flake food

[colby]

I once had about seven or so juvie erectus that would eat crushed up flake food if it was given to them in their feeding dish. Unfortunatley I lost the entire brood to a malfuctioning heater (cooked em all )...

Anyway what has been y'alls experience with this...I doubt that even the highest quality flake is nutritionally sufficient, however it could be a nice substitute in a hurry, especially if the entire herd would eat it...

Thanx in advance....

 

[fnicklaus]

That is pretty unusual to get seahorses to eat flake. I have heard of it. If they can eat occasional feedings of flake, it would be good for them. Frozen mysis and copepods are the only non moving food that I had success with.

 

[TamiW]

I can't see anything beneficial about feeding flake to marine fish, let alone seahorses. Even if you could get them to eat it, why bother? You'd have to feed such a large amount you'd surely foul the tank, and the benefit would be extremely questionable.

 

[WaterKeeper]

You where pretty lucky Colby to have ponies that would eat flake but I guess they can be trained as seahorses are ALWAYS hungry. I'd stock the mysis but try a pinch or two of a flake made for carnivorous SW fish. If they ignore it after several tries over a month or so then stick with live or frozen and forget the flake.

 

[colby]

It took about a month of training to get these guys to eat it but they did..

Fishgrrrl...have you ever heard of spot feeding? Its what I do with all of my fish and it works extremely well...eliminates all of the excess food on the ground...

Why bother? Do you not see the benefits in having seahorses accept flake food? Being able to feed your fish a variety of flake and frozen food (perhaps even formula one etc..) would greatly reduce the stress of maintaining these guys...

 

[WaterKeeper]

And I need to agree on that Tami. There are times when it would be great to have horsies that would eat flake as it is so easy to stock an autofeeder with it. As long as flake is not the main course I would say it has benefits.

 

[colby]

Again I am not talking about haphazardly throwing flake in the tank, I just mean since I favor the feeding station method, the flakes dont get sent around the tank and I only feed as much as they will eat...

 

[TamiW]

What I meant was about the volume of food/mess was the amount they'd need to consume to get any nutritional value would make a huge mess in the amount they'd poop out. They'd probably lose a lot out their gills while snicking as well.

I can agree with trying to get them to eat "other" frozen foods, I've been trying to convince some young erectus to take hikari mega-marine. But I really doubt there is any value to flake for them.

 

[whatnot45]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7760546#post7760546 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by colby
It took about a month of training to get these guys to eat it but they did..

Fishgrrrl...have you ever heard of spot feeding? Its what I do with all of my fish and it works extremely well...eliminates all of the excess food on the ground...

Why bother? Do you not see the benefits in having seahorses accept flake food? Being able to feed your fish a variety of flake and frozen food (perhaps even formula one etc..) would greatly reduce the stress of maintaining these guys...

what is spot feeding?

 

[WaterKeeper]

You yell, "Here Spot" and when Spot runs to you just jab the food down his mouth.

I think that means target feeding where you put the food right in front of what you wish to feed.

 

[hydroid]

How old were the juvies?

I never heard of any adult seahorse eating flake food. Even if they did, I doubt they would eat enough to sustain themselves long term. They also wouldn't get the fats they need.

 

[colby]

Hydroid,

I agree with you that even the highest quality flake is not nearly nutritional enough. However the fact that they would eat flake is exciting to me because I believe they will also eat formula one or other frozen foods....

The herd consisted of primarily juvies between 2-3 months of age...

 

[lfduty]

Im going to try and see if the ones that i have will try it.

 

[hydroid]

Colby,

I agree ... if you find a technique for training seahorses to any kind of prepared food, please post details (or write a book that every seahorse keeper will buy). If the technique is repeatable, food specificly formulated for seahorses could be produced and made available.

... I can't even get mine to eat a different brand of mysis ... its PE or hunger strike.