In competition breeding, the right “fuel” takes on an even greater meaning. With a we-are-what-we-eat philosophy for a Holy Grail, the aquarist feels a sense of accomplishment knowing they have fed the best to their stock available. The pleasure an aquarist derives from seeing his or her fish in a feeding frenzy over newly hatched baby brine shrimp is only equaled by the sight of those bulging red bellies in the fry. Perhaps no other aspect of tropical fish husbandry evokes as much passion as that of what one shall feed. Known as a micro-tubifex, or Microfex, this little aquatic oligochaete has been known to science since it was named Dero digitata in 1773 by Muller. Also in the new millennium, a small relative of the tubifex worm began to see use as a live fish food.
In February of 2003, with funding of $100,000, Hawaii’s freshwater ornamental fish industry sought to find “alternative food organisms that could replace brine shrimp in the larval and nursery stages, in light of increasing prices and variation in availability of brine shrimp cysts.” They used swordtails, a livebearing relative of the guppy, and found that a small species of daphnia called Moina, Moina micrura, fit the bill.
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