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Any of you that have read any of my post know that I am a stanch live food advocate. But I have gotten questions in regards to feeding dead foods and what would be a good dead food diet. Presently and for years I have only supplemented my predators with dead foods, but years ago; many years ago I did stumble upon a dead diet that did work for long term success with dwarf lions. These food requirements would address lions, scorps, anglers, eels, and many other carnivorous predatory fish. I am focusing my attention to lions and scorps today, and would welcome a discussion and input from others that have achieved long term success. When I say long term success; that's like 5 or more years for a dwarf lion or small scorps, and more like 8 to 10 years if you raised them from a pup. Just getting your fuzzy to eat krill is not success.
1st off, it's been said many times; in regards to dwarf and medium bodied lions as well as many scorps(add anglers and ribbon eels), there is just no guarantee they will take dead food at all, or at least enough to sustain for very long. You also can not broadcast the food into the water column and expect them to eat or catch enough to sustain. You must target feed. You can research other threads for tricks to convert to dead foods, and maybe one day I'll share mine in a thread. If you are going to keep them in a community tank, I suggest starting them in an observation tank and getting their dead diet consistent before adding them to a community display tank.
These are the primary elements to a dead diet that will provide long term success. 1st off limit food with high amounts of thiaminese, thiaminese is an enzyme which will bind vitamin B1, lead to nutritional deficiencies and even lockjaw. You want to include fresh seafood, at least buy fresh and freeze only small portions. Buying frozen is mostly dead in nutrients. Supplementation likely doesn't work; I used to advocate for selcon and muti-vits but my verdict is now in after compiling more data from people that are religious into supplementation. The nutrients either are not effectively absorbed into the food or by the fish, or fat soluble nutrients become toxic. These lions on supplemented dead foods still never lived that long.
Fatty fish, bones, shells, and guts. These are the things that need to be included, fresh when possible. I stumbled into a dead diet that kept my lions for years when at the time lions were being fed goldfish, rosies, or guppies. I started tying pieces of food from my diet on a string and bobbing up and down in the tank. These are some of the things from my diet I fed; tuna, salmon, octopus, squid, and shrimp. I would cut a chunk from what I had in the house, always fresh. Some would take it, some wouldn't, over time I got more and more to take at least some of what I offered. I fed shrimp that still had shells and intestine. I started feeding silversides as well for the bones and guts.
Today I still eat salmon and tuna, I don't give up my tuna that easily at $20/lb but I do cut a sliver of salmon for those that will take it. Research the fish you eat at home and see if they could benefit from eating it, you'll have to check but I believe talapia is a fish some people feed and is very popular today, but the key is "fatty fish". Shrimp does contain thiaminese, but if you are feeding fresh with the shells and guts, i believe it outweighs the thiaminese content. Either way shrimp should only constitute no more than a 1/3 of their diet. Silversides encompass a few varieties of fish, so check your brand to see which species of fish they use, as some do contain thiaminese. Hikari brand silversides uses Pseudohemiculter dispar and does not contain thiaminese, you'll have to check for your brand and reference a list of fish that contain thiaminese.
Eels are other predators that succumb to a shortened life because of a poor diet, if you feed your eel frozen dead(dead nutrient) food, don't expect them to live that long; especially if you include krill and unknown sourced silversides. Sadly i see people teach that it is commonplace for a snowflake eel to live between 2 and 4 years in captivity; that's bull, it should be 15. Eels live a very long life in the wild, like 20-30 years. I know 2 different guys that feed their eels from the table as I spoke before, fresh seafood from their own table, and one has a tessalata for almost 15 years last I spoke with him. The other has a few that I know at least a couple over 10 years.
