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Hi everyone. I've had my fish tank for about a month and a half and had only fed them TetraColor fish flakes. I realized that varying the diet is important so I today I also bought freeze dried blood worms and algae wafers which I will use a couple times a week. I've heard that live food such as brine shrimp is good, especially for a treat, but it's hard for me to get out very much (in a college dorm in Nowheresville w/o a car). Do you think I should only get them live food when I'm randomly out in town, or would it be worth it to raise brine shrimp?

at first i fed my fish flakes but then was suggested to have a go with frozzen and live food. After a week of feeding them frozzen i noticed there health and activity realy improved. I feed my fish broken up flakes in the morning and frozzen food in the evening. I only feed them live food when i find it. It it is manly somthing fun for the fish to chase and as a treat. I found that it is not a big diffrence between feeding them live or frozzen. Also if u put brineshrimp as food into a freshwater tank dont u have to wash them first i might be wrong

Try to vary their diet & Freed Dried Bloodworms are very good. Try to feed them Flakes in the morning & Freed Dried Bloodworms in the evening.

You can feed them Live Food when you can get some & don't worry much it.

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Live and frozen food is a great way to bring fish into breeding condition. Given your lack of mobility, I would use frozen foods, particularly bloodworms, as a treat for your fish. It has good nutritional value and is easier to keep than live food.

Bloodworms are aquatic insect larva. They are called bloodworms because they resemble worms and are red. Nutritional value is higher than brine shrimp, either frozen or live.



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Just be careful with live food, I'm sure I've read on this site that it can be a good way to introduce disease or parasites to your tank. Juwel-180 is right, you should rinse brine shrimp before you feed them to your fish. Not sure how bad a risk it is - I only know that the only time I've suffered a disease outbreak occurred shortly after I introduced live food (could be a coincidence).

As you suggest raising your own brine shrimp, that is one way to make sure you're getting clean food source. I'm sure your fish would appreciate the effort.

I have not bought live food for many years as I am still to be convienced it does not bring problems into the tank.

I also never use freeze dried food either it should/must be soaked first other wise it can and will expand in the fishes stomach and this could cause other problems.

I use frozen Blood Worm three times a week. I disolve then in a cup of tank water first, then spread them over the surface of the tank water.

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I've used live food for 11 years. However, mine is obtained from a source with a good provenance, which helps a LOT.

Get a source of live food with a good provenance, or better still, cultivate your own from known good starter material, and teh benefits far outweigh any risks. Live food brings fishes into breeding condition quicker than any other food, helps to keep fishes healthier, and when disease strikes, helps to shorten convalescence times. I've witnessed this first hand - Cardinal Tetras, for example, recover from fin rot twice as quickly if fed live foods while being medicated. I've seen the difference it makes and consequently have no problem recommending live foods. It's one of the reasons, along with my scrupulous attention to aquarium maintenance, why my Panda Corys spawn so often.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Frozen is convenient because you can stock up and use it a few times a week, meaning it should last a while. My fish take to it as well as live

~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Oh yes, almost forgot ...

Brine Shrimp are live food organisms that come free of risks. You hatch the eggs in brine, raise the baby shrimps, then feed them to your fishes. Since they originate from salt lakes that have no resident fish population, they don't carry with them any organisms that attack fishes, for the simple reason that there ARE no fishes for any such organisms to migrate to in their native waters. Some of the lakes have a salt content in the water that is as much as thirty five percent - that's ten times stronger than sea water. That is, of course, before they dry up.

Never ceases to amaze me the environments in which things adapt to live. One striking example is the Flamingoes in Lake Natron in Africa - they nest on raised mineral deposits in the soda lake because nothing else would dare step in the water, because it's alkaline enough to be caustic and cause chemical burns, and is heated by volcanic upwellings to temperatures in excess of 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Here is a page that briefly describes Lake Natron, "the most caustic lake in the world".

EDIT : just found another page on Lake Natron. Apparently there are streams flowing into it, and there is a Tilapia living in these streams that makes short dashes into the lake proper to feed upon small invertebrates that have adapted to live in the scaling, caustic lake. Here's the [link]NASA Earth Observatory Page[/link] briefly mentioning these fishes.

Having introduced everyone to that interesting tangential diversion, I'll now return you to normal service.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002