Can marine amphipods be fed to freshwater fish?

[eatyourpeas]

I have an absurd amount of amphipods in my saltwater tank and was wondering if they are safe to feed to freshwater fish. Can I treat them like snails and keep them in fresh water for a few days to clean the salinity out? Will they poison the freshwater critters?

 

[Colin_T]

Yes you can feed them to freshwater fishes.

No you can't put them in fresh water to clean them because they die after a short time in fresh water.

The small amount of salt in them is harmless to fresh water fish.

They won't transmit diseases to your fresh water fish because they live in salt water and the diseases can't transfer across the salt to fresh barrier.

The only way they will poison your fish is if they die and are left to rot in the tank. Then you will get an ammonia spike.

 

[eatyourpeas]

Excellent! The pea puffers are giving me the look because I have not been able to collect bloodworms. There is a sheet of ice, and I did not see any. They will get a treat today with the amphipods!

Thank you

 

[Colin_T]

Just try a few at a time until they know what they are. If you dump a heap in the tank and the puffers don't eat them, they will die and create ammonia.

 

[eatyourpeas]

I will probably do one at a time and see if they eat them. Also, the pea puffers may need only one or two.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Yeah, I would think it's the same concept as feeding brine shrimp, right?

 

[Colin_T]

I could drop a cup full of live brineshrimp in my tanks and the fish would eat them all in a few seconds. I got a couple of buckets of Daphnia some years back and was chucking handfuls of the stuff in the tank. The fish just gorged themselves on it and ate the lot within minutes. Same thing with mozzie larvae, I could chuck it in until the cows came home and the fish would just eat it as soon as it hit the water. My fish were greedy and ate anything

 

[eatyourpeas]

I could drop a cup full of live brineshrimp in my tanks and the fish would eat them all in a few seconds. I got a couple of buckets of Daphnia some years back and was chucking handfuls of the stuff in the tank. The fish just gorged themselves on it and ate the lot within minutes. Same thing with mozzie larvae, I could chuck it in until the cows came home and the fish would just eat it as soon as it hit the water. My fish were greedy and ate anything

Haha! Miss Ethel eats one or two bloodworms and she looks like she is about to give birth!?

 

[eatyourpeas]

Yep, they all went for the scuds. Nothing left!

 

[eatyourpeas]

And, yes, they still love them!