Do NOT feed Tubifex worms!!!

[Chucky]

I learned the hard way.

For years and years, tubifex was a staple 'treat' for fish. I fed a cube to my new discus, and it wiped one of them out utterly.

Turns out that tubifex comes from the foulest water imaginable, and there is NO way to get them entirely cleaned.

NEVER EVER feed tubifex worms to your fish - no matter how much they like them. I threw out $20 worth when I found out.
Stick with Brine Shrimp.

 

[danmhippo]

Not exactly, you can farm your own tubifex with green water, cereal, and yeast. I would not blame the death to your fish death.

Whatever live food you decided to feed to your fish, you will be taking chances as there are virtually no way to ensure the quality of the feed. Brine shrimp is one of the un-nutritional food you can offer to your fish, marine or freshy.

 

[Chucky]

That's a suprising statement. I've seen my fish grow a LOT faster with brine shrimp - not to mention the excitement it gets out of angels.

What support do you have for that idea?

 

[danmhippo]

There are hundreds of hits on the internet if you type in "brine shrimp nutritional value" on yahoo or googles. I think you should see for yourself.

I remembered way back Dr. Rob Toonen wrote an article on live food in the Advanced Aquarist online Magazine.

The same is true of adult brine: they are largely devoid of nutritional value when you purchase them at the local petshop, and it is important to enrich them before feeding brine shrimp to your fish.

It's the newly hatched brine shrimp that still has its yolk sac attached that is high in nutrition. The yolk sac absorbed within the first 12 hours or so, and after that, unless you gut feed the artemia, otherwise it's nothing more than a shell that you are feeding to your fish.

 

[danmhippo]

Your fish gets excitement when they discovered live food's presence. But,don't confuse predator instinct with nutritional benefit.

 

[Chucky]

How about Sally's froz brine shrimp? I'm guessing they either catch them from the bay, or else raise them themseklves - they must have food in the gut. There is a min guaranteed analysis anyway:

ehrm...5% protein.

Maybe it's trace elements that flake food doesn't have. I dunno. I just know my fish are a damn sight better with all the extra frozen foods they get, including blood worms, daphnia.

New Topic coming on...

 

[danmhippo]

Actually, if you have a few buckets standy by, you can make some green water and get your daphnia population going. Daphnia fed with green water is very nutritious for your FW fish.

Artemia can be nutritious too. Just need to make sure they pack enough stuffs down before using them. However, it's too much hassle to raise artemia as you will need SW standy by, and it's not like FW zoo plankton that their water can be changed fairly easily.

I mentioned about raising tubifex before, I've never intentionally tried to raise them myself, but have friend that do that. It's just old tank water, green water, yeast and cereal (fermented). It is something you could make yourself.

 

[danmhippo]

You have SW tanks too, right? I think your FW fish will get excited over PE MYSIS shrimp. They are very high in protein and fat. Something else to consider.

 

[Anonymous]

as jimmy stated, ( ) brine shrimp are nuttin but fish candy-mostly shell and good tasting-ok to use as an occasional treat, but very bad to use as a diet staple

the exception are artemia nauplii, for their first 72 hours or so of life, before they molt, and lose their yolk, which is very very nutritious-almost all protien

freezing brine shrimp does nothing to improve their food value-if anything, it increases the risk of adding more pollution, if they aren't rinsed off properly in a net before feeding-the 'juice' that frozen w/them is pure waste and pollution

adult brine can also constipate a fish by forming an 'impaction' in the intestine, from all af the shell material-they can literally form a plug in the fish's g.i. tract

the whole thing about tubifex being unclean stems from the way they were collected decades ago-when they were mostly harvested from the 'wild'-nowadays they are fairly clean and disease free

my guess is the tubifex were being overfed-most folks severely overfeed their fish (jewish/italian mother syndrome :wink: )

hth

 

[Anonymous]

That's a suprising statement. I've seen my fish grow a LOT faster with brine shrimp - not to mention the excitement it gets out of angels.

What support do you have for that idea?

In my simple 10g salt years back I could not get sea horses to last longer than10 months or so. they looked like they were starving with caved in bellies. And I fed heavily.

I have heard that such things as cylopeez, mysis, squid, and others are much better.

But the fish do like eating the live brine. But I also insure they get other foods also.

 

[Anonymous]

That's a suprising statement. I've seen my fish grow a LOT faster with brine shrimp - not to mention the excitement it gets out of angels.

What support do you have for that idea?

looking at a brine shrimp under a microscope, and seeing what it is, is really all the backup/support you'll ever need :wink:

 

[Chucky]

The parts and protuberances coul be soft. Who knows? Fish must go apeshit over them for some reason. Having a donut now and then won't kill you ...just eating them for every meal each day, right?

 

[hillbilly]

I've just started feeding my discus red wigglers a couple times a week. Lots of protein, and the fish go crazy for them! Got to be one of the cheapest live foods around.