If you could get your picky preds to take these dead foods, you could have a chance at keeping for many years. Fresh Atlantic salmon and fresh shrimp with shells. Don't be shy about asking for 3 fresh shrimp, I do(hahaha), tell them it for your pet lionfish and they usually get a big kick out it. Hikari brand silversides. Any other fresh seafood; scallops, squid, etc.; 2 squid, 3 scallop, and 3 shrimp please; only use the frozen you freeze yourself in small batches. When feeding fresh, the nutrients especially B vitamins may nullify the action of thiaminese. Even after all of this, the live gut flora of feeding live may still be the secret to success.
1st off, it's been said many times; in regards to dwarf and medium bodied lions as well as many scorps(add anglers and ribbon eels), there is just no guarantee they will take dead food at all, or at least enough to sustain for very long. You also can not broadcast the food into the water column and expect them to eat or catch enough to sustain. You must target feed. You can research other threads for tricks to convert to dead foods, and maybe one day I'll share mine in a thread. If you are going to keep them in a community tank, I suggest starting them in an observation tank and getting their dead diet consistent before adding them to a community display tank.
These are the primary elements to a dead diet that will provide long term success. 1st off limit food with high amounts of thiaminese, thiaminese is an enzyme which will bind vitamin B1, lead to nutritional deficiencies and even lockjaw. You want to include fresh seafood, at least buy fresh and freeze only small portions. Buying frozen is mostly dead in nutrients. Supplementation likely doesn't work; I used to advocate for selcon and muti-vits but my verdict is now in after compiling more data from people that are religious into supplementation. The nutrients either are not effectively absorbed into the food or by the fish, or fat soluble nutrients become toxic. These lions on supplemented dead foods still never lived that long.
Fatty fish, bones, shells, and guts. These are the things that need to be included, fresh when possible. I stumbled into a dead diet that kept my lions for years when at the time lions were being fed goldfish, rosies, or guppies. I started tying pieces of food from my diet on a string and bobbing up and down in the tank. These are some of the things from my diet I fed; tuna, salmon, octopus, squid, and shrimp. I would cut a chunk from what I had in the house, always fresh. Some would take it, some wouldn't, over time I got more and more to take at least some of what I offered. I fed shrimp that still had shells and intestine. I started feeding silversides as well for the bones and guts.
Today I still eat salmon and tuna, I don't give up my tuna that easily at $20/lb but I do cut a sliver of salmon for those that will take it. Research the fish you eat at home and see if they could benefit from eating it, you'll have to check but I believe talapia is a fish some people feed and is very popular today, but the key is "fatty fish". Shrimp does contain thiaminese, but if you are feeding fresh with the shells and guts, i believe it outweighs the thiaminese content. Either way shrimp should only constitute no more than a 1/3 of their diet. Silversides encompass a few varieties of fish, so check your brand to see which species of fish they use, as some do contain thiaminese. Hikari brand silversides uses Pseudohemiculter dispar and does not contain thiaminese, you'll have to check for your brand and reference a list of fish that contain thiaminese.
Eels are other predators that succumb to a shortened life because of a poor diet, if you feed your eel frozen dead(dead nutrient) food, don't expect them to live that long; especially if you include krill and unknown sourced silversides. Sadly i see people teach that it is commonplace for a snowflake eel to live between 2 and 4 years in captivity; that's bull, it should be 15. Eels live a very long life in the wild, like 20-30 years. I know 2 different guys that feed their eels from the table as I spoke before, fresh seafood from their own table, and one has a tessalata for almost 15 years last I spoke with him. The other has a few that I know at least a couple over 10 years.
If you could get your picky preds to take these dead foods, you could have a chance at keeping for many years. Fresh Atlantic salmon and fresh shrimp with shells. Don't be shy about asking for 3 fresh shrimp, I do(hahaha), tell them it for your pet lionfish and they usually get a big kick out it. Hikari brand silversides. Any other fresh seafood; scallops, squid, etc.; 2 squid, 3 scallop, and 3 shrimp please; only use the frozen you freeze yourself in small batches. When feeding fresh, the nutrients especially B vitamins may nullify the action of thiaminese. Even after all of this, the live gut flora of feeding live may still be the secret to success.