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Thread: Boraras prefer Moina to Tubifex

  1. #1
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    Boraras prefer Moina to Tubifex

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    I've always wondered what food fish like the best. The owner at GC told me the boraras I bought a few weeks ago would be happiest if they had some tubifex together with dry food. What about boon (Moina)? So this afternoon, in my 10G tank with B brigittae and shrimp I put some tubifex in together with some Moina.

    The boraras went after the Moina with gusto, eating until their bellies were round, but didn't seem to touch the tubifex.

    I suppose a mixture of different foods is best, but it was still interesting to see what a big difference there was in their preference. I sometimes feed them bloodworms/glassworms as well.

    Given the concerns with tubifex and the lack of interest shown by the boraras, may be just as well to forget about them in future.

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    Re: Boraras prefer Moina to Tubifex

    My Boraras like to have dryfood (grind it to powder type) and also, brine shrimps, daphnia and bloodworms etc. as long as it fits their tiny mouths. Haha.


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    Re: Boraras prefer Moina to Tubifex

    Yeah, I guess it's just easier for them to gobble up the Moina. There is a lot of conflicting info out there, so it's good to sometimes see for yourself. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens when the Moina is finished and they get hungry-whether they will go after the tubifex.

    Actually there was a thread from back in 2012, where some bros mentioned that Boraras don't take tubifex because they were too large. I thought the fish might have taken bites, since the worms are quite thin, but apparently not. Probably only microworms (nematodes) or microfex maybe...

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    Re: Boraras prefer Moina to Tubifex

    Hi Pym, are you referring to live moina?

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    Re: Boraras prefer Moina to Tubifex

    Your boraras just haven't got used to eating tubifex yet... usually once a few of them start noticing and eating the tubifex, the rest will follow. Some of full grown tubifex might also be too large for the smaller boraras to consume, so it can be a food size issue too.

    Note that you have to clean tubifex very well before feeding as they tend to carry loads of harmful pathogens, certain fishes are very susceptible to getting infected easily. I have lost entire groups of fishes just from feeding bad batches of tubifex. One batch might be okay, but the next batch might not be. Its a risk each time.

    Moina is much easier for them to notice as food because they swim around in the water column and are the right size for those small fishes to eat. Hence you see them hunting the moina more enthusiastically.
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    Re: Boraras prefer Moina to Tubifex

    Instead of crushing your pellets, you can try Aquadene micro pellets. They are an ideal size for your Boararas.
    For live food, Tubifex is definitely too large even for the adults. Imagine yourself having to swallow a whole big snake for your dinner! Not an easy task to say the least. If you must feed them worms, nothing beat microworms, those which Betta connoisseurs use to feed their bigger fry and young.
    Last edited by tetrakid; 15th May 2017 at 16:17.
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    Re: Boraras prefer Moina to Tubifex

    Thanks for the info! Yup bro ZIr I put some live moina and some live tubifex in at the same time. Both got from OTF, only wanted to test the tubifex but the minimum they sold was 50 cents and it was a huge amount for my needs...UA, what happened with the bad batch of tubifex-what disease did your fish get? Sounds rather scary, but even moina I think or any other live food can carry parasites. I feel like putting a cardinal tetra or 2 in to teach those Boraras to eat them worms!

    Thanks, I haven't heard of Aquadene before-will look out for them. They also take quite well to New Life Spectrum brand foods... though quite expensive...Haha, not snakes... I thought they would be more along the likes of ramen, because I'd seen them take bloodworms of about the thickness of the tubifex, though of course those were shorter.

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    Re: Boraras prefer Moina to Tubifex

    I choose the safe option which is frozen daphnia/brine shrimps/bloodworms to give them. As long as it small enough, even bloodworms they can eat as well. The fish overall is opportunist, they will eat whenever they can eat. Hehe.


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    Re: Boraras prefer Moina to Tubifex

    Quote Originally Posted by pym View Post
    UA, what happened with the bad batch of tubifex-what disease did your fish get? Sounds rather scary, but even moina I think or any other live food can carry parasites.
    The fishes that died due to infected tubifex exhibited inflamed bellies with red streaks, which is indicative of severe internal bacterial infections. These type of deaths usually start to appear a few days after feeding and kills a large number of fishes (previously those same fishes have been living in the same tank for months and years without issues).

    The risky thing is i had fed the tank with tubifex bought from the same LFS many times without problems (i clean, treat and quarantine all my tubifex for few days beforehand), but it's only one bad batch that wiped out many of my fishes. So it's a roll of the dice whenever you feed such livefoods.

    Moina tend to be comparatively less risky on their own, but there is a chance other pests like hydra might hitchhike over in the bag water. It's a common micro predator that feed on moina. Hydra are not as harmful to most fishes, though if there are small fry or shrimplets in the tank, they could be stung and eaten by the hydra too.

    So far the safest live food i use to feed my fishes and fry are still baby brine shrimps... they are easy to hatch whenever needed (i use the hatchery dish method for convenience) and the high salinity brine solution they hatch in ensures no bacteria or pathogens get transferred over when fed to freshwater tanks. Nowadays it the main livefood i use whenever i need to condition breeding fishes or feed their fry.
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    Re: Boraras prefer Moina to Tubifex

    Thanks very much UA! I've never seen fish getting such signs. In the past, the diseases I have seen were ich, which is not related to the food and quite easy to treat, and I've seen fish dying from progressive wasting/emaciation with sunken abdomens. They say the latter is due to fish TB but may also be parasites I guess.

    I put a ball of tubifex into a planter 'cup' that sticks by the side of the aquarium, together with some aquarium soil. It's been almost 10 days and they are still alive and kicking. Once in a while I'll suck up some mulm from the substrate and inject over the planter cup so I get a layer of mulm over the tubifex. Next day it is gone-the individual substrate granules become visible again. I also stuck a bit of string algae in and it looks to me that the algae ball seems to be getting smaller...that cup has turned into my aquarium compost pile. I have seen individual worms crawl out from the holes at the bottom of the cup - if anybody tries this and doesn't want their substrate colonised by tubifex, they should cover the holes, perhaps with silicone sealant and the like. But it seems like it allows automatic clearing of waste from the cup-so you also get the worm casts falling on to the substrate and the cup itself then doesn't really need any cleaning.

    My Boraras still don't seem to to be interested in the worms. But I have seen my cherries in the cup, and even my oto! I don't know whether the cherries were eating live or dead worms but there are still lots inside the cup. And everyone in the tank still seems fine, fingers crossed!

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    Re: Boraras prefer Moina to Tubifex

    It's not a good idea to leave Tubifex worms alive to live with the fish. Fish may then treat them as tank mates and be reluctant to eat them. Furthermore, live Tubifex will also contribute to tank fouling as they are living organisms producing waste too.

    But I must say that if you keep Corydoras fishes, it may be a good thing, since they feed by rummaging blindly through the soil substrate and will be much delighted to find Tubifex worms, which they relish muchly.
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    Re: Boraras prefer Moina to Tubifex

    Haha, yeah, the fish could become friends with the tubifex!...I just find it fascinating to watch the interactions and it's easier to observe everything in the one tank (and less work too). One day when I tire of watching the tubifex I will move them to their own tank, maybe I will set one up to culture live food. If everything goes well hopefully this can be a long running culture of disease free worms. Now I'm just trying to learn what they will eat and what they won't.

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