Flake Foods:
Some of the most widely
used forms of flake foods are produced by Tetra (TetraMin®),
Omega, Hikari, and others. Each company also produces specialized flake foods, such as those
high in vegetable matter for herbivors (fish who primarily eat plants and
algae).
A good general rule is to make sure
the flake food you buy is 45% - 50% protein. If your fish our herbivores (plant
eaters), then you wish to get a flake food that is higher in vegetable matter,
algae flakes, etc. You also wish to look at the amount of fiber and phosphates
in the formula. Fiber, because this helps prevent intestinal blockages, which
are fatal. Phosphates, because their accumulation in your aquarium from daily
feeding will lead to algae problems. Algae needs phosphates to grow.
Brine Shrimp:
Frozen adult brine shrimp is an
excellent food, although not as high in protein as newly hatched brine shrimp (nauplii),
but the shells may help prevent constipation. Once a fish has an intestinal
blockage, this is usually fatal as metabolic wastes cannot be removed and their
toxic levels increase.
Do note that thawing the chunk of
frozen brine shrimp in a small container and then spoon feeding your fish is the
best and most enjoyable way to feed brine shrimp. Frozen brine shrimp (actually
they've also been called "sea monkeys") is readily available at most local
fish shops.
Live newly hatched brine shrimp (nauplii)
is a great fish food and excellent source of protein. For many species of fish,
newly hatched brine shrimp is the first food for newly hatched fry fish. I've
also found that when conditioning adult fish for spawning, that regular feeding
of newly hatched brine shrimp seems to help induce spawning. Now this is a
theory, not scientifically tested by me, but it almost seems that if the parents
know there is sufficient food supply for fry, this helps them to decide to
spawn, in addition to the protein that they get from eating the nauplii in their
breeding conditioning. Again, this is theory, but darn it...IT WORKS!!!
Hatching live baby brine shrimp
nauplii:
This is not rocket
science, but does take a few trials to really get a knack and the maximum
yield. In a quart jar add 2 tablespoons of aquarium or seasalt. Most of the
boxes/bags of aquarium salt will have brine shrimp hatching instructions on
them. After all of the salt is dissolved, vigorously aerate by adding an
airstone, add 1/4 teaspoon of brine shrimp eggs, and put a light near this jar.
The light is necessary for the nauplii and it also produces heat. Depending
upon the temperature (78 - 80° F) the nauplii hatch in about 24-36 hours. After
24 hours or so, remove the airstone and let the water settle. After a few
minutes, the darker egg shells will float to the top. Also, nauplii are
phototropic (gather near the light) so it will be easy to see them jiggle/swim
and to remove them.
Using some air tubing, siphon out
the water into a funnel lined with a coffee filter or similar. Be careful not
to get too many egg shells and after a few times of doing this, you'll be able
to siphon down to about 1/8 to 1/16 of an inch of water remaining, without
collecting egg shells. After all of the water has drained out of the coffee
filter, you'll have an orange spot at the apex of the filter that when you look
at it, you'll see the movement of the nauplii. Invert this filter into a cup or
small container with FRESH water in it. The nauplii immediately leave the
coffee filter. Using a pipette or eye-dropper, collect the nauplii and feed
the fish.
White worms:
White worms (Enchytrae) are an
excellent live food. Caution to try to raise these in a more controlled medium
is indicated, because white worms, like black worms and tubifex, have the
possibility of carrying bacteria and other harmful parasites. There are many
methods for culturing white worms.
In a plastic container, add about an
inch of a very damp mixture of 50% peat moss and 50% soil. Add a starter of
white worms and then a little food. Food for grindals is either a little bit of
Gerber's baby cereal or a few small pieces of dampened bread. As with Grindal
worms, white worms can be fed small pieces of moist bread, baby cereal or
oatmeal.
Grindal worms:
Live Grindal worms are an excellent
source of food for killies, guppies and other fish. Certainly for fry after
they reach a size big enough to eat grindals. This is usually after about a
week to 10 days, depending upon the species of fish, after they've been eating
brine shrimp nauplii.
