ciliates for larval feeding

[ohad shimon]

Hello
My name is Ohad, and i am part of a team that cultures ciliated protozoa (Conc. of 10k for ml) for fish larvae feeding. our main focus was food fish, such as groupers and bluefin tuna. Recently we decided to test our product on ornamental fish larvae.
My questions to you, who know this world better then me.
What fishes are good to start with (with problems in the larval stage) ?
Do you think larval feeding is a major obsticale in culturing ornamental fishes ?

Best regards
Ohad

[billsreef]

My reply to the other post :)

Hi Ohad,

Yes, larval feeding is the stumbling block in a number of ornamental marine finfish species. I'd probably start looking at Centropyge species. High market demand, easy enough to breed, very limited success, and larval feeding seems to be the bottle neck. Simularly some of the basslets like the Swiss Guard, and also a number of wrasses would be good candidates.

[breederforlife]

+1 with billsreef

[reefwiser]

Small Larval food is the problem. An having enough to feed. Larval marine fish have really small mouth's. Most hobbyist breeders do not have access to fresh plankton to rely on feeding their larval fish. This is the nut that needs to be cracked.

[GreshamH]

Small Larval food is the problem. An having enough to feed. Larval marine fish have really small mouth's. Most hobbyist breeders do not have access to fresh plankton to rely on feeding their larval fish. This is the nut that needs to be cracked.

He has a small feed for larval fish though ;) he needs the larvae to feed.

[fla2341]

I agree will billsreef try Centropyge species.

IIRC the following have, at some time, added ciliates to larval rearing intentionally or not.

Luis AM
CaptCrash
Paka
Racerw

The Rising Tide blog also has some success/information http://risingtideconservation.blogspot.com/