Live Foods?

[DJ ArKaDaRkA]

how do you buy these?

how long do they keep once bought?

would ram's eat normal earth worms?


i want to get my rams som live food as they wont eat flake but they will eat veg and alage pellets but i'd like to give them something better than that


any info on live foods would be great

cheers

 

[Athena]

You can usually buy live foods from your LFS - baby brineshrimp, bloodworms, daphnia etc. Make sure they are irradiated and wash them well in a bit of tank water before adding to the tank.

Frozen foods go down just as well with cichlids. You can buy frozen slabs of brineshrimp that you can just break a little piece off and thaw in a little of the tank water, strain off and add to tank. If using frozen cubes, don't add the whole cube into the tank as more than likely it will pollute your water. Defrost in a little tank water, feed a few pinches of it with tweezers and then put the rest in the fridge for the next feed.

Regards - Athena

 

[Athena]

sorry, forgot to add that live foods don't have a long lifespan in those packs - usually if I buy brineshrimps they will last 2 - 3 days kept in the fridge (I know it sounds wierd but that's what my LFS recommended I do and it seems to work). When you take the pack out of the fridge the brineshrimp look a bit sluggish but suddenly perk up at room temp and start swimming about again.

I normally only buy live foods once a week as a special treat. Frozen foods, crisps/flakes/wafers and the new Tetra-delica jellied foods are what I feed during the week.

Athena

 

[DJ ArKaDaRkA]

sorry, forgot to add that live foods don't have a long lifespan in those packs - usually if I buy brineshrimps they will last 2 - 3 days kept in the fridge (I know it sounds wierd but that's what my LFS recommended I do and it seems to work). When you take the pack out of the fridge the brineshrimp look a bit sluggish but suddenly perk up at room temp and start swimming about again.

I normally only buy live foods once a week as a special treat. Frozen foods, crisps/flakes/wafers and the new Tetra-delica jellied foods are what I feed during the week.

Athena

i might get some frozen and some dried and some live

how much do you pay ive seen them in my LFS but never checked the price

 

[wackystarfish]

They are usually about 50p near me

 

[DJ ArKaDaRkA]

They are usually about 50p near me

ah sweet cheap then ill have to get some tomorrow then

 

[Athena]

Yeah, depends on where you are. The packs I get are about £1 - but it's a long pack and I manage to feed 4 tanks with one pack. I think it varies.

Look for those Tetra-delica packs too - they are a great alternative food. My fish adore them! Might seem a bit pricey (I think I pay about £3.50 a box) but you get quite a lot of packs inside that are divided into two sections each.

Athena

 

[wackystarfish]

Yeah they are quite cheap. You can actually culture certain live foods like microworms to have a never ending supply!

 

[Inchworm]

Microworms are easy to grow, but are too tiny to provide much nutrition for grown fish. They are excellent food for fry.

If you can find earthworms from ground that you trust to be free of chemicals, like pesticides and herbicides, you can feed them to your fish. Wash them well and freeze them. You can then chop them into bite sized pieces.

 

[DJ ArKaDaRkA]

Microworms are easy to grow, but are too tiny to provide much nutrition for grown fish. They are excellent food for fry.

If you can find earthworms from ground that you trust to be free of chemicals, like pesticides and herbicides, you can feed them to your fish. Wash them well and freeze them. You can then chop them into bite sized pieces.

yeah i might do that micoworms look too small and i dont really need the hassle

when you buy live food in them bags of liquid do you just drain the liquid off?

 

[MHunt]

Microworms are easy to grow, but are too tiny to provide much nutrition for grown fish. They are excellent food for fry.

If you can find earthworms from ground that you trust to be free of chemicals, like pesticides and herbicides, you can feed them to your fish. Wash them well and freeze them. You can then chop them into bite sized pieces.

yeah i might do that micoworms look too small and i dont really need the hassle

when you buy live food in them bags of liquid do you just drain the liquid off?

I find the best way to store live food is to decant it into a jar to keep in the fridge. When harvesting the food, pour them through a fish net till you've caught enough of what you're trying to catch, and then waft this into the tank your feeding to release the food. I tend to catch the water from the jar and return it to the jar in an attempt to keep the live food going longer. They do last for a good week for me in the fridge, generally don't last that long when I get live food though. A good one I found last year was midge larvae. If you keep a bucket of water standing outside you'll probably get midges laying eggs in it, the larvae are a great source of food for the fish.

 

[DJ ArKaDaRkA]

Microworms are easy to grow, but are too tiny to provide much nutrition for grown fish. They are excellent food for fry.

If you can find earthworms from ground that you trust to be free of chemicals, like pesticides and herbicides, you can feed them to your fish. Wash them well and freeze them. You can then chop them into bite sized pieces.

yeah i might do that micoworms look too small and i dont really need the hassle

when you buy live food in them bags of liquid do you just drain the liquid off?

I find the best way to store live food is to decant it into a jar to keep in the fridge. When harvesting the food, pour them through a fish net till you've caught enough of what you're trying to catch, and then waft this into the tank your feeding to release the food. I tend to catch the water from the jar and return it to the jar in an attempt to keep the live food going longer. They do last for a good week for me in the fridge, generally don't last that long when I get live food though. A good one I found last year was midge larvae. If you keep a bucket of water standing outside you'll probably get midges laying eggs in it, the larvae are a great source of food for the fish.

cheers guys