Live food

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Salty&Onion

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I'm gonna get live blood worms for my fish and later gonna get a feeder shrimp to my tank as well.
All from here:




Do I need to know something about live foods?
Except for transmitting diseases to fish.
 
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Gonna take these shrimp:

 
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most live foods are safe to feed to fish however there is a small risk of introducing diseases when it comes to daphnia or tubifex worms
 
I have been collecting and feeding daphnia for over 30 years I collect from duck ponds fish ponds and stagnant ponds with no problems however there is still a small risk
 
I'm gonna get live blood worms for my fish and later gonna get a feeder shrimp to my tank as well.
All from here:




Do I need to know something about live foods?
Except for transmitting diseases to fish.

One Discus fish breeder expert said this, "Can you guarantee 100% that all the parasites cysts/eggs will die during the freezing process of the live food? "
Note:This fish breeder did a lot of research to find the best diets/food for the optimum growth of his fish.

Are you aware that bloodworms can cause serious allegic to some people?
One of the symptoms of allergic include having breathing difficulty.
Even the packaging of Hikari frozen bloodworms have a warning/caution sign for allergy.

I think our fish pellets and flakes easily have more nutrients than any bloodworms or live food.

Why take the risks with live food?
If you need high protein food, get some fish pellets or flakes that have more than 50% protein.
Most fish pellets for Discus have very high protein.
Dr Bassleer Regular Bio food has at least 54% of protein with many other nutrients.

New Life Spectrum Growth formula also has about 50% protein.
Its specially formulated for fish that are growing up.
 
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I know some people who used live food for breeding purposes.(to stimulate breeding and to give the female fish enough protein and energy for breeeding).

Some people use prawns to feed their big fish especially the carnivore types of fish.

Live feeding may pollute your water faster if you are not careful.
Others may used brine shrimps, baby brineshrimps, etc to feed their fish fry.
 
Live bloodworms (chironomid midge larvae) should never be fed to fish. If you want to use them, kill them and remove their heads and then feed the body to the fish.

Avoid live tubifex worms because they are often found/ collected from sewerage ponds and are riddled in bacteria that cause intestinal problems to most fish.

Live blackworms are generally cleaner than tubifex but don't use them if they are in cloudy or smelly water, or if any of the worms are white, cream or grey. These pale worms are dead and covered in bacteria. If you want to use blackworms as fish food, set up a plastic storage container outside under a tree. Put a thin layer of gravel in the bottom and add the worms. Change the water every day or two and leave the worms for a week or more. Then use them. The water changes will help remove the bad bacteria and dead worms should come out of the main cluster and get tipped out.

Live Daphnia from ponds with ducks and other waterfowl are intermediate hosts for intestinal worms. If you get wild caught Daphnia, put them in a plastic storage container with green water. Let them breed for a few weeks then scoop some of the young out and put them into another container of green water. Let them breed for a few weeks and then transfer some of the young into another container of green water. Dump the first 2 cultures and use the 3rd culture to grow Daphnia. Use them as much as you like once you have a clean culture. If the Daphnia come from a culture that is not exposed to water birds, then you can just feed them to the fish.

Rotifers are usually fine and safe if from a culture container.

Male copepods are sometimes gill parasites and attack fish. If they are cultured in a clean container they are food for small fish. If they are wild caught, then treat them like Daphnia.

Brineshrimp is fine because it comes from salt water and won't transmit anything to freshwater fish.

Feeder shrimp are usually wild caught and can transmit diseases to other shrimp in your tank. They can also carry a muscle wasting disease that makes the muscle tissue in their tail look cream/ white. Shrimp with muscle wasting disease (I think its spironucleus) should not be added to any tank because it can spread to fish and shrimp in the tank.

Mozzie larvae are fine if you culture your own in clean containers.

Micro, grindal and white worms are normally fine for fish.
 
live food is most definitely the best way to get fish into breeding conditions
there are less chances of polluting the water with live foods compared with prepared flake foods
I agree, and I did notice that my tank seems cleaner, I vacuum once a week at water change and there is not much at all compared to when I only feed flake food.
 
Live foods for fish were most important in the old days as commercial fish foods were mostly made with low quality fish meal and lots of grain/grain starch as binder/filler. There were some that even listed one or more grains as the first ingredients in the list (ingredients are listed first to last in order by weight).
Although I still believe that live foods are a benefit, they simply aren't as essential these days with the many quality commercial fish foods available.
Also, culturing live foods is an extension of the hobby and without question, benefits the fish and the wallet as quality commercial fish foods are not cheap. (This becomes even more important when you have 200+ growing fish to feed as I do!)
There's a reason that fish enthusiastically 'attack' live foods. After all, it's what they would eat in nature and imagine if all you ever had to eat was cereal.

Footnote: Although live (and frozen) foods are a benefit, you still need a staple quality commercial food to ensure proper nutrition. I even blend two to three quality commercial foods to better ensure optimum nutrition.
 
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I stay away from all live foods after my sorority betta tank Contracted columnaris. I lost the entire tank. I believe it was bloodworms that did it. I feed quality commercial foods. Insect Bites are a really good choice. Full of protein. I also feed Omega One and New Life Spectrum. Cories get additional sinking shrimp pellets and an occasional veggie/shrimp wafer. Once in a blue moon I’ll feed frozen blood worms as a treat.
 

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