Commonly Available Live foods guide

[clutterydrawer]

Bloodworm do not feed on blood.

incidentally, the bright red colour from which they get their name is because they have a lot of haemoglobin to enable them to survive in oxygen-depleted waters.

that's my useless fact of the day, hope you enjoyed it.

 

[MAM]

micro crickets..i want to live where you live! no i've never seen microcrickets here before, just small ones...and the small ones are about .5 inch to 1 inch

my gouramis are about 1.5 - 2 inches, how big are wax/meal worms?

you can actually order live crickets online that are quite small. they are usually referred to as "pin head" crickets (because theyre about that size...). many places will also sell 1 and 2 week crickets which are about 1/8 to 1/4 inch. since crickets only live usually 6-8 weeks, i order this size for my anoles. the first weeks they have to eat little guys, but the crickets last me longer (since most places you have to buy a minimum of 500, some go as low as 200, but 1000 is a norm). this may or may not work for most, as i doubt anyone has a large number of insectivorious fish, but if you have lizards too, then its a great deal.

just wanted to throw that out there.

 

[RYO]

Another food is the maggot, these come in a veriaty of sizes,squats been real smalland your local fishing shop will prob give you a few for free

 

[SirMinion]

Vinegar Worms added to the live food profiles.

 

[jflowers]

Just for info

River shrimp are available in peterborough (UK) at the waterzoo @£1.25 for a bag of around thirty as live food. When you then see an aquarium selling them as pets for £2.25 (yes we have one near here, no names mentioned) each it makes you wonder at the profit margins some lfs are working at . I got some for my puffers, but seeing as I only had two (puffers) I put the other river shrimp in my empty tank to see if I could breed them (no luck yet, but only had em a week). The ones I put in my main tank were immediate puffer food.

Jon

 

[bshockstubb]

I never knew it was illegal to use live fish as food in the UK? Is that just for other fish or for like reptiles and for fishing? If I lived in the United Kingdom, my water snake wouldn't be with me now...He is strickly a fish eater(as well as my old oscar)

 

[SirMinion]

It is illegal to feed any live vertabrate animal to another animal in the UK.
This includes the feeding of live fish to other fish, reptiles & anphibians, and the feeding of live rodents to snakes and so on.

It is, however allowed to feed them dead, so as long as you humanely kill the feeder fish first, then you are not breaking the law.

 

[lizard]

Great post, Sir! I somehow missed it when it was first posted I'd love to get some live foods for my fish!

When we fed mealworms to baby birds (I interned at a wildlife center), they either had to have been frozen, or we had to squish their heads first, so they wouldn't bite through the crops of the little birds. I guess there would be similar danger when feeding the MWs to anything.

Anyway...

For those of us who have no clue (or even some clue) as to how British pounds relate to US dollars, here are the approximate conversions of the prices listed in Sir's post:

£0.30 (30p?) = $0.55
£0.50 = $0.92
£0.60 = $1.01
£0.40 = $0.74
£0.90 = $1.66
£1.00 = $1.84
£2.50 = $4.61

1 GBP = 1.84447 USD

Pamela
aka Married Lizard

 

[SirMinion]

Thank you for that Pamela, although I've ofen found that retail prices are often like for like, i.e Something costing £1 in England will cost $1 in the US, which is why so many people over here buy electronics and games from the US!

And on another note, yes, with mealworms, especially jumbo mealworms, there is a danger of them chewing their way out of the stomach, but I find that they drown very quickly so this is not an issue. Also, some fish such as puffers chew their food, therefore killing the worm before it's swallowed.

If in any doubt, crush the head before giving them to your fish/reptiles/birds.

 

[Ben]

awsome thread Sir

so earthworms would be fine with anyfish?

 

[SirMinion]

awsome thread Sir

so earthworms would be fine with anyfish?

Yep. they can be given to any fish that will take them, and you'd be amazed what fish will, even so called vegitarian fish like silver dollars will suck them up.

Some might want them chopped up, some will take them whole & wriggly.

The important think is that the worms are free from contaminants like garden pesticides and fertilisers.

We buy farmed earthworms from our local fish store (reptile dept intended for large frogs & toads) or online from worms direct.

Strangly enough, Martha won't touch them.

 

[Dwarfs]

I'd just like to add, beheading mealworms also attracts the fish more My bichirs went crazy and ripped the headless worms out of my hand Rude little guys

 

[Iceman]

Hi Folks,

I'm new to this forum posting business - so forgive me if I make any mistakes.

I have read quite a few of the various postings and have found a lot of very helpful information - I fully intend to read more - though it may take some time. In the meantime I have a few questions as regards this current topic.

I've been put off feeding live foods to my tropical fish as I've read previously that there is a high risk of the 'foods' carrying diseases/parasites. Is this correct?

How does the frozen stuff available stand . . . does the freezing destroy the diseases/parasites? From the thread I gather that it isn't as nutritious as 'live' - why?

Is it possible to grow on and breed daphnia in a separate tank?

The main reason for my query is that I have recently aquired a pair of Apisto. agassizi and a pair of Apisto. bitaeniata none of which seem at all keen on the current flake I feed the rest of my fish - whilst they will take it into their mouths they immediately 'spit' it out. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks . . . John

 

[OohFeeshy]

Grrr... I hate waxworms. They live in my room, the moths lay their eggs in my hamster food if I'm unlucky. Grow your own. Go to a petshop that sells loose pet food- anything, even dog biscuits. Look for a bin with moths in it. Get a small portion, with a few moths in it if you can. Leave for a while, keep bag sealed or they will escape. Remove at your leisure, don't let moths out as they will breed to make more. Throw bag away when food is all stuck together with the 'silk'. A bag will be better, a container will let them hide in the cracks around the lid. And beware of the little buggers, they are miniature houdinis. If they escape and you want to kill them quickly, I frazzle them with a cigarette lighter. This method of breeding works well, although a bit gross, and is cheap, but you should have no shortage. I know at the LPD, they sell loose dog biscuits, and most of the bins have moths in them.

 

[mwm]

I dont know if anyone said crickets? they are 15 cents each here or if u buy like 60 they are like 5 or 10 cents cheap yet effective food