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Thread: Seeking ideal live food

  1. #1
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    Seeking ideal live food

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    Been thinking of fattening up my fishes for some time for breeding purposes. My White Clouds have been with me for almost 2 months already and no signs of breeding, which they are reputed to do easily. I guess maybe it's because of their diet. Thing is, blood worms are too fat for their mouths. Brine shrimp seems to be very hard to get from LFS here (I stay in Aljunied) and they're expensive too. How about tubifex? My only worry is the cleanliness of these worms. Are there any cleaning techniques that i should know of to ensure no parasites or diseases will be passed into my tank?
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    NEON TETRAS WOULD BE PERFECT IF NOT FOR THE ^#&*!()%@^&@%# NEON TETRA DISEASE!!

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    One method from timebomb: add "antiseptic mouthwash" into the Tubifex worms. Wait for 10 minutes and then raise throughly. Don't ask me if this works. Actually, why don't use frozen food, think they are more cleaner and you can buy a whole week supply and keep it in the freezer.

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    ----------------
    On 10/25/2003 6:22:00 PM

    One method from timebomb: add "antiseptic mouthwash" into the Tubifex worms. Wait for 10 minutes and then raise throughly. Don't ask me if this works. Actually, why don't use frozen food, think they are more cleaner and you can buy a whole week supply and keep it in the freezer.
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    Well i don't know how you guys do it, but i once mentioned the idea of frozen fish food in our freezer and my family almost turned me into fish food. But the problem still same mah, blood worm size too big. And even one cube is too much for my whole tank. What you mean by mouthwash? I hope you don't mean literally use mouthwash that i am using...
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    NEON TETRAS WOULD BE PERFECT IF NOT FOR THE ^#&*!()%@^&@%# NEON TETRA DISEASE!!

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    I have exactly the same problem with you about putting foods for fishes in the fridge. About the cleaning of live foods, can list a step by step proceedure?
    Corydoras: 2 x adolfoi, 1 x agassizii, 5 x albino aeneus, 3 x arcuatus, 4 x atropersonatus, 3 x axelrodi, 6 x axelrodi variante B, 4 x caudimaculatus, 5 x duplicareus, 8 x goldlines, 3 x kanei, 3 x loretoensis, 6 x melini, 4 x panda, 6 x schwartzi, 3 x similis, 4 x sterbai, 4 x surinamensis, 5 x trilineatus, 4 x tukano & 3 x zygatus

    RIP 1 x adolfoi, 1 x albino aeneus & 2 x panda

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    If you want to breed, tubifex worm is still a good choice. I have use it for my fish for a long time & they are producing well. This is what I do: Leave the worms under dripping tap, it will keep them alive & clean them out. Stick to one or two reliable shops for supply. While this method can't really ensure disease free worms, you get the fun of breeding your own fish ! When the fry hatch, you will still need baby brine shrimp though. The choice is yours, if you want some fun, you got to take some risk, & waste some money too[] .

    Turaco.

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    Anyway, why tubifex? It is the more dirty kind of live food I have tried. I have a bad experience using it after seeing a leech crawling out of the Tubifex worm. If you really want to use it, advise to put the worm in a net with very fine eye. Worm will crawl out and left all the unwanted leech, stone etc behind. Remove the portion you need for one meal, put some salt (don't know if it works, please advise) or few drop of methalene blue. then raised over running tap water.

    For your information, I never use live food for my fish, only pellet and occasionally a pack of frozen bloodworm. I am able to breed anglefish (got one time, breed every month for 4 to 5 months), Zebra danio, bettie and other fish. I don't know about white cloud but maybe my fish is less picky on food.

    If you have sucessfully breed your fish, you will need brine shrimp to feed them. Try to get those egg already decapped so less hard time to totally separate the egg and shell.

    There is some excellence articles on brime shrimp and other food source in www.killies.com under "introduction". Worth reading.

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    Thanks for the advice. Yes, tubifex is a rather risky live food in terms of cleanliness, and i am rather apprehensive myself. As i mentioned, i am looking for the ideal live food, but my options are very limited since:

    1. Cannot use freezer due to family's violent objections. Can't blame them though. It does take some very open minds to house worms with food, even with vaccum packs.

    2. Other cleaner food such as Daphnia and Brine Shrimp are rarely seen and too expensive respectively. Daphnia is a good choice, but so far i've never seen it, even in farms.

    3. Fishes are small, so no need to consider using shrimps lah. Tetras and White Clouds only.

    4. Read about other cultures like fruit flies, vinegar eels, microworms blah blah. Question: where to get a starter culture to start a culture? Also heard that they need to be kept alive in the fridge also.

    Hence... tubifex lor.
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    NEON TETRAS WOULD BE PERFECT IF NOT FOR THE ^#&*!()%@^&@%# NEON TETRA DISEASE!!

