Feeding

[LauraFrog]

I have seven platys and a sailfin molly (getting more mollies) in a 23 gallon brackish tank. I've been feeding New Life Spectrum Optimum (a shrimp and fish meal based, high quality flake food), spirulina flakes which are fairly cheap but seem good, occasionally a tropical crumble food, with treats of frozen bloodworm, scalded lettuce, zucchini (courgette), cucumber, peas and other fresh vegies.

Is this diet too meat based or high in protein or fat for livebearers? I can get the analysis of the prepared foods if you want it.

Also, I'm planning on adding some bumblebee gobies to this tank. The only food I can get them to take is bloodworm. Would it be bad for the livebearers to increase the amount of bloodworm they are getting? I wouldn't really be able to stop them scavenging off the gobies. They're pigs.

I don't really want to use the spirulina flakes as the base diet, because they are cheap and some of the ingredients are a bit iffy (there's a lot of soy protein and wheat protein in it.) The Optimum is seriously good food, but it is largely a carnivore diet. Should I increase the vegetables?

Thanks!

Laura

 

[kribensis12]

Hey! As most aquarists know, NLS is the BEST Flake and Pelleted food brand out there. Your diet for them sounds fine. I dont think the blood worms will be bad for them. Just think of all the insects they consume. Spirulina is very good for them. Plant matter, especially good for Mollies, it also boosts immune systems and enhances colors.
Also, Protien is good for them. It makes their babies larger and healthier ( read that somewhere, would love to give you the source, but i dotn remeber what site it was from).

 

[Dorkhedeos]

New life is pretty damn good when it comes to dried goods. It should be fine feeding more frozen. Have you tried just getting a pvc tube and dropping bloodworms through there so itll be like right in front of the bbg?

 

[LauraFrog]

Yep - I use a meat baster. They won't eat anything that doesn't move, so you shoot it right into their face to get them to eat it. I use a meat baster for a lot of things actually... moving fry, moving tadpoles...

If I can I'm going to start a whiteworm culture, so that will be good - live food as well as frozen has to be better for them. The problem will be finding live whiteworms - you can buy them, but they aren't so much 'live whiteworms' as 'whiteworms that have only been dead for half a day as opposed to being frozen for the last six months'.

I also guess that I'll miss the odd drop, so the livebearer fry will be a decent supplement for the gobies cause when I don't have room to raise fry, I just leave the females be when they're ready instead of trapping them.

Glad to hear the NLS is not too rich though... it LOOKS really good as well, it's not like those tacky rainbow flakes that smell awful and you can just tell they're the equivalent of a human living on baked beans and canned spaghetti. I'd prefer to feed them largely on that stuff because I know it's good for them. I don't like guessing... lol