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Junior Member
 
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| I just wanted to share an experience I had this weekend. As I was working in the yard, I noticed a dead roach that was covered in maggots. I remembered reading in an ancient book on aquaria, that before frozen and freeze dried foods many hobbyist feed their fish live, wild collected food. So, I pinched my nose and picked one maggot up, brought it in the house, rinsed it, and then dropped it into my 55 gallon tank. Gone in a second! I went back out side and collected as much as I could with out vomiting. I put them in an old container and snapped the lid on. I have to tell you, that part was rather difficult as the smell was very hard to handle. But, the pay off was awesome. I carefully rinsed them all off and then dropped about a teaspoon of them into the tank. Total pandemonium! My Gold Barbs and Guppies went into a feeding frenzy. My male guppy had the largest appetite and even stuffed himself until there was no room left in his stomach. He was swimming around for about 10mins with one flipping in and out of his mouth. I am posting this because it was very interesting source of good protein for the fish. Do not waste the maggot!
JOHN CHAMPAGNE 55gallon/4wpg t05/pressurized Co2/moderately planted (with the intent of heavily planted) 10goldbarbs,10 olive nerite snails,6 ottos, 2 mollies,three guppies
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Senior Member
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That's an interesting story, but I noticed two things you should be careful of next time:- Always check your source. The reason most aquarists don't use live food sources these days is chemical contamination. These days, if you use fertilizers on your lawn or in your garden (or any other chemicals), then you could inadvertently poison your fish--not a good thing.
- Don't feed your fish so much that they can't fit more in their stomachs. Fish don't have the reflex that we have that tells us that we're full. As such, fish can stuff themselves to death.
"Tears aren't a sign of weakness, they're a sign of poor plumbing." --Dead Men's Lies
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Starting Member
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Last Login: 11/23/2008 4:54:27 AM
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| Live food is great! I culture Daphnia, wingless fruit flies, and have found other types of food in the waters that I collected my daphnia. Just be careful not to introduce pests, and disease into your show tank. So far I haven't had any problems. You can collect daphnia in still waters by sweeping a net in the water. They're common name is water flea, because they jump around in the water like terrestrial fleas, but they don't bite. if you fish you can go to your local baitshop, and buy earthworms or redworms, and chop those up for your fish. Happy bug hunting!
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Senior Member
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Baitshop worms sometimes have chemicals added to their feed that can harm pet fish if fed to them over the long term. If you want live foods, grow your own under controlled conditions to avoid contamination.
"Tears aren't a sign of weakness, they're a sign of poor plumbing." --Dead Men's Lies
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Starting Member
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Last Login: 11/23/2008 4:54:27 AM
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| I didn't know that, about bait shops. I'll have to switch to the pet stores worms. Thanks.
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Senior Member
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| The best live food i've tried grow myself is brine shrimp. David recomeneded it to me when by German blue rams spawned as a food to feed the fry. I bought a hatchery a while back to try it out. It worked great. Really easy and safe for the fish. Not expensive either. The fish went nuts for it. I also feed live blackworms from time to time. (I get mine from a reputable source.) Next month (if the wife lets me :) ) I'm going to try to start up a white worm culture. Live foods are great as an occasional treat, or for conditioning certain types of fish for breeding. It should not be the staple food in you fishes diet. A lot of the flakes and pellet foods out there give your fish most of the nutrition they need. Unless your fish are carnivores their is no need to give your fish live foods on a regular basis. You may do more harm then good. There is a really good thread that was started up a few months ago about various types of foods to feed to your fish. It's in the pinned topics section under "food" or "fish food" It's a great post if your are interested in expanding your fishes diet.
__________________________________________ 46 Gallon Tank Planted-1 Female German Ram-5 Gymnogeophagus Sp. Norte-6 Class N Endlers Black Bars (Pure Strain)-4 Otto Cats 25 Gallon Planted (High tech)- Two Bolivian Rams- 10 endlers/guppy cross 10 Gallon Tank Planted. (At the office)-6 Class N Endlers Black Bars (Pure Strain)
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Starting Member
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Last Login: 11/23/2008 4:54:27 AM
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