Storing live food...

[Chikadee]

My tank is finally cycled and ready to go! I'm driving an hour to the nearest PetSmart tomorrow to get my dwarf puffers, I'm so excited! From all the research I've done and everything I've read here, I should start them on live food. I already have snails and ghost shrimp in my 10gal along with some baby guppies for food. I will probably also get some brine shrimp or worms, but I don't really want to keep them in my fridge. Besides my squemish roomie, I don't find the idea of live critters amongst my food very appealing either. Would it be ok to keep them at room temperature or would they produce too much waste and starve? What should I feed them? How does one feed live food? Should I do anything to prepare them or can I just throw it in?

TIA!!

 

[madasafish]

With the brine shrimp or black worms, you must keep them in the fridge. With a near-freezing temperature, their metabolisms are hugely slowed, so that they don't consume much food or produce much waste. In a warmer room, the bag will become dirty quickly.

My girlfriend was squeamish about this for a bit, but I keep the food in the bottom drawer of the fridge door, and since it is in a discrete crate (like the ones designed for raspberries and blueberries) she doesn't mind too much. Tell your roomie to get over it!

Alternately, you could get a small fridge to go under your tank (1 square foot or so). Shouldn't cost more than $50. Not a cheap alternative, but if it makes your roommate happy...

 

[Blatchy]

Just be sure with live food that you change the water daily with tank water and then re-store them in the fridge. Close to freezing temp is preferably with live food. I use black worms and have them in a container which holds around a cupful of water.

Ensure also that the container you have has a sealed cover with some air holes. Not to sure if air holes are necessary but I have these pierced in the centre of the container. I used to store these in an opened container and well the worms being worms wormed there way out. Wasn't to annoyed until they got into the home brew :? 8O :| Maybe worms have some taste also. I didn't use these in the tank... thought it would be like placing the worm from the tequila bottle in the tank!!

 

[Blatchy]

To answer your other question I don't and havent every fed my live foods. I dont think it is necessary considering you should only store enough that will be consumed in a week. Plus you will be polluting the water and doing more harm than good in my opinion. You should also look into feeding your fish some flakes and what not as this is benefial to some fish as it has some vegtable content.

I wouldn't just feed live foods however this does depend on the type of fish you are looking at getting. Live food is great dont get me wrong but can have disease which you dont want your fish to get and can also be too good for the fish. Not sure how others view this but I consider live food to be like chocolate for humans.

 

[madasafish]

No need to change the water!! The water they come in is vitamin-infused and will be fine for them. I've kept black worms in the same water they've come in for 3 weeks--and all the worms were still alive and well (until I put them in the tank ) When you pour them into the net, make sure as little water as possible is lost.

 

[Blatchy]

Madasafish is this the case with all lfs? I will have to ask next time as they instructed me to change the water.

The beauty of the forum and learning something new every visit.

 

[Allivymar]

Heh, keep in mind madasafish and Blatchy are half a world apart; things may be done a bit different.

As for live food...yuck LOL I've watched madasa feed his puffers live bloodworms and it is hilarious BUT....I couldn't. Not cause I feel bad for the worms...I'm just squeamish about things that writhe...

Theres some info on other live foods here: http://faq.thekrib.com/live-food.html

 

[Blatchy]

Not bad info Allivymar. Im just curious - It mentions "diseases are far more likely on a steady diet of worms". So should I, or should I not continue to feed my Black Ghost Knife on these each day? I mentioned above that I don't like feeding these regularly but I do for the Ghost Knife, little bugger wont eat flakes

 

[oscarbreeder]

That was some great info Allivymar.
Thanks for posting it.

 

[Chikadee]

Ack, after reading up on worms, they do not sound appealing at all. I think I am going to have to pass on the live ones... I just can't bring myself to keep them in my fridge. Hopefully my puffers can be sustained on a diet of frozen food and snails/ghost shrimp. i'm off to Petsmart to get my fishies! Yay!!

 

[madasafish]

Alli makes, of course, a good point.

My statement should stand, though... And this is why I decided to mention it at all...

The tank water one might add to a bag of worms stored in the fridge at 2 degrees celcius would probably be about 25 degrees celcius. Such a temperature difference would prob. shock the worms and, if they survive, speed up their metabolisms.

Blatchy, try it both ways--see if not changing the water harms the worms; see if changing the water harms the worms. In my experience, keeping the temperature consistent for any aquatic creature is very important.

I could be wrong!