What I do to keep fish healthy

[Reefsi]

Just wanted to post on this and say thank you! I adapted your feeding regimen and all my fish took to the clams and live blackworms like never before. I feed a varied diet of Live blackworms, Chopped clams from the store, nori, and brine shrimp soaked in selcon. It seems as if my fish have changed colors over night.

Thanks again!

 

[Paul B]

That's great. Soon they will be break dancing but they make a lot of noise when they do that. You can eliminate the brine shrimp soaked in Selcon but that is just my opinion as I believe live worms are much better than brine shrimp or Selcon.
I only feed the clams, live worms and frozen Mysis but I don't even need the Mysis.
If you keep feeding like that your fish will spawn and almost never get any diseases, except maybe social diseases.
Don't tell anyone about this or everyone will know then there would be no reason for disease threads and these forums will have a lot of blank space on them. :dance:

 

[Reeferz412]

I feed clam thanks to Paul, im gonna jump the blackworm train soon. I still feed brine, mysis, and bloodworms to diversify the diet. Along with jumbo krill and seaweed with ocean nutrition flake food (put it through a food processor) for when I am in a rush.

 

[Whiterabbitrage]

I've tried live blackworms and my fish won't eat them. Why? Even my wrasse, who is a pig and eats everything, he wouldn't even try the blackworms. I offered them several times. Started raising the blackworms myself so as to keep trying to get fish to eat them. Never was successful. Seems other people's fish take to the worms right away. Is there a trick to it?

 

[Paul B]

I still feed brine, mysis, and bloodworms to diversify the diet.

You should eliminate the bloodworms which are insect larvae and not a real good fish food.

Morgan, your fish are pinheads, what can I tell you. Let them watch some National Geographic specials as all fish are supposed to love worms. :wavehand:
Are you sure you are feeding live California blackworms? I don't know what to tell you.
Here is a video of my fish eating worms, Every fish in this video is spawning except the copperband. I would say he is spawning but I don't think I could get away with it.

 

[tmz]

I've fed small amounts of midge fry larvae( bloodworms ) as part of the mix I feed for years . My fish like them and are healthy and long lived..

It's a very useful food as a supplemental part of the diet meeting many needs but is not a good primary food source. This breaks it down:


Nutrients

• 6-8% protein and iron rich. However, it doesn't have a wide range of amino acids, so do not feed as a primary food supply.
• Give it as a treat once or twice per week.
• Not recommended as a single source of food due to its very low protein levels.

Typical analysis as published by Ocean Nutrition of their frozen blood worm

Ingredients

Blood worms, vitamins (ascorbic acid, beta carotene, biotin, hydroxocobalamin [source of vitamin B12], niacin, riboflavin, thiamine HCL), amino acids (methionine [dl-methionine], l-lysine, taurine), and trace elements (calcium chloride, potassium iodide, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, magnesium carbonate, zinc sulphate).


Guaranteed Analysis

• Crude Protein (min) 8.3%
• Crude Fat (min) 1.2%
• Crude Fiber (max) 3.9%
• Moisture (max) 81.7%
• (Protein as a percentage of dry matter - 45.3%)

 

[Paul B]

I've fed small amounts of midge fry larvae( bloodworms ) as part of the mix I feed for years . My fish like them and are healthy and long lived..

They sound delicious, I may add some to my salad tonight. :lol:

 

[Reeferz412]

Good to know. I don't feed bloodworms daily as they can be a pain to cut up, but knowing its not good as a daily regiment is good info. I will keep that in mind.

 

[Whiterabbitrage]

Morgan, your fish are pinheads, what can I tell you. Let them watch some National Geographic specials as all fish are supposed to love worms. :wavehand:
Are you sure you are feeding live California blackworms? I don't know what to tell you.

I was feeding Cyprichromis Utinta. California blackworms, right? I hope...
I culturered them, gut loaded them, washed them, then added them to DT to watch my fish swim away. Pinheads huh? Hmmm. No disagreement here! I showed the male McCoskers a picture of a female McCoskers ( held up the iPad with a female pix) and he freaked out and hid for 20 minutes peeking out from between the rocks to be sure she was gone. Pinhead!

After reading your success story with blackworms tho, I'll try again. Thanks for the info Paul.

 

[Paul B]

OK but just take the California blackworms from the store and feed them to your fish. Don't wash them, gut load them, read to them or anything else. Just feed them. Gut loading blackworms is a waste of gut loading as they are filter feeders and eat bacteria and products of decomposition so they are probably just using your gut loading stuff for cologne or under arm deodorant or breath mints. And they already have that nice worm scent that you want to wash off so just throw them in your tank.

 

[Whiterabbitrage]

Gotcha :thumbsup:

 

[Betta132]

So you're saying to feed saltwater fish whole seafood and worms.

I'm just sitting here wondering why this isn't obvious.

Totally gotta start doing that. I bet I can get some fish oil capsules from my dad, for starters.

Any suggestions on feeding freshwater fish? Little ones like tetras and rasboras, mostly.

 

[Indusrty]

What about Actual Bloodworms? I have a few friends who are worm diggers up here in Maine. Freeze then cut into bite size chunks. easier for me to get than Blackworms(local pet stores dont seem to carry them)Thanks.

 

[billsreef]

What about Actual Bloodworms? I have a few friends who are worm diggers up here in Maine. Freeze then cut into bite size chunks. easier for me to get than Blackworms(local pet stores dont seem to carry them)Thanks.

A good marine worm is going to be leaps and bounds more nutritional for marine fish than freshwater blackworms There is a marked difference in HUFA's between marine and fresh water based foods. Marine fish are designed to eat marine based food sources

 

[Indusrty]

A good marine worm is going to be leaps and bounds more nutritional for marine fish than freshwater blackworms There is a marked difference in HUFA's between marine and fresh water based foods. Marine fish are designed to eat marine based food sources

Other than Overfeeding is there any chance I will be introducing unwanted things into my tank? Any better ideas on how to prep them? I thought maybe a freshwater rinse, then freeze. chop into 1/16" chunks. feed.

 

[billsreef]

Fresh water rinse would likely take care of most likely issues. Freezing first will kill anything for sure.

 

[Indusrty]

Thanks for the quick response! :beer:

 

[usmc1812]

Nutrition is the key to keeping healthy fish. I feed nothing but New Era pellets and grazers. The best food on the market. Everything else is garbage nothing but fillers.

 

[Whiterabbitrage]

Tried feeding Blackworms again. Fresh, unrinsed, just as you suggested Paul.
Results are in:
Blennies thought they were ok
Goby tried them, was not impressed
Wrasses refuse to even try them. Pinheads!

I've heard of Pintail Wrasses but not Pinhead Wrasses.

Anyone know where to get marine feeder worms? Bill's idea sounds good, if I can find the worms.

 

[Paul B]

Anyone know where to get marine feeder worms? Bill's idea sounds good, if I can find the worms.

Saltwater worms are great, but you have to dig them out of the sand at the beach. Or you can buy them from a bait shop but the ones they sell are about a foot long.