Feeding live feeders

[Daoz126]

How often is it recommend to feed your fish live food? I have two triggers a boomerang and picasso a porcupine puffer a few damsels and clowns and a orange shoulder tang I usually feed them mysis shrimp or raw frozen shrimp but lately I been feeding my triggers and puffer gold fish and rosys and the rest of the fish pretty much eat the little chunks that scattered around but I was told from a friend that feeding them live food often can get them sick I usually only feed them once a day when I come home from work

 

[Gareth elliott]

The issue with live fish, is we often use freshwater species that do not contain all of the required amino acids they require, and using 1 or 2 species also reduces the nutrient balance. I will use the example of just feeding a frog crickets, the frogs tend to be less healthy than one fed a variety of prey because the phosphorus:calcium ratio and fat content is far from the ideal diet they would get in the wild. Use this since i know the nutrition of crickets, but not gold fish.

When i kept piranha, i would keep a few easy to breed fish myself. Cichlids, live bearers, etc. and make sure the diets of the feeder fish were as optimal as i could make it.

 

[LesPoissons]

Ftozen food is generally healthier than the live feeders you get from the fish store. The phrase "you are what you eat" applies to fish health too. From an x-LFS employee- Buying feeder goldfish or rosys, kept in overcrowded (often diseased) conditions and fed the cheapest food possible (bc hey, they are only feeders!) doesnt mean they are better for your fish just because they are live. Your fish would never eat any of those in real life anyway. Stick with the vitamin enriched frozen IMO, your fish will be just as happy and healthier. If you want to supplement, by a couple live clams or mussels from the seafood dept of your group store and throw those in, or chop up some fresh. Your fish will be much better off!

 

[Daoz126]

Ftozen food is generally healthier than the live feeders you get from the fish store. The phrase "you are what you eat" applies to fish health too. From an x-LFS employee- Buying feeder goldfish or rosys, kept in overcrowded (often diseased) conditions and fed the cheapest food possible (bc hey, they are only feeders!) doesnt mean they are better for your fish just because they are live. Your fish would never eat any of those in real life anyway. Stick with the vitamin enriched frozen IMO, your fish will be just as happy and healthier. If you want to supplement, by a couple live clams or mussels from the seafood dept of your group store and throw those in, or chop up some fresh. Your fish will be much better off!

Thanks for the info guys

 

[lion king]

There is really no need to feed those particular fish live food. They all will readily take a variety of chunky meaty foods and will live well over a decade in captivity feeding dead foods. It will make them more aggressive in a community tank which will be undesirable and your choices of live food is notably very unhealthy. If you enjoy the hunt, dropping some live ghost shrimp in from time to time would be ok.