Questions About Feeding

[cgbender]

Ok for those of you that don't know me by now my name is Bender and I have a 55 gal freshwater aquarium. It has 3 ranbows, 3 giant danios, 2 striped spiny eels, and a pleco. This is my first tank where I'm feeding with anything other than flakes. I have asked several times and well I would like greater detail. I would like to know in greater detail about what I should be doing and what works for you guys. What I have been doing is feeding the 6 active fish and then defrost and strain the small frozen precubed/packaged bloodworms. Then I pour them across the tank so they will sink to the bottem and as I havent been doing it that long I kinda watch the shadows of the eels and fish hunting them down.

Eels are between 5-7 inches and the others are close to 3 inches

Ok on to the questions...

Anyone have a or know of a thread for hand feeding that I keep hearing about ... and is it realy worth trying and if so what do they feed and how do I start working on their conditioning.

I have heard about the use of feeding brine shrimp (DIY hatching and then feeding) .... {more for the ranbows and danios before feeding the bloodworms to the eels} Is it worth it nutritionaly, is it cost effective and does anyone have a better diy than the coke bottle cut in half with an airstone method and if it is and you have that one ill take it to, the more you read the more you know.

As for the bloodworms how much is enough and if you want to say cutting the frozen solid block in centimeters cubed before defrosting thats fine.

Are there other options? Are they safe and where do you get them?

And yes I think that I might be overthinking this but nerds and geeks never stop learning. Nor should you.

 

[chicklette]

You can do a search on this sight and it will bring you to links about hand feeding. I start feeding with shrimp. It's easy to hold on to and all fish love it. I just start off by keeping my hand in the tank every day and eventually all fish come to get it. It may take a while depending of your fish but it will work. I can even pet my goldfish now and all my fish come racing up if I stick my hand in the tank.

When I feed frozen food I defrost it and feed them the whole block. If you don't what to feed them that much just cut it in half with a knife, you can do this frozen.

What I do is use a turkey baster. All the fish come up and eat from it. That is another great way to feed it to them. They just come up and eat from it. I slowley squeeze in more.

I feed my fish three times a day a very little amounts. There is less waste that way and it's better on their digestive system. Also variety of foods is the best thing you can do for your fish along with water changes.

 

[Colin_T]

Hey Bender like the robot on Futurama

You can feed a number of different frozen foods to fish including brineshrimp, mysis shrimp, marine mix, bloodworms and daphnia. Defrost a block or two, drain the excess moisture off and use a teaspoon to scoop out a small amount at a time. Put the small amount of food in the tank and let it get eaten. Keep doing that until the fish no longer show interest in the food. For fish like eels and catfish let some food sink to the bottom in an open area near the front glass. This way you can see if the food has been eaten. It also gives you a chance to check on the fish and make they are all still alive and well. You miught need to turn the filter off for a couple of minutes so the food can sink where you want it to. Remember to turn the filter back on.
A varied diet is better for the fish nutritionally and has the advantage that if one food suddenly becomes unavailable, the fish will eat the other foods that are available.

Rainbowfish can have problems if given too much frozen (but defrosted) bloodworms. They are primarily vegetarians but do take insects when available. I try not to give bloodworms to rainbows because I have had too many of them develop internal bacterial problems after being fed them. They seem to be fine on everything else just not bloodworms. I don't feed them live tubifex or blackworms either for the same reason.
Freeze dried bloodworms don't seem to be a problem.

 

[cgbender]

When I feed frozen food I defrost it and feed them the whole block. If you don't what to feed them that much just cut it in half with a knife, you can do this frozen.

Ok when i was talking about the block i was talking about the frozen bloodworms that are sold in a 8 inch by 4 inch by half inch block.

And has anyone done the diy brine shrimp hatchery... is it worth it?

Anyone know exactly what blackworms are and the value in feeding them?

 

[rdd1952]

I use the ones that are in cubes and use the full cube (or 2 of them depending on which tank) defrosted in a cup of tank water.

As for the nutrition value, although they love them, brine shrimp have very little nutritional value. Bloodworms are extremely high in protein and can cause swim bladder problems (actually constipation) in some species if fed more than once or maybe twice a week.

Here is a good link on brine shrimp If you look at he side bar, you can click "Feeding" and then "Live Food" and get pretty much all the info you need on them.

 

[Colin_T]

has anyone done the diy brine shrimp hatchery... is it worth it?
Anyone know exactly what blackworms are and the value in feeding them?

In Australia Blackworms are similar to tubifex but cleaner and have less fat.

Brineshrimp are tiny when first hatched and unless you are feeding baby fish or tetras I wouldn't bother using them.
To hatch brineshrimp eggs simply add a 1/4 teaspoon of dry eggs to 1litre of seawater (in a 2litre icecream bucket) and aerate for 24-48 hours. The eggs will hatch out and the orange nauplii (baby shrimp) can be siphoned out of the water and fed off. The eggs get blown up onto the sides of the container so its a good idea to rinse them back into the water (several times a day) with a plant mister.
If you want to raise them you can put the nauplii into a container of seawater with lots of algae floating around in it. After a month they should be close to full grown.

Daphnia and mosquitoe larvae are easier to grow in large numbers.

Adult brineshrimp don't have a lot of nutritional value but some of the better frozen brands are fed on various algae which significantly improves the nutritional value of the shrimp.

 

[cgbender]

Do you have a diy for the growing of Daphnia and mosquitoe larvae. I know its just easyer to buy the frozen stuff and even live nightcarwlers or earthworms but hey its more fun to try your hands at new things or at least read about it and deside whats right for you ... Question anyone know where to find long tongs cheaply?

 

[Colin_T]

try a cooking shop for long tongs

daphnia can be cultured in plastic tubs outside under a tree. Fill a container with freshwater and add a handful of lawn fertiliser. Let the water go green and then add some live daphnia. If you can't get live daphnia add some frozen daphnia. Quite often there will be some females with eggs and the eggs are capable of surviving being frozen. The eggs hatch out the daphnia start to grow.

Mosquitoe larvae will appear in the daphnia ponds but can be encouraged to breed in their own containers. Fill a plastic container with freshwater and place it in a shady spot. Add a heap of lettuce leaves or other plant matter. Leave it for a couple of weeks to rot down and soon you will have mosquito larvae everywhere. After a few weeks the culture will start to clear and this is when you must add more plant matter each day. The rotting plants produce bacteria that feeds paramecium and the mozzie larvae eat the paramecium.

***NB it is illegal to culture mosquito larvae so don't do it ***

I have to say that so I don't get busted.

It is a good idea to keep daphnia cultures covered with mosquito netting or flyscreen so the cultures stay pure.
Quite often you will get little red wrigglers in the mozzie cultres. The red wriggly thing live on the bottom and feed on the rotting plant matter. They are blood worm larvae and can be fed to fish as well. Be careful when feeding live bloodworms because they have hard jaws and heads and have been known to cause problems to angelfish that ate them.
I prefer to freeze the live bloodworms and use them as a frozen food.

Rinse any live food under tapwater for a moment before feeding to help get rid of any unwanted bacteria living on them.

 

[cgbender]

Thats quite informative. Thanks for the info. Its always fun to learn new things.

 

[cgbender]

So I went out and bought some red wigglers (smaller red worms) I have tryed to offer sections, a whole worm, with long tweezers, free floating, and just laying around them. Any suggestions?

 

[cgbender]

Although they look healthy and seem to have no intrest in havening my hands near them, they seem to be enjoying the bloodworms just fine.

 

[Colin_T]

normally you let the food sink to the bottom and eels will simply go and pick it up when hungry. For things like live tubifex worms you can put a shallow bowl in the gravel and add a bit of gravel to the bowl. Then put the live worms in the gravel in the bowl. The worms will stay in the bowl and not hide in the rest of the tank. Not that it really matters much if you have eels or corydoras catfish because they will hunt the worms down wherever they are in the tank.

For other fish simply let the food float around on the surface until it sinks. Most fish will take it from the surface or when it is going through the water.