I'm surprised to see that this thread doesn't already exist (unless I missed it). I'm pretty new to the hobby so maybe there's already a consensus that I haven't heard, but anyways here's my deal: I've got a small saltwater predator grow out tank with just a small 3" porcupine puffer and a ~12" snowflake eel. The puffer's been eating krill and chopped up silversides, but I'm going to try to get him onto clams and squid as well. The eel almost exclusively eats silversides, but now that the waters around me on Long Island are warming up I thought I'd drag my seine net through some grasses and see what I could pull out for him. I thought it would be nice to freeze a few bags of grass shrimp to have on hand. The silversides I feed are also local caught. I'm a regular fisherman so I have a freezer full of local caught bait. It just seemed foolish to spend $15 for a bag of hikari when I have too much on hand already. I also fed him the fins from the squid that I caught back in November. I was a little nervous about feeding unsterilized food at the start, but I've had no problems at all for 6 months now. My question is, is this a safe long term plan? I'd really like to know before I get into this freezing cold water. Thanks!
Wild caught food?
- Thread starter Luca_D’Anna
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Yep. Perfectly safe and even better for your preditors, even fish. Snowflake eels like octopus and clams the most IME and you should feed the puffer clams or mussels with shell so it can trim its teeth/beak naturally.
I had a tank full of smaller reef fish that loved fresh micro roe too!
Are you kidding, I wish I had those sources. Most of the diseases and parasites you see in the captive fish we keep is because of the methods of collections and housing they employ, overstocked dirty facilities. Freezing should eliminate any concern. It is good to get off krill and many of the brands of lfs silversides, both these foods would contain a high amount of thiaminese. Do you know the species of what you call silversides that you are catching?
That's great to hear! They're atlantic silversides (Menidia menidia). The exact same thing you get from any major brand.
Those are good, but you are fooled by most of the lfs silversides. They use silversides as a common name and the major brands use everything from smelt, anchovies, and minnows. San Francisco Bay brand is the only true silverside, Menidia menidia, that I know of.
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