live foods

[jarcher1390]

Im not just taking about blood worm i mean flys moths worms little insects and little fish

 

[LadyMinion]

Are you referring to any species of fish in particular or just generally? Because it partly depends on what that fish might eat as part of it's natural diet.

Or are you questioning the morality of feeding live foods?

 

[NinjaSmurf]

Um.... Yes. Natural diet has nothing to do with morality.

Or at least, it shouldn't.

 

[Fishy411]

Um.... Yes. Natural diet has nothing to do with morality.

Or at least, it shouldn't.

[snapback]860951[/snapback]​

it has nothing to do with morality but it has something to do with fish. personally i try to mimic a natural environment as much as possible so a natural diet makes sense. my bichir is too slow to get anything but feeder fish so i feed him on feeders once a week to keep him healthy

 

[jarcher1390]

the mortality of feeding live foods

 

[jacblades]

oh crap-i misread the question.
i thought it was asking if i feed my fish live food and i said no...
in most cases, i think it is better to use live food than packaged. although, at work i will give the oscars crickets but i wont watch as someone else feeds them comets (i am against feeding goldfish just for the lack of nutritional value that they have)

 

[WILDER]

Shouldn't feed fish on feeder fish causes more problems and they say they don't get alot out of them, then there is desease to worry about, and i don't feed live foods either just my choice, i feed frozen.

 

[BigC]

I cultivate a lot of my own live foods, eg Infusoria, vinegar eels, microworm, brineshrimp nauplii, grindalworm, whiteworm & wingless fruitfly.
Coupled with dry goods this consitutes a varied diet and can only be benificial to the fishes general well being. After all most fish in their natural habitats feed on aquatic livefood & terrestial insects etc.
Nothing wrong in feeding Live Food.

 

[LadyMinion]

If the fish that I buy require live food in their diet, I give it to them. I don't necessarily take pleasure in it, but if it needs to be done....

I don't give live food to fish that kill slowly though. I want it to be over quickly. Martha enjoys her live shrimp, crabs and snails but she does the job in one bite. I personally couldn't watch a fish take chunks out of something but not kill it straight away.

 

[CFC]

I dont use feeder fish unless it is the only way to keep a fish alive, i.e a sedentry predator that only recognises live fish as prey, 99% of predatory fish IME can be easily taught to take frozen alternatives.

I do use live worms, crickets, locusts and shrimps as part of my fishes regular diets.

 

[rvm]

I'm the same as CFC. I've never used feeder fish, but I have and do regularly feed my fish worms, insects, and shrimps!!

 

[Nospherith]

If I were a fish I'd much rather have live food than that flake stuff. But I'm not so I eat food that's mostly dead instead.

 

[Isis_Nebthet]

I feed crickets, redworms, and sometimes blackworms to the fish. Since I have to buy feeders (rosies) for the clown knives I bring some in for the other fish and turtle.

 

[playfulalliecat]

I guess I am in the middle on this one. My african cichlids do not get live foods as they really need more vegetable matter in their diet to prevent bloat. The Jack Dempsey, on the other hand, gets the occasional night crawler as a treat. He loves them.

I have fed brine shrimp to tropicals, fry (livebearers and African cichlids, protein seems to aid in growth in these), dwarf puffers, and SA/CA cichlids. These were a treat with pellet and flake being the main staples.

Years ago, I had a mud dog. It was like a salamander, I haven't seen one since I had mine and for the most part they ate freeze dried tubifex. Occasionally, they would stop eating and the only way to get them started again was to use a feeder fish. I would buy minnows from a bait store and put them in a hospital tank with mercurochrome (not available anymore in most places because of mercury but a good all around illness treatment for fish, used for cuts, scrapes like iodine in humans). This would ensure their health before feeding them to my pets. I would not ever use a minnow or feeder goldfish that had not been properly quarantined and treated.

I also had newts.....one of them is my avatar. They ate meal worms and wouldn't eat anything else.

So yes, I do use live foods if necessary but I feel that for the majority of fish, they are not necessary. Most fish can be adapted to eat pellets and/or flake and this should provide balanced nutrition for them.

 

[balon]

I used to keep an Arowana and it used to devour mealworms, as did my Golden Severum (he will eat anything). Big fish eat small fish as well as worms and insects so I think it's a natural thing and as long as the live food is kept/grown humanely there's no problem with it IMO....