Exotic foods, live/frozen!?

[Batt4Christ]

Back when I use to keep serious cichlids (oscars and then a red devil)- wax worms were a favorite, as we're earthworms (giant Canadian night crawlers were entertaining- looked like fish had limp cigars!).

Crickets were well taken, as were grasshoppers. Yes, I once fed a big dragonfly to my 14" Oscar. That was entertaining, though I thought he would break the glass lid!

Another interesting meal was crawfish.

All this being said- prepared foods have improved greatly. As posted above, there really is no need for supplements, live, frozen, or other more "exotic" foods beyond entertainment value for the owner. Also- some of these can be rather "dirty" either from literal dirt (like in worms/nightcrawlers), to the exoskeleton which makes some slow-to-break down poo. There is also some evidence that live foods can actually promote aggressive behavior in fish (and yes, cichlids do tend towards some degree of aggression anyway).

I won't begrudge someone enjoying more "natural" foods. Just something to think about.

 

[Batt4Christ]

I really think that variety counts a lot in the psychological health of fish

I've now heard everything!

 

[DukeNukem713]

well i definitely agree with the aggressive thing. my jack demspey went from hiding all day behind a plant to becoming the alpha male of the tank!

 

[DukeNukem713]

so today i took an important test (the GMAT) and did really well so i decided to reward myself (and my fish!) I got a new plant and bought what i thought would be some nice food for my fish.

i got 14 "feeder snails" super tiny 10 cents a piece. i dropped one in the tank and each fish came up to it one by one, took a bite or nibble, and then let it be. now hes happily rolling around my tank! haha

next was the ghost shrimp. i got 4 of these guys. my dempseys took quite a while realizing they were there. and once they found them, they were too quick to get caught! i stopped looking b/c it was taking to long, but then, i noticed a commotion. my eel was jerking around like crazy and on the sand lied the head of one of the shrimp! idk what got him but i figured it was the eel? he's not very predatorial though... then later i also noticed my big dempsey was eating one! i was so happy haha

next went the big gold clam. i shucked it open and dropped it in. my fish didnt even realize it was food! one of the ghost shrimp even hid inside of it! two meals in one and all my dempsey could do was stare at the thing! i decided to cut the clam guts up in to smaller pieces and drop them in simultaneously with my blood worms so my fish would recognize it as food. this worked very well, my 2 dempseys ate a big piece of clam each. but other pieces of clam were left on the ground and are still there... i left them in because...

the final course was a crawfish!! he's a pretty big guy though, and i didnt want to just cut him up and pray for the best. but i know that when he molts he'll probably be eaten because this has happened in 3 of my roomates tanks. however the crawfish ran right for a cave and started eating the clam remains immediatly! haha. hes now taken over the catfishes clay pot cave, he'll be very safe in there. looks like what i thought was a meal turned in to my new pet!

i put the other 13 feeder snails in to my guppy tank to help with an algae problem

 

[DukeNukem713]

more earthworms today! dempseys snagged them as usual. also found some insect eggs and tried those. my guoramis were playing with them (sucking them in then spitting