Looking for live food (pros and cons?)

[sarovina]

Does anyone have some ilve food that I can get a culture of? I have been feeding my fish (bettas, convicts, mollies and platties) some delish frozen bloodworms and larvae, but think they might appreciate something alive and wiggly.

I am not sure that it is necessarily better, as most people I ask have pros and cons to live/frozen. I would appreciate some feedback or info.

Does anyone know if you can feed flightless fruit flies to your fish? That might be interesting.

[MbunaMargy]

Sarovina:

Supplementing your fishes' diets with live and/or frozen food provides nutrients that may not be available even in the best-balanced flake or pellet food, and will enhance their color and often their behavior. If you are planning on breeding specific fish, heavier than usual feedings of live food will bring them into breeding condition faster, and may result in more and healthier fry.

When it comes to raising the fry, live food that is small enough for the fry to eat is essential to success. I had no luck raising baby angelfish until we got a microworm culture, for instance.

The major drawback of live (and frozen) food is that it can foul a tank faster than an accumulation of flake food. If you feed live food, you have to be prepared to siphon out any excess that is not eaten before it starts decaying and causing problems.

I haven't used live wingless fruit flies because I do not know where to get them, but I have know people who did, and claimed their fish loved them. (You obviously do not want winged ones that will fly around looking for your bananas or whatever.) I had a problem with birdseed or pantry moths, and when I found the little brown weevils from them, I tossed them into the tanks with my young angel fish, who gobbled them up almost as soon as they hit the top of the water in the tank.

If you have access to live foods, try them, and see how your fish like it, and see if it makes a difference. Just make sure that you clean up any residual uneaten food, so that it doesn't make a negative difference in your fishes' environment.

[Fate]

Originally Posted by sarovina @ Thu Feb 17, 2005 4:48 pm

Does anyone have some ilve food that I can get a culture of? **** ****.

This is my first post, so I hope I'm doing this right! I'm also looking for some culture starter. I suppose I could order some online, but I'd rather get it locally. Specifically, I'm looking for microworms and vinegar eels. Any suggestions?

[fishfarm]

We frequently have live food cultures at the monthly meeting for the after meeting auction. I can bring anyone a starter daphnia culture, Just e-mail to remind me before the meeting or I'll forget. Ken

[wrenchpuler]

I'll have to check with my wife, but I believe we will have Microworm starter cultures available in a few days. Just split them and sent some out, but more will be available soon. Pm if interested.

Jake

[AquaticEnterprises]

Microworms and vinegar eels will only really be usable for small fish, as they're quite tiny. I haev cultures of both going if you have no luck otherwise. Daphnia may be useful for larger fish, but again most of them don't get very large and won't be able to sustain them.

Keep in mind as well that these live foods are simply carriers, and their nutrition levels will be determined by what they eat. For Daphnia, this usually means greenwater (phytoplankton). Microworms are usually the easiest to feed, as you can simply sprinkle some flake food or other supplements on top of them.

[Damon]

http://www.livefoodcultures.com