Feed Me: Live Foods, Grow Or Buy?

[ltkettch17]

Hey all,

Just wondering how many of you feed your fish live foods?

I'm always reading that live foods are much better for the fish than flakes or pellets, but I never see live food for sale at the LFS (except for feeder fish).

Does anyone here grow their own live foods? If so, can you post a pic of your setup and describe your process?

I'm worried that if I start a setup for some kind of live food, that the fish won't get the variety (of nutrients) that they would with flakes. Meaning, I could probably start a setup for brine shrimp, but not mosquito larvae, blood worms, etc. That being said, do you really want to grow mosquitos in your house?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Tropical_Fish]

I give flakes every day, then substitute 1 feed every so often with frozen blood worm, I have also been recommended to buy frozen daphnia (sp?) to feed them as well

 

[BlueGuppy]

I feed my guppies flakes, 1-2 a week I feed Frozen brine shrimp or the livebearer mix (daphnia, bloodworm, brine shrimp), also once every 2 weeks I give them a slice of zucchini or a couple of peas.

I love to mix it up so when I sell them, they won't be picky lol.

 

[saz326]

Combination of flake food and pellets, replaced every 3 days with frozen bloodworm or shreaded shrimp

 

[kizno1]

i feedmy fish flakes or pellets for the bettas or freeze dried brine shrimp for the apisto and then live foods atleast once every 2 weeks

 

[ltkettch17]

i feedmy fish flakes or pellets for the bettas or freeze dried brine shrimp for the apisto and then live foods atleast once every 2 weeks

Okay, what kind of live foods and how do you get them?

thanks,

 

[Bichir10]

I feed a mix of pellets and frozen food. usually pellets once a day and frozen once every 2 weeks. occasionaly i will feed some live ghost shrimp

 

[Mikaila31]

daphina is a good live food, also small fish 1-3" do good on grindal worms. My fish also like the small worms I dig up outside.

 

[kizno1]

i feedmy fish flakes or pellets for the bettas or freeze dried brine shrimp for the apisto and then live foods atleast once every 2 weeks

Okay, what kind of live foods and how do you get them?

thanks,

blood worm and brine shrimp and i get them from my lfs.

 

[Inchworm]

What you feed your fish depends on what species they are. Some fish are predators and they need fish or meat to eat. Others are herbivores which need algae and other vegetable matter. Some of the plecos even need a certain amount of wood in their diet. Most community type fish require a more balanced diet than just one item will supply. A good quality flake food should be the basis for this since it contains a variety of vitamins and minerals not found in live food.

If you live in the US you can often find live blackworms, tubifex worms and brine shrimp for sale in the lfs. If they are not available frozen bloodworms usually are. I'll leave it to someone who lives in the UK to explain what is available there.

Since most of my fish are corydoras which are omnivores, I give them a variety of foods including flake, granulated, Hikari sinking wafers for bottom feeders, live blackworms and frozen bloodworms. My fry are started out on microworms which I grow myself.

 

[Jonty]

Generally I feed flakes 5 times a week, my Betta and Frog eat flakes so I add the Betta pellets 3 times a week and bloodworm (frozen) for the frog twice a week

 

[ltkettch17]

What you feed your fish depends on what species they are. Some fish are predators and they need fish or meat to eat. Others are herbivores which need algae and other vegetable matter. Some of the plecos even need a certain amount of wood in their diet. Most community type fish require a more balanced diet than just one item will supply. A good quality flake food should be the basis for this since it contains a variety of vitamins and minerals not found in live food.

If you live in the US you can often find live blackworms, tubifex worms and brine shrimp for sale in the lfs. If they are not available frozen bloodworms usually are. I'll leave it to someone who lives in the UK to explain what is available there.

Since most of my fish are corydoras which are omnivores, I give them a variety of foods including flake, granulated, Hikari sinking wafers for bottom feeders, live blackworms and frozen bloodworms. My fry are started out on microworms which I grow myself.

What kind of setup does it take to grow the microworms (or any live food)? What are the start-up costs and requirements? How much maintenance is required?

Thanks again!

 

[Truck]

i feed my ember tetras a mixture of cyclops, brine shrimp and mysis every other day and then crushed flake, micro pellets and crushed freeze dried blood worm on the days in between and as a rare treat they get a very small amount of boiled chicken.

crushed dried seaweed is also fed as an occational treat along with garlic

 

[kizno1]

do the tetras eat chicken.

 

[Sean W.]

the main diet for my fish is live blood worms, every once in a while ( maybe once a week ) ill do blood worms, flakes and bottom feeder pellets for my loaches all at the same time...