Copepods – The Best Food Source for all Ornamental Larval Fish

It is well known that when commercial ornamental fish produce larvae, they need some kind of nutritious food source to keep them stable and growing healthy and strong.

So, what is usually fed to ornamental fish larvae?

For many years, Rotifers were the food source chosen for this job. Rotifers are nutritious enough to keep most larvae alive, however, new studies have demonstrated there is a better option…copepods.

Copepods, which come in a variety of species are actually the wild feed of fish larvae, and therefore, should also be the food source for ornamental larval fish. The nutritional requirements of marine fish larvae appear to be better fulfilled by copepods.

Fun fact! … Rotifers are even fed diets that alter their body composition to better imitate copepods! This is so the larval fish can have greater success at surviving, and it does work to a certain extent.

Despite this, fish larvae that are fed copepods have a much higher growth rate and survival rate than rotifer-fed larvae!

How Does Aquatic Live Food Improve this Situation?

Aquatic Live Food, Australia’s first and only premium live food supplier now supplies the widest range of single species copepods anywhere in the world! With 7 individual single strains of marine copepods AND some of the only Freshwater Copepods in the world available, professionals, researchers, and aquaria hobbyists have the chance to breed their fish at a higher level.

This exceptional wide range of well feed copepods provides breeders with the best high-quality food for newly hatched fry anywhere in the world. The captive breed fish industry in Australia has never had such an opportunity to try and breed many of the wild-caught fish at home. Why not make your mark in the industry? Everyone who has access to Aquatic Live Food products now has the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities to culture ornamental fish to the highest quality.

Now with access to the right type of food, you can watch, study and learn what’s needed to captive breed any aquarium fish you desire. Aquatic Live Food has been successful in large-scale culturing many species both freshwater marine and brackish water.

We are always working with researchers and others to provide sustainable live feeds to enable all to try breeding ornamental fish in captivity. We spend lots of time both in the wild and in the lab trying to get the environment right to enable captive breeding of live feeds.

For any further information and to get started with us at Aquatic Live Food, please visit our website or contact us via email – sales@aquaticlivefood.com.au

References

1. doi:10.1016/j.aquaculture.2010.09.007