>Hi all,
> just wondering and thinking. I was told that the spirulina is high
>in the compounds known to be used by fish to produce, green, blue, and
>maybe yellow pigmentation. Most rainbows, killies,etc won't eat
>spirulaina. I was wondering if it was possible to feed the spiruulina to
>my culture of grindal worms and then feed the grindals to my fish to get
>them the benefits of spirulina. Sort of like gut loading crickets or other
>feeders (i.e. fish, roaches, etc) with minerals, or other nutrients, etc.
>
>Any ideas or suggestions? simmilarly will it work with other live foods?
>
>I am wondering this because I have noticed that fish grown outside in
>natural sunlight seem to develop better color than those grown indoors. I
>figured there are a certain ammount of crustaceans, rotifers, etc. living
>on the naturally produced alage and transfering the necessary pigment
>precursors to the fish....
When I was breeding barramundi and Australian bass I used rotifers and
artemia that were "boosted" with a supplement to increase their fatty acid
content. The barra and bass fry grew much better on boosted foods.
Certainly rainbowfish grow, reproduce and have better colours when they
receive copepods and cladocerans (daphnia) that have been raised in algal
cultures.
I think boosting your grindal worms is worth a try.
Rob Wager