I need a primer on feeding live foods

[jgaepi]

I am going to start a new job pretty soon and I have to be on the road way too early. By the time I get home, I'll probably be wiped. I have a nano tank with a tailspot blenny and a court jester goby. I will also be adding a purple firefish soon. I'm currently feeding tiny pellets but I'm never sure they are interested. I have frozen mysis but it appears too big for the fish. So, I was thinking about adding live foods. Like AlgaeBarn's baby brine.

Can someone give me a primer on feeding live foods. How often? How much?

I will also be bringing a 60g system online shortly. And, I will want to do something similar in that tank.

Thank you!

 

[jgaepi]

Does anyone feed live foods as a primary food source?

 

[LiveWire]

I feed live foods from time to time but not as a primary food source as it would be very time consuming and expensive as well IMO. You can feed baby brine to your system but the brine wont live for long periods of time in your system as the salinity is much different and many would get pulled into the filtration as well if you leave the circulation going on your system.

If you wanted to feed live foods daily by stopping the water flow than you would have to either order a lot of live foods or learn to culture your own. If you are pressed on time now just imagine trying to have more time so you can culture the live foods that you are wanting to feed. You would also have to feed multiple times an gut load the live foods in order to give your fish the nutrition that they need each day. IMO it takes even more time to feed live than it does to get your fish on a diet of a high quality pellet or flake and offer live foods from time to time.

On the other hand If you have a fish or plan on getting a fish that demands live foods such as copepods then taking the time to culture them is well worth the time when extra time is something that you have.

 

[jgaepi]

I feed live foods from time to time but not as a primary food source as it would be very time consuming and expensive as well IMO. You can feed baby brine to your system but the brine wont live for long periods of time in your system as the salinity is much different and many would get pulled into the filtration as well if you leave the circulation going on your system.

If you wanted to feed live foods daily by stopping the water flow than you would have to either order a lot of live foods or learn to culture your own. If you are pressed on time now just imagine trying to have more time so you can culture the live foods that you are wanting to feed. You would also have to feed multiple times an gut load the live foods in order to give your fish the nutrition that they need each day. IMO it takes even more time to feed live than it does to get your fish on a diet of a high quality pellet or flake and offer live foods from time to time.

On the other hand If you have a fish or plan on getting a fish that demands live foods such as copepods then taking the time to culture them is well worth the time when extra time is something that you have.

I’ve actually started to seed copepods from algaebarn but didn’t think my fish ate copepods. I was doing it for waste management.

 

[Hemmdog]

Live foods are great, but for your frozen mysis problem, get hakari mysis, it’s small, my firefish easily eats it. Great quality too.

 

[foxt]

LRS reef frenzy nano is blended to small pieces. Lots of other options for small fish ...

 

[rkpetersen]

LRS or Rod's frozen food is mostly small pieces, especially if you let it thaw and mix it up a bit before use.
As Hemmdog mentioned, Hikari mysis is much smaller than PE mysis, for example; firefish and others will take it.
Blennies will sometimes ignore everything but algae growing on surfaces.
Court Jester goby can also be picky and prefers nibbling from the substrate although they'll also eventually take bits of frozen food from the water column if the tank is peaceful.

 

[jgaepi]

LRS or Rod's frozen food is mostly small pieces, especially if you let it thaw and mix it up a bit before use.
As Hemmdog mentioned, Hikari mysis is much smaller than PE mysis, for example; firefish and others will take it.
Blennies will sometimes ignore everything but algae growing on surfaces.
Court Jester goby can also be picky and prefers nibbling from the substrate although they'll also eventually take bits of frozen food from the water column if the tank is peaceful.

So of Hikari, LRS or Rod's which do you recommend for me to start with? Also, it is really nice to get cubes and cut those up and then a huge sheet of frozen food. Thank you.

 

[Hemmdog]

So of Hikari, LRS or Rod's which do you recommend for me to start with? Also, it is really nice to get cubes and cut those up and then a huge sheet of frozen food. Thank you.

Hakari comes in cubes, lrs is sheets. Get both, they are both great. Lrs is especially good if you have coral too.

 

[jgaepi]

Hakari comes in cubes, lrs is sheets. Get both, they are both great. Lrs is especially good if you have coral too.

I just started feeding benereef to my corals.

 

[Peace River]

So of Hikari, LRS or Rod's which do you recommend for me to start with? Also, it is really nice to get cubes and cut those up and then a huge sheet of frozen food. Thank you.

Your LFS probably doesn't carry the nano blend of any of them so you may have to go with whatever nano food option that they can special order for you. Good luck!