Foods for fishes..

[vikas]

What is the best food available for the fishes in tha market esp for neon tetra.. Which one is best like tetrabit , hikari , dried blood worms or any other?

[SCORPIO]

Tetra bits is the best food for all types of fishes.

[vijendra_s123]

Someone asked the same question in some other forum 'What is the best food for fish', you are asking the best food available commercially, but again I would like to stress that you can culture your own food (Live) at home, which would any day be better than any commercially available food.

I am copy pasting my reply to that guy here -

I majorly feed different types of live food to all my Fish. This is the cheapest and most nutritious food that one can offer to his Fish.

The kind of live food I feed adult fish –

Microworms – Suitable for small fish like tetras, smaller killifish like the nothobranchius genus, small cyprinids like the boraras.
All you need to get your culture going is a small plastic container, a slice of bread and a starter culture (I don’t use any yeast as I have experienced that addition of yeast leads to early deterioration of the culture, and a crashed microworms culture is enough of a reason to get you kicked out of your house).

Microfex/Romifex – Found in Delhi by a good friend of mine – Romi Abhimanyu. This is the one I use the most to feed all sorts of fish from slightly larger fry (1 month and above) to my WC Peruvians. All you need is a medium plastic container, some scotch brite pads and powdered oat meal and offcourse a starter culture.

Grindal worms – I sparingly use them especially to condition fish as it is a serious weight gainer for fish due to its high fat content. All you need is some cocopeat, powdered oat meal or some cat or dog food (works the best) and do I need to mention a starter culture. They need cooler climate as compared to Romifex, so it is my winter food in the harsh Delhi winter.

Adult Brine Shrimps – Its fairly easy to raise BBS (baby brine shrimps) that one hatches to feed tiny fry. Use a small tank or a small tub add an airline to it for some circulation and feed spirulina powder to the BBS and you are ready to go. This would be expensive as compared to other live food just because of the cost of good quality brine shrimp eggs.

Meal Worms (Tenebrio molitor) – Suitable for large fish, I use them to feed my Channa andrao. Again easy to culture. All you need is a large plastic box with tight fitting and some holes drilled on top, a base of oat meal, a few slices of sliced potatoes to provide them some moisture and a starter culture.

Mosquito Larve – This is literally free, all you need to do is place a tub filled with aged aquarium water in your balcony or under a tree in your compound and net those buggers every second day. You should ensure that you rigorously net the larvae out or empty the tub on a periodic basis for the safety of your family and neighbors.

Compost worms (Eisenia fetida) – What you would need
1. A worm bin
2. Some bedding
3. Food Waste
4. Worm Culture

Take a big enough container (preferably the big flat plastic ones that we normally get in any shop selling plastic products such as buckets, containers used to store food etc…). Make small holes beneath for drainage of any excess water. Add some soil used for potting plants, some compost, a few pieces of cardboard (helps to keep the culture moist and is also a good source of food for the wrigglers) and some food waste.
Add your culture to the box and sprinkle some water from the top, ensure that you don’t flood the container as the worms would drown in the water. Add some food waste as and when required (depends on the number of worms that are there in the container). They will start multiplying within no time if provided the right conditions to thrive.
Now this is food produced literally from feeding kitchen waste, what more does one want…:)

Feed a variety of even live foods and not just one particular wriggler as their nutritional value differs. Feed frozen and some good quality pellets or flakes sparingly along with live food to fulfil your Fishes' nutritional needs.

People complain that they dont want to keep live food cultures because they stink. Well only cultures that have CRASHED stink, if you are responsible enough to start a new one before the one that is running crashes you will never have to face the stinking problem. It is just like stinking water from a fish tank which has not been maintained in a long time, will you throw out your Fish then because the water they were in started to stink??

[Romi]

To add to Rajiv and Vijjy's posts (vijjy has left hardly anything for anyone to say more about the best food of all-LIVE), i must stress that after Tetrabits, i have found Hikari to be great. But hard to find on shops in NCR, unlike Tetrabits which is thank god in all good shops, i have to get Hikari from www.ebay.in

Always feed the best food. Fish are cheap but fish food is not, but it is even more expensive to have your fish die, then get more fish, and have them die again, and go on and on like that. all hobbyists must remember, it is better to have few fish that are healthy and well fed, than a hundred fish that live short lives and wither away... both morally and financially speaking.

[SCORPIO]

Vijendra it is not possible to all the aquarists to culture the live foods.

I am agree that the quality of Hikari is good in comparison of Tetra but Tetra bits is easily available.

[vikas]

thank you guys... keeping live food at home is a problem.. btw which hikari food romi bhai as there are lots of variety available..

[Romi]

Vikas Bhai, i like pellets from Hikari. i buy mini pellets. This page shows some lovely choices in Hikari for you

http://www.ebay.in/sch/i.html?_from=R40 ... s&_sacat=0

[Romi]

Vijendra it is not possible to all the aquarists to culture the live foods.

I am agree that the quality of Hikari is good in comparison of Tetra but Tetra bits is easily available.

Some fish do not eat dry food at all. What about those fishes?

They die if not fed live food, after some time. That is bad karma; and brings bad luck to anyone who keeps such fish. So with such species of fish, there IS NO CHOICE, but to keep live food. Examples are Dario dario, Badis, many Channas (frozen food is not easy to find in Delhi all year so you cannot even feed that to Channa in place of live food), Pipefish, Chaca chaca, and wild bettas.

[SCORPIO]

Romi, I avoid fishes which donot accept flake foods.

Dario-dario and Channa andrao can be trained to accept flake foods. I am keeping Chana andrao from last one year and they are eating floating foods and worm based foods.

[vijendra_s123]

Vijendra it is not possible to all the aquarists to culture the live foods.

There are a lot of myths attached to keeping live food cultures. One can always keep the ones which suits one needs and level of commitment.
Again I would live to highlight 'only cultures that have CRASHED stink, if you are responsible enough to start a new one before the one that is running crashes you will never have to face the stinking problem'

Dario-dario and Channa andrao can be trained to accept flake foods. I am keeping Chana andrao from last one year and they are eating floating foods and worm based foods.

Have never seen or even heard of Dario dario accepting flakes, Badis badis maybe but not Dario dario. There is no substitute to feeding live foods, its just not the nutritional breakup but the thrill to chase and eat the food that boosts their activity levels. Fish don’t eat dry food in the wild, so if you would like to see them behave close to how they do in nature give them live food and see a visible difference in their behaviour and even looks. Just try feeding live crickets or cockroaches to your C andrao and see a visible difference in their activity levels. It will even drive them to breed provided suitable water parameters.