Description
Small fish need small food, and raising fry often means having the right live food available at the right stage of development. The Freshwater Live Food Variety Pack – Fry and Micro Foods starts with 100+ Live Daphnia and pairs them with your choice of a second Aquatic Arts-bred live food, giving you two different feeding options in one pack.
Every pack includes 100+ Live Daphnia, plus your choice of Microworms, Whiteworms, Vinegar Eels, Banana Worms, or Walter Worms. Each live food differs in size, movement, and how it is presented to fish, allowing breeders and aquarists to choose a combination that better matches the fish they are feeding.
Every pack also includes a FREE 8 oz bag of Aquatic Arts Green Water Culture. Green water contains suspended microscopic algae and microorganisms that can be used as a food source when establishing or maintaining a Daphnia culture. This gives you the option of feeding the Daphnia directly, starting your own culture, or doing a little of both.
This pack is especially useful for fish breeders, fry, juveniles, nano fish, small-mouthed community fish, and aquarists who want to introduce more live-food variety. Not every food in the pack is appropriate for every fry or every fish, which is why understanding the differences between them is an important part of choosing your combination.
The Live Daphnia, Green Water Culture, and all five selectable live foods in this Variety Pack are Bred by Aquatic Arts.
What You Receive
Every Variety Pack includes:
100+ Live Daphnia – Bred by Aquatic Arts
FREE 8 oz Green Water Culture – Bred by Aquatic Arts
Plus your choice of one:
Microworms – 2 oz – Bred by Aquatic Arts
Whiteworms – 2 oz – Bred by Aquatic Arts
Vinegar Eels – 10 mL culture – Bred by Aquatic Arts
Banana Worms – 2 oz – Bred by Aquatic Arts
Walter Worms – 2 oz – Bred by Aquatic Arts
What We Love About This Live Food Variety Pack
100+ Live Daphnia: A generous portion for feeding your fish, starting a Daphnia culture, or doing a little of both.
Choose a Second Live Food: Pair your Daphnia with one of five cultures based on the size and life stage of the fish you are feeding.
Free Green Water Included: Every pack includes 8 oz of our Green Water Culture that can be used as a food source when establishing or maintaining Daphnia.
Bred by Aquatic Arts: The Daphnia, Green Water, and every selectable live food in the pack are cultured and produced by Aquatic Arts.
Why Live Daphnia?
Live Daphnia move through the water column, where their swimming behavior can trigger active feeding and hunting responses from many freshwater fish. Their movement makes them particularly interesting for fish that naturally pursue small aquatic organisms rather than waiting for food to settle.
Daphnia can be useful for many fry once the fish are large enough to consume the particular Daphnia being offered, as well as juveniles, nano fish, and appropriately sized adults. They should not automatically be considered a first food for every newly hatched fry because mouth size varies considerably among species.
Daphnia can also be maintained and cultured by the aquarist rather than treated only as a one-time feeding. That is one reason we include our Green Water Culture with every pack. Customers interested in maintaining their Daphnia can use the Green Water as a starting food source while establishing their culture.
Pairing Daphnia with a second live food gives the aquarist another feeding option with a different size, movement, and feeding behavior.
Which Second Live Food Should I Choose?
Microworms
Microworms are tiny nematodes widely used by fish breeders as live food for fry. Their small size makes them useful for many fry that are not yet capable of taking larger live foods.
Unlike Daphnia, Microworms do not remain actively swimming throughout the water column in the same way. This gives the two foods different feeding characteristics and makes the combination useful for aquarists raising fish at different stages or feeding species with different feeding behaviors.
Consider Daphnia + Microworms for: breeders, fry, small juveniles, and aquarists looking for two distinctly different small live foods.
Vinegar Eels
Vinegar Eels are extremely small nematodes maintained in a vinegar-based culture. Their tiny size and tendency to remain suspended in the water make them particularly useful for very small fry that feed within the water column.
They are harvested from their culture before being offered to fish; the vinegar culture medium itself should not be poured into the aquarium.
Consider Daphnia + Vinegar Eels for: very small fry and breeders who want live foods covering distinctly different food sizes and stages of development.
Banana Worms
Banana Worms are very small cultured nematodes related in use to Microworms. Their small size makes them another useful option for fry and very small fish capable of consuming them.
They provide breeders with another easily maintained live-food culture that can be harvested as needed.
Consider Daphnia + Banana Worms for: fry, small juveniles, nano fish, and breeders maintaining multiple live-food cultures.
Walter Worms
Walter Worms are another small cultured nematode used as live food for fry and small fish. Their size and culture method make them useful when an aquarist wants a renewable source of tiny moving food.
They can complement Daphnia by providing a much smaller food option for fish that are not yet ready for larger live foods.
Consider Daphnia + Walter Worms for: fry, small fish, and breeders looking to maintain a small live-food culture alongside Daphnia.
Whiteworms
Whiteworms are the outlier in this pack, and that can be exactly why you choose them.
They are substantially larger than Microworms, Banana Worms, Walter Worms, and Vinegar Eels. Whiteworms should therefore not be treated as a first food for tiny fry simply because they are included in a Fry and Micro Foods Variety Pack.
Instead, Whiteworms can give breeders a larger live-food option for appropriately sized juveniles, adult fish, or breeding stock while Daphnia cover smaller fish and different feeding situations.
Consider Daphnia + Whiteworms for: breeders feeding multiple life stages, fish rooms with different-sized fish, conditioning appropriately sized adults, or aquarists who want two substantially different live foods.