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    hi bro.u stay in aljunied?me too.anyway..the nearest place to get daphnia is at ubi ave 1.that shop i tink bettahouse or something like that.1 big pack $1.but...daphnia are not exactly hygenic as well.

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    Petmart in Serangoon north selling Live adult size Brime Shrimp. Don't know if you are culture brimp shrimp from egg to adult. At least I am not sucessful.

    Anyway, I don't work for Petmart, just live very near to there.

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    Tubifex is very dangerous! though they are high in protein,
    they are full of parasites as everybody knows they are from raw sewerage.
    the most ma fan is that u had to wash them every two hours or they will melt like hot fudge.
    i was told that adding a kind of powder(dunno wad is it as my fren jus give me)and can only prevent the most bout 40% of parasites.i think is some kind of anti fungus powder.
    the other way recommended is using uv to kill the parasites
    i had not tried b4 as i cant afford one.i heard this is the most effective way
    but still LIVE FOOD mus not be fed frequently.u need to be PREPARED if u wan to feed LIVE FOOD.
    if u are feeding brine shrimp to freshwater,this is very safe as saltwater parasites dun affect freshwater parasites.i hope i am correct.
    Pls correct me if i am wrong as i am only 14 years old.

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    Bluezing: Yeah there's not many really good LFS around here isn't it? Anyway from what i know Daphnia is already much cleaner than tubifex already, though foreign websites did mention of a clean live food called blackworm which Singapore doesn't seem to have. Will check that LFS thanks.

    PohSan: Hmmm... actually i don't know whether it's true anot, but read that Brine Shrimp lose huge amount of nutritional value a few hours upon hatching. Thus adult brine shrimp not much nutrition. But i guess i will try it as a last resort. Thanks.

    Jonapur: Your knowledge is impressive for a 14 year old already. When i was your age all i do is play Delta Force on Nintendo all day [] Anyway thanks for your info i didn't know about the powder thingie.

    Conclusion: Looks like frozen food such as blood worm is still the best in terms of maintainence. Sad that it's not a feasible option for me. Else if anyone got a new source for clean live food can make a fortune selling it. [:]
    ============================
    NEON TETRAS WOULD BE PERFECT IF NOT FOR THE ^#&*!()%@^&@%# NEON TETRA DISEASE!!

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    there is this incident which i can nvr forget
    i remember that time i fed tubifex into my planted tank.
    that time i am only 12 so i am quite stupid.
    the tubifex worms gone into the sand and dunno do wad to my plants.
    in the end i had to throw away all my sand etc...and change to marine...

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    ohhh....come back to planted when u have the time yeah?anyway....i tink its ok not to feed them live food.unless those fish u have are caught wild.lfs also feed them some dried food...or worse...no feeding at all.

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    I would think ideal food for a fish be what they would normally eat in the wild. Its not like tubiflex or blood worm in the wild is washed or anything like that and they do breed rather well in the wild eating all these.

    Heck for all we know all the parasite and dirt might be good for breeding.

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    Now that's a thought. What do fishes in the wild feed on anyway? I think definitely not tubifex or bloodworms. For sure cannot be tubifex unless the fish lives in sewers or other filthy ponds.
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    NEON TETRAS WOULD BE PERFECT IF NOT FOR THE ^#&*!()%@^&@%# NEON TETRA DISEASE!!

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    Oh and just for those who might be interested, i found 2 fish fry in my Atman 3335 filter while investigating some choke. Don't know what fry it is but think likely to be the White Clouds since Cardinals never bred in captivity. [:] Looks like i will have to hatch some brine shrimp after all!
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    NEON TETRAS WOULD BE PERFECT IF NOT FOR THE ^#&*!()%@^&@%# NEON TETRA DISEASE!!

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    Congratulation!

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    Darkkon,

    You can try daphnia if you find bbs a hassle. Get a bag from a LFS (there is a thread on it at the moment) and you can try to cultivate it youself if you have the space. Check this out.
    ThEoDoRe

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    Bbs is good for fries
    but u had to feed the bbs straight after they are hatch.i think their body are quite soft straight after they are hatch and their body will harden to protect themselves.if not feed fresh,ur fries might choke on them i think.sorry for this thought.i always think of STUPID consequences.i hope this is true bout bbs.

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    In the end i went to buy Liquifry No. 1 (for egglayers). Seems more convenient, and for one thing, if you guys come and take a look for yourself, i'm sure you can't tell which is bigger, my fry or the BBS. These are the TINIEST fry i ever saw boy. Hence i thought better not take the chance where the food is too big for the fry. But the idea of cultivating Daphnia sounds interesting. I might consider using my old 1.5 ft tank for it. Can't decide if i want to use it as a shrimp tank or not. If i start another tank my parents sure complain about the number of lights []
    ============================
    NEON TETRAS WOULD BE PERFECT IF NOT FOR THE ^#&*!()%@^&@%# NEON TETRA DISEASE!!

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