Grindal worms are a small worm than
blood worms, black worms, & whilte worms. They easy to culture, and to feed to
fish. In a plastic container, add about an inch of a very damp mixture of 50%
peat moss and 50% soil. Add a starter of grindal worms and then a little food.
Food for grindals is either a little bit of Gerber's baby cereal or a few
small pieces of dampened bread.
Store your grindal worm culture in a
covered container and in a cool and dark place you will not need to cover the
peat moss. About every three of four days the food should be gone. As the worms
finish up their food they hang around the food area and are ready for harvest. .
Simply take a small sampling of the grindals that will be near the bread feeding
themselves and feed these directly into the tanks. I usually rest a micrope
slide at an angle in the medium and against the side of the container. Grindals
are usually on it (if placed near piece of bread) and simply dip the slid in the
tank and feed worms to fish. Be careful to not overfeed.
Microworms
Microworms are an excellent first food for fry too small to eat newly
hatched brine shrimp nauplii.. Setting up microworm culture is easy. Add some
Gerber baby oat cereal, or Cream of Wheat, into a small disposable plastic
container Add water and stir this into a paste. Add some dry baking yeast to
this. You want this a little thick, because when the culture matures, water
being the waste of the microworms thins out the medium over time. Add the
microworm starter culture, medium included..
Infusoria/Green Water
Infusoria is a general name for
microscopic organisms like protozoa, euglena, etc. that are excellent and most
often necessary first foods for tiny fry fish.
Starting and feeding infusoria, or
green water, cultures is easy. When you clean the algae off the glass of your
aquarium, simply save this and any other algae you remove from the aquarium, and
add some of the aquarium water in a quart to a gallon jar and place it in the
strongest area of sunlight and where it will get the maximum number of hours of
direct sunlight. You can also add water from the little basin under your house
plant, as this usually contains many micro-organisms that will flourish in
populations in a green water culture. Add to this, even if you have algae, a
small piece of wilted lettuce or a dying leaf from a houseplant. Putting in a
few snails also helps to cultivate green water and prevent contamination.
The water is green, because of the
chlorophyll in and photosynthesis of the algae and the protozoan consumption of
that algae. Occasionally, you will need to start a fresh culture, using 1/4 of
the water from your existing culture as the seed. If the culture begins to
smell too fowl, then it is time to start a new one and initial aeration with an
airstone, will help retard the growth of anaerobic bacteria cultures that smell
foul (same for aquariums and it is the anaerobes that make fish sick).
Feeding green water is easy. Simply
put some in the water with your fry. I also put some of the algae from the
green water culture in their with the fry too. I've seen this to work well with
very small killifish and tetra fry, until they were large enough for microworms
and vinegar eels.
Feeder Fish
If you are going to raise cichlids and
other larger fish, it doesn't hurt to have a tank of feeder guppies handy, or
have a local fish shop that has these cheap. Although there are commercially
prepared foods that are formulated (many in pellets) to meet the nutritional
requirement of larger species of fish, feeder guppies and baby feeder guppies
are a great source of food for these fish, certainly if you have intention of
spawning them.
For those fish who are preditors, you
can also try to feed pieces of squid, or when you open a can of tuna packed
in water, you can feed small pieces of tuna.
Collected Live Foods
There are many worms,
bugs, creatures & critters you can collect in the wild and feed to your fish.
However, you need to compare what you can collect, with what your species eats
in the wild from where it comes. Not all fish eat worms. A word of caution
about collecting, in that if there is a disease, parasite, bacteria, etc. that
is growing in stagnant water in the wild, you may introduce it to you fish. It
is usually best to try to collect, culture in more controlled (sanitary)
conditions and then feed to fish.
Mosquito larvae are a very good form
of nutrition for fish. This is certainly true of guppies, platy, swordtails,
and killifish; all which are also known as "Mosquito Fish".
Daphnia (water fleas) are a food
similar to brine shrimp (but are freshwater) and can also be collected at ponds.
Culturing is easy. Put your collected sample in a gallon jar of water, throw
in a small piece of lettuce and let sit in the sunlight.
