Your opinion on live food?

[combuddy91]

I am talking about worms, small fish, and crickets. How do you feels about them? Are they needed or reccomended for angelfish (or blue gourami but this is the cichlid forum) I have heard that live foods bring out more of their natural predatory behavoir of cichlid. Now I am somewhat concerned about dieases and plan to stay away from the stuffed tanks full of rosy reds and goldifsh and rather get the neon tetras...

Help?

[Lupin]

Worms and crickets are okay for use along with bloodworms (though limit it because of too much protein content), daphnia, brine shrimps and mosquito larva. The issue with using fish is that most feeder fish being used are already kept in very poor water conditions which leads to a high susceptibility to various diseases such as internal parasites, ich, etc. Best to breed them if you really have time for that.

[Vicious_Fish]

I agree with Lupin, if you can breed feeder fish yourself, go for it. I breed Convict Cichlids and fathead minnows to feed to my larger cichlids and turtles as treats.