Live Food

[mikky77]

Hello everyone, I was thinking of giving my fish some live food. Is this a good idea. I noticed at the LFS some of the 'live ' food had actually died.Do you drain the water off, or just put the lot in. Cheers

 

[Corleone]

Depends on what kind of live food it is. I feed live tubifex. A $3 lot lasts about two weeks for me. I keep it in a butter dish with a bit of tank water (just enough to cover them) in the fridge. When I feed it, I just take a glob in my fingers and dump it in, about the same amount as if I were feeding flake. I wouldn't add the water they came in for the same reason I don't add the water my fish come in - you never know what you can be bringing in from LFS water.

Recently, it's been hard to get good live food in my area. I've actually been having better results with frozen equivalents. Quite a bit cheaper, cleaner to store and handle. Only drawback is some of my fish don't get quite as excited about it.

 

[mikky77]

Depends on what kind of live food it is. I feed live tubifex. A $3 lot lasts about two weeks for me. I keep it in a butter dish with a bit of tank water (just enough to cover them) in the fridge. When I feed it, I just take a glob in my fingers and dump it in, about the same amount as if I were feeding flake. I wouldn't add the water they came in for the same reason I don't add the water my fish come in - you never know what you can be bringing in from LFS water.

Recently, it's been hard to get good live food in my area. I've actually been having better results with frozen equivalents. Quite a bit cheaper, cleaner to store and handle. Only drawback is some of my fish don't get quite as excited about it.

Cheers Corleone, I think i will stick to frozen

 

[Gilli]

Frozen food is safer beause you dont run the risk of introducing parasites. Also better as you can keep a wider range of choice.

 

[Colin_T]

You can culture your own live foods and they will be healthy and clean when you feed them to your fish.
Mozzie larvae & daphnia can be cultured in containers of green water. Fill a container with tap water and add 1 tablespoon of lawn fertiliser per 50litres of water. Leave the water to go green and soupy, then add some live daphnia. In a few weeks they container will be full of them and you can use them to make new cultures or feed the fish.
Mozzie larvae will also turn up in the green water or can be found in container of water with rotting leaves in.
Grindel & white worms can be grown in small plastic containers filled with potting mix or peat moss. They are fed on dry baby cereal. Earthworms can be grown in a worm farm and make good food too.