What do you guys feed your n campanulatas?

[Flip_Side_the_Pint]

hey guys and gals,
it seems my camps have a very low tolerence to being fed. For emaple, with my truncata even its pitchers only bing about 4.5" I can stuff them full of what ever and it will digest it, (haven't tried iron ore yet thought) and it's pitcher will not die or rot. Now with my campanulata, the complete difference and I understand why. But I'm curious to see as to what you guys feed them. So far I've tried a very smal meal work, nope pitcher turns black. I've tried a few other small things that work, Like ants foreample work really good. Its just laying out a trap for them scraping with credit card the placing them in a test tube and then letting them chill in the frige for awhile so that they are not so robust when I try to feed them. Also they're still alive so its not like they are just dried up little carapaces of ants there should be some sustanace in them. Oh also cricket heads work to. I haven't tried the pin heads (the new born crickets) have any of you?

So. what do you feed your N campanulata, if you even feed it at all?

 

[The Griffin]

You decapitate crickets, lol? I have this vision of a miniature guillotine and crickets nearby doing a drumroll until the blade drops...
Sorry, just trying to get in the Halloween spirit.
If ants work, maybe during the cold weather, you should try starting a fruitfly culture and using those.

Cheers,

Joe

 

[schloaty]

Pretty much anything small. If it's fatty, it has to be REALLY small. But gnats, fruit flies, small flies, small (even medium sized) ants.

I've also tried tossing in some of those time released fertilizer balls (like ozmacote). I can't really tell if it's done any good, but it sure doesn't seem to have hurt.

 

[Flip_Side_the_Pint]

yes I decapitate crickets... I know I'm evil....

yea I saw one of those fruit fly culture kit thing at the pet shoppe I'm culturing to many things right now, phytoplankton, rotifers and mysis shrimp....I'd try those things but they are all saltwater lived.... Anyways can you buy just like a bottle of flys.. maybe my ant technique is the least troublsome to do.

 

[SydneyNeps]

You might need to think laterally. It is not certain that all Nepenthes are insectivorous. Some species with pitchers not covered by the lid, like ampullaria and lowii, appear to feed off things other than insects, such as leaf litter (ampullaria) and animal droppings (lowii). Campanulata, as a species where the pitcher is open, may work along the same lines, that is, it feeds on not what climbs into it but what falls into it... Insects may be too much for it to handle.

Hamish

 

[pond boy]

Interesting hypothesis there Sydney

 

[agustinfranco]

Hi flip and all:

I throw an osmocote pellet per pitcher and they are very happy. Regarding the fact that some nepenthes may feed on droppings and leaves, perhaps this is the case, but we can't rule them out as insectivorous as long as the pitchers produce the necessary enzymes for digestion of organic matter.

If someone can prove that N. lowii and ampullaria don't have such enzymes in their pitchers, then these two species are not insectivorous anymore but detritivorous.

Gus

 

[Flip_Side_the_Pint]

well I feed my amps meal worms and they seem to benefit vastly from these compared to nothing. Although I have yet to try any sort of detritus with them

the fact that campanulata can benefit from osmocote pellet would suggest it can tolerate bird droppings and the like.... Some one needs to take some freshly opened lowii or amp juice to the lab and test it, bring some camp juice whilst you're at it too

 

[rattler]

i was moving my neps around this last weekend and re-doing my lowland tank and noticed my amp is the most successful fly catcher i have other than D. capensis "typical". very interesting hypothosis.

 

[schloaty]

My campanulata has lids that would prevent most falling objects from getting in the pitcher...It also produces a LOT of nectar on the underside of the lids. This suggests to me that it is after live prey.