great.
these things are really fast. They're also very good food for speedy non catfish. but a Pleco won't be fast enough, no way.

dead ones however are extremely good food for many Plecs; their skin is tough and in all it's a food with a high % of "fiber".
I even dare to feed dried or thawed gammarus to Tropheus with no ill effects whatsoever because of this.

As a matter of interest, I was told many years ago that gammarus are extremely handy for hatching eggs !!

Basically they are reputed to consume fungus preventing eggs from being overwhelmed by it. At the same time they don't harm the eggs.

Personally I have never tried it, but maybe someone here has ?

i thought i had read some where about feeding plecs live gammarus, i must of imagined it. either way it doesn't seem like much of a hassle to freeze them first sothats the rought i'll go.

I harvest them off of my pond's filter. Can't say the plecos eat them, but Tanganyikan cichlids luv 'em. Whatever isn't eaten I usually find the next day munching on the detritus of my filter pads. They're tough little buggers!

J