Fish Flee's As The Pet Shop Said?!?!?!

[rrxx11rrxx11]

i went to fish shop today,
and on the counter they had a bag's of little pink wiggle things.
they told me they were fish flee's or water flee's.
is that the actually name for these.?
also bloodworm?which is ?and where does it come from........blood?

 

[noshybabs]

Daphnia.... Fish eat them

http/www.caudata.org/daphnia/

 

[Pips]

It's "water fleas", fish love 'em

Edit: No apostrophe when it's just more than one! bags, fleas....grr!

 

[chilledtim]

Since you said "wiggling" id say bloodworm (only called so because of there red colour there midge fly larvae ) fish love both bloodworm and daphnia

bloodworm: http/www.schoolsliaison.org.uk/woodgate/...mhabitat08.html

 

[sic0198]

So these would make good treats for my little friends right?

 

[dthoffsett]

Depends on who your little friends are, african cichlids - no blood worms, though they can have daphnia; most other common tropical fish will love either.

 

[noshybabs]

Depends on who your little friends are, african cichlids - no blood worms, though they can have daphnia; most other common tropical fish will love either.

WHy cant they eat Blood worm?

 

[Fighterfish]

Malawis can't eat bloodworm as it gives them bloat. Although when i went on holiday my sister fed my malawis bloodworm as i forgot to tell her not to and they didn't get bloated or ill and this was last summer.
But i wouldn't risk it.

 

[dthoffsett]

SiameseFighter is right, very meaty foods can cause bloat in Mbuna. I should have been more specific as some fish from Malawi can handle meaty foods. Here's a quote from an article on Cichlid-forum.com explaining more.

"Mbuna are exclusively Herbivores (with the exception of Labidochromis). They spend all day picking and scraping at the thick mat of algae that covers the rocky shoreline of Lake Malawi. This algae is their primary staple, which is supplemented with the insects and crustaceans that live in the algae. While Mbuna, officially, are vegetarians, they will eat almost anything that can fit in their mouths. Careful attention to their diet is required if you want to keep these fish healthy.

The digestional tracts of Mbuna are made for vegetable matter. They have long intestines designed to extract the proteins and carbohydrates from the hard-to-digest algae. Cows and other ungulates use several stomachs to digest grass. Mbuna, on the other hand, do it with only one stomach and a very long intestine. If you feed them too much animal protein (e.g., worms, shrimp, feeder fish), it will only be a matter of time before they develop an intestinal blockage, swell up, and die from the infamous Malawi Bloat."

 

[icy]

My fish go completely nuts when i get them some fresh bloodworm, they absolutly love it, great thing is they are cheap too, well they are round here