Good 'growth' food

If you doubt the actual results of New Life Spectrum, go to their website and read the testimonials of actual customers with nothing to gain by talking up the company. nlpublish.com
 
reptileguy2727 said:
If you doubt the actual results of New Life Spectrum, go to their website and read the testimonials of actual customers with nothing to gain by talking up the company. nlpublish.com
Click to expand...
Thanks reptileguy I too read the testimonials Before posting the links.
 
alot of you guys say that you feed earth worms, do you get them from your backyard? What are the benefits (if any) are there for feeding with these? I think that they are just mud and flesh??
 
iangangoo said:
alot of you guys say that you feed earth worms, do you get them from your backyard? What are the benefits (if any) are there for feeding with these? I think that they are just mud and flesh??
Click to expand...

Earthworms are a great surce of protein for larger fish. Again, they should be part of a varied diet, but not the sole source. The trick is to insure that if you are collecting them from your backyard, that they are not coming into contact with pesticides and other chemicals. If you compost, you can control their contact in a raised bed or barrel composter. Mix some table scraps in the soil to further enrich their nutritional value.
 
There are healhtier and more nutritious foods than anything live. Companies have put a lot of research into coming up with the proper formulas that are found in the high quality pellets. I would rather fill my fish with the most nutritious food than with something that risks their health. For general fishkeeping purposes there is no need for any live food if the fish will take prepared.
 
yeah, I stay away from all live foods.
 
reptileguy2727 said:
.... For general fishkeeping purposes there is no need for any live food if the fish will take prepared.
Click to expand...

Depends on what 'general fishkeeping purposes' means to you.

This person was asking about max growth and my experience with SA cichlids (30 years of keeping and breeding) has led me to my conclusions. I've done it both ways (prepared and fresh/live) and I get better growth/spawning with live/fresh (combo really, I never feed just live).

Most cichlids will do fine on prepared food. I'm not saying that you're doing your fish wrong by using prepared food. But if you've ever worked with fish that are tough to get to spawn and you give them live food and everything starts to click, it makes you a believer. When you see fish that have been fed live food outgrow ones on prepared, that made me a believer too. This person was asking about maximizing growth.

Most of the best discus keepers will feed live blackworms, ground up fresh shrimp and beefheart (all of these are fresh/live) and discus are some of the most sensitive fish that there are when it comes to diseases! Those of us that rear newly hatched fish (also sensitive) rely on live baby brine shrimp, live microworms and live vinegar eels. My fry survival rates would be next to nothing if I had to rely on prepared foods for them.

I get no diseases from the live foods that I use. I don't collect from streams or lakes and my earthworms come from organic compost. If live foods are dangerous, I should have diseases all of the time, and the fact is, I don't get them at all (unless it's from a new fish with an existing condition).

respectfully,
windsurfer....
 
My definition of general fishkeeping does not include breeding. For general purposes ("I want to keep fish X in a tank.") Live foods are not necessary and pushing for growth is not healthy. As was the general tone of the replies, the best care is what you should provide, this will lead to the best health and growth.
 
No live foods are not nessacary but they are beneficial.
To counter your arguement. They make tons of high quality dog foods but anyone will tell you that your dog will love a treat of some chicken or beef once in a while. A lot of show dogs are fed only real non processed foods to bring out the best in there coats and there muscle mass. They also will have raw egg mixed in there food to give them a shiner coat. Im willing to bet that the pet companies out there spend more money reasearching dog foods than they do fish foods as the market is so much better for them and they still have apparently not found a perfect formula.

Most any long term fish keeper will tell you that varied diet is key to healthy happy fish. Yes they make pleanty of high quality foods but your fish should also be treated to frozen or live foods on occasion. Just look at there reaction to the live of frozen food versus regular flake or pellets and it should be all the arguement that you need. Also look at the colorations and body development of a fish fed strictly pellets and one that is fed a vaired diet and you will see the advantages of it. Im not trying to tell you to change what your doing just adivseing the origanal poster on the best methods for acheaveing good steady growth and health of his fish.
Im going to see if I can get Mojo to chime in on this topic. If anyone knows about feeding cichlids its him.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom