What do you guys do for food?

[Dave_davis1987]

Hi everyone,

Just wondering what everyone does for food for their tropical fish?

At the moment I’ve been feeding them frozen bloodworm and daphnia and flakes, but wondering if maybe you guys grow and breed shrimp and daphnia for food, or anything else?

The flakes are expensive for what they are, so considering what my options are really.

Keen to hear everyone’s thought and ideas, and how you guys go about getting a good source of quality food for your fish.

thanks!
Dave

 

[seangee]

Hi and
It is definitely worth feeding "premium" foods. They need so little it lasts for ages and a lot of brands, even the well known ones, are mostly filler. For the last few years I have been using New Life Spectrum and Omega One almost exclusively. These have become very expensive in the UK and (now) are difficult to source. I did see some Northfin on Amazon that ticked all the boxes at reasonable prices, but in the end I placed an order yesterday for Dennerle foods as they are much cheaper than what I have been using and more likely to remain easy to get (German brand).

I try to feed a variety, flakes or micro pellets depending on the fish, algae wafers and shrimp pellets. I also use Fluval bug bites as a treat but probably won't order again as some of the Dennerle stuff I ordered has a high insect content. Once a week they get Tetra Delica as a treat - this one is new to me but the fish seem to like it . I don't bother with frozen or freeze dried food as its not particularly nutritious and food like bloodworm should not be fed more than once a week anyway. I occasionally (rarely) collect daphnia but must confess I am nervous about introducing pathogens with live food - and what I do feed already meets all their needs.

 

[Essjay]

I currently have:
Northfin micro pellets
Northfin Bug-pro
Northfin betta bits
Northfin kelp wafers
Omega One flake

The betta food is for my betta (obviously) and the rest are for the community tank.
I buy all of these from Ebay.

I also have frozen food which I feed just once a week (daphnia, brine shrimp and bloodworm)

 

[Dave_davis1987]

Thanks, I’ll have a look into these, didn’t realise bloodworms were a treat, id been feeding them these almost everyday!

eta I’ve got some Northfin pellets and omega one flakes.

both from eBay,
Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[Colin_T]

Get some raw prawn, whitebait, blue sardines, some sort of white fish, and some squid or octopus. Mince them up and mix them up well, then put them in plastic bags. Make them into sheets about 4-6mm thick and freeze them.

You can also add spinach or marine algae to the mixture to add plant mater to the fish's diet.

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The following link has information on culturing food for baby fish but it includes Daphnia and a few other foods.

Back to Basics when Breeding Fish

STARTING OUT Make sure you have a pair, (1 male + 1 female). There is nothing worse than spending your hard-earned dollars buying a couple of fish to try and breed and ending up with a pair of fish of the same sex. Let's face it, to reproduce fish you need a male and a female. Two males won't do...

www.fishforums.net

 

[Dave_davis1987]

Great link colin, thanks. Lots of useful information.
I’ve saved the page for future reference, thank you!

 

[Metalhead88]

What kind of fish do you have?

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I have always used Tetra brand food.

I could never afford all of the food that @essjay mentioned, lol.

 

[fish48]

I cultivate my own live foods my fish are mainly fed on live foods I have available all year round earthworms, white worms, grindal worms, banana worms , daphnia, and fruit flies, when available during the summer months mosquito larvae and bloodworm, prepared food a normal flake and pellet . household food boiled egg, muscle, and beef heart, spinach, courgette and cucumber,

 

[Dave_davis1987]

What kind of fish do you have?

a mix, across two tanks.
In my larger 90g tank I have 15 guppies, 2 rainbow cichlids, tetras, platys, danios, mountain minnows and harlequins.

on my smaller tank I have gouramis, kribensis and blue acaras.
Thanks

 

[Dave_davis1987]

I cultivate my own live foods my fish are mainly fed on live foods I have available all year round earthworms, white worms, grindal worms, banana worms , daphnia, and fruit flies, when available during the summer months mosquito larvae and bloodworm, prepared food a normal flake and pellet . household food boiled egg, muscle, and beef heart, spinach, courgette and cucumber,

that’s impressive!
I’d love the be able to cultivate my own natural food for them.

 

[fish48]

that’s impressive!
I’d love the be able to cultivate my own natural food for them.

have recently cut back on the number of fish tanks to give me more shelf space and room for live foods i have two large water butts for daphnia I now have 65 fish tanks so still a lot of fish to feed

 

[Dave_davis1987]

have recently cut back on the number of fish tanks to give me more shelf space and room for live foods i have two large water butts for daphnia I now have 65 fish tanks so still a lot of fish to feed

Respect man, that’s some dedication

 

[fish48]

Respect man, that’s some dedication

I have kept fish for a very long time and have not had less than 60 tanks since 1990

 

[AbbeysDad]

In the old days, many fish foods were made with low quality fish meals (cannery waste) and lots of grain/grain starch as filler/binder. Now a days, many QUALITY fish foods are still made with fish meal, but it's WHOLE fish meal (big difference - although it's surely not table quality fish!).
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For prepared commercial food I mix Tetramin Tropical Flakes with Omega One Tropical Flakes and often a 3rd high quality flake food. According to Chris Stoll, Marketing Mgr. with Spectrum Brands, Tetramin is made with "fishmeal made with whole fish not from fish waste or remains". Omega One is made with fresh fish, although they do not claim to be whole fish...perhaps the fresh salmon remains after fillets are cut out?
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I also culture live foods. Micro worms (for fry), a warm temperature strain of white worms (incredibly prolific), and daphnia. In warm weather I also culture daphnia (and collect mosquito larvae) in outdoor bins. White worms are a super food with 70% protein and 15% fat. Some worry about feeding to often, but I've communicated with breeders that feed every day and swear by it.
I have written articles on live food cultures, published in our club newsletter. If you PM me with an email address I can send a PDF or two along.