Live Food Options?

[cooledwhip]

I have been trying to breed a number of fish species and have only had success with a couple. I want to know what live food I can feed my fish, because I know for a fact the reason some aren't breeding is because of the food. All other breeding conditions are great. I've tried brine shrimp but it's to much work for such little yield. Are there any types of food I can just put in like a culture? And just run an air stone or something? thanks

 

[Wildbetta]

What kind of fish are you wanting to feed?  There are plenty of live food options to culture.  Grindal worms, white worms, confused flour beetles, blackworms, daphnia, wingless fruit flies, nemotodes(microworms/banana worms/walter worms), vinegar eels, scuds, and springtails are some good choices.  

 

[cooledwhip]

I have a variety of fish currently all in their own tanks. I have been conditioning them with frozen food for a few weeks. It's not enough and I haven't seen any eggs, so I will set up  a 10 gallon and a 20 gallon long and choose the best pair of each species to put in the 20 or 10 gallon spawning tank. Once they spawn I will put them all back in their original tank.
 
I have dwarf neon rainbows, threadfins rainbows, boesemani rainbows, millenium rainbows, neon tetras, corycats, german blue rams, and giant danios.
 
They are all in their own tanks except for some exceptions with the some of the smaller fish.

I just don't know what is easy to cultivate, and more importantly what is most healthy for the fish to get them into breeding mode.

 

[Baccus]

I have found almost nothing beats mosquito wrigglers dumped live into a tank, every fish I have seen goes nuts for them even corydoras. My loaches are always happy when I drop a lava stone that is nicely colonised by blackworms into their tank. You could try getting fairy shrimp, they are the fresh water equivalent of brine shrimp, I have seen their eggs sold on ebay usually from Thailand, and I am pretty sure some parts of the USA have native species of fairy shrimp but you would need to check on their protected status and if collection is legal.
Another surprising live food that many fish love and is an old style fish food is ant eggs, I used to collect them from my garden and give them directly to my fish. 

 

[MarchHare]

Following this thread with great interest.
When I was raising fish some years ago, some forums had a separate category for raising live foods.
They detailed the process and what was needed to be successful.
Doesn't seem to be popular any longer.
Please post your success if you find the info or sites that will shed more light on cultivating live food, John.
March...

 

[AbbeysDad]

Back in the day, live foods were really important as commercial foods were of questionable quality. However, today, there are some commercial foods even better than live foods....
 
Check the ingredient list on your fish food. Many, if not most, will begin with some type of grain (rice, oat, wheat gluten) that serves as the protein binder in the production process. This is often followed by fishmeal. The trouble with fishmeal is that it is typically waste products form canneries, ground, dried, and stored in a warehouse for an indeterminate amount of time until an order is placed by a fish food manufacturer. Check the ingredient list for products like Omega One and Almost Natural and you'll see that it begins with FISH as the primary ingredient, NOT grain. This matters because fish don't eat grain, can't process it, and it just passes through as waste.  Way back when I switched to the high quality foods, I noticed far less fish waste! = healthier fish with less bio-load!
The high quality foods are also supplemented with vitamins and minerals you won't find in even a blend of live foods.
 
So use live (or frozen) foods as treats, but rely on the high quality commercial foods for well rounded nutrition. 

 

[cooledwhip]

Back in the day, live foods were really important as commercial foods were of questionable quality. However, today, there are some commercial foods even better than live foods....
 
Check the ingredient list on your fish food. Many, if not most, will begin with some type of grain (rice, oat, wheat gluten) that serves as the protein binder in the production process. This is often followed by fishmeal. The trouble with fishmeal is that it is typically waste products form canneries, ground, dried, and stored in a warehouse for an indeterminate amount of time until an order is placed by a fish food manufacturer. Check the ingredient list for products like Omega One and Almost Natural and you'll see that it begins with FISH as the primary ingredient, NOT grain. This matters because fish don't eat grain, can't process it, and it just passes through as waste.  Way back when I switched to the high quality foods, I noticed far less fish waste! = healthier fish with less bio-load!
The high quality foods are also supplemented with vitamins and minerals you won't find in even a blend of live foods.
 
So use live (or frozen) foods as treats, but rely on the high quality commercial foods for well rounded nutrition. 

Thanks, what would be some high quality food? I currently use Omega one flakes for tropical fish.
 
Also for live food I just can't do brine shrimp anymore. I'll do some research sometime tomorrow and see what I can feed and condition with, and come back here and ask if anyone has had any luck with the said food I find.

 

[AbbeysDad]

 

Back in the day, live foods were really important as commercial foods were of questionable quality. However, today, there are some commercial foods even better than live foods....
 
Check the ingredient list on your fish food. Many, if not most, will begin with some type of grain (rice, oat, wheat gluten) that serves as the protein binder in the production process. This is often followed by fishmeal. The trouble with fishmeal is that it is typically waste products form canneries, ground, dried, and stored in a warehouse for an indeterminate amount of time until an order is placed by a fish food manufacturer. Check the ingredient list for products like Omega One and Almost Natural and you'll see that it begins with FISH as the primary ingredient, NOT grain. This matters because fish don't eat grain, can't process it, and it just passes through as waste.  Way back when I switched to the high quality foods, I noticed far less fish waste! = healthier fish with less bio-load!
The high quality foods are also supplemented with vitamins and minerals you won't find in even a blend of live foods.
 
So use live (or frozen) foods as treats, but rely on the high quality commercial foods for well rounded nutrition. 

Thanks, what would be some high quality food? I currently use Omega one flakes for tropical fish.
 
Also for live food I just can't do brine shrimp anymore. I'll do some research sometime tomorrow and see what I can feed and condition with, and come back here and ask if anyone has had any luck with the said food I find.
 

 
I listed two companies that produce several high quality foods. I encourage you to checkout Almost Natural foods, including his Breeder Delight line of foods....
http/www.almostnaturaltropicalfishfood.com/

 

[fish48]

I have a variety of fish currently all in their own tanks. I have been conditioning them with frozen food for a few weeks. It's not enough and I haven't seen any eggs, so I will set up a 10 gallon and a 20 gallon long and choose the best pair of each species to put in the 20 or 10 gallon spawning tank. Once they spawn I will put them all back in their original tank.

I have dwarf neon rainbows, threadfins rainbows, boesemani rainbows, millenium rainbows, neon tetras, corycats, german blue rams, and giant danios.

They are all in their own tanks except for some exceptions with the some of the smaller fish.

I just don't know what is easy to cultivate, and more importantly what is most healthy for the fish to get them into breeding mode.

All live foods are good for getting fish in breeding conditions,
Easy to cultivate foods,earthworms white worms, Grindall Worm, Micro worm, water worms, banana worms) Flightless Fruit Flies, Vinegar Eels,

,