[Zbrafish] Feeding C. elegans to Zebrafish?

Hi Shizuka,

Like David has said microwrms, Walter worms, and
vinegar eels are frequently used by hobbyists.
My understanding is they are in different but
related genera.
I have used both microworms and vinegar eels, to
feed larval and small juvenile Zfish.
Larger fish will also eat them but they will not
be getting as great a nutritional component per
bite as they would with larger foods.

Before using microworms and vinegar eels, I tried
growing some C.elegans I obtained from a lab. I
did not have the methods to grow the C. elegans
in sufficient quantities to be useful, but if you
are able to get sufficient quantities of C.
elegans I would expect them to work as well as
the microworms. The microworms and vinegar eels
can be cultured and collected in gram quantities.
I suspect that there are ways to do this with
C.elegans that I am not aware of. Large scale
microworm culturing methods might work with C.
elegans. Here is a link to a method that has work
well for me:
[Only registered users see links. ]

I like the vinegar eels better than the
microworms because they are aquatic animals
(unlike the microworms). They would swim up in
the water column, making them a more appealing
prey item and they would stay alive for a week.
The microworms would squirm around on the tank
bottom and die in a few hours.

You might be able to make a floating mesh worm
feeder, from which the worms would slowly work
their way out of and fall to the bottom,
presenting themselves as a more obvious prey item
in the process.


Hello Shizuka

Aquarium hobbyists use microworms, Walter worms and vinegar eels as live
food for feeding fry. I would assume C elegans would be very similar to
these nematodes as food item.

Best Fishes
David Lains <}}}><
Aquaculturist, Research Assistant
Zebrafish International Resource Center
5274 University of Oregon
Eugene, Or 97403
Email: [Only registered users see links. ]
pH: (541) 346-6028 ext. 18
fax: (541) 346-6151

-----Original Message-----
From: [Only registered users see links. ]
[mailto:[Only registered users see links. ].indiana.edu] On Behalf Of
[Only registered users see links. ]
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2008 8:35 PM
To: [Only registered users see links. ]
Subject: [Zbrafish] Feeding C. elegans to Zebrafish?

Dear All:

Hello. I have a question concerning food for zebrafish. For an
experimental purpose, I would like to feed c. elegans to zebrafish.

Do any of you have feeded c. elegans to your fish?

Any comments are welcome.

Thank you very much for your help in advance.

Shizuka
--

Bill

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
. , . .·´¯`·.. ><)))º>

Bill Trevarrow
Institute of Neuroscience
University of Oregon 1254
Eugene, OR 97403-1254
Off. Tel: (541) 346-4598
Cell: (541) 844-9054
Fax: (541) 346-4548
e-mail: [Only registered users see links. ]

Thank you very much for all of your comments. I will try to feed C.
elegans to zebrafish to see if they eat them or not.

Just FYI,

You can grow C. elegans in spinning flask culture to obtain large
amounts of them. I haven't don it myself in a very long time, but I am
sure the C. elegans most recent wormbook or their website would have
protocols.

Becky

---------------------------------------------------
Rebecca D. Burdine, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Molecular Biology
Princeton University
Washington Road Mof 433
Princeton, NJ 08544

Phone: (609) 258-7515
Fax: (609) 258-1343
Email: [Only registered users see links. ]
Admin Assistant: Cathy Falk (609) 258-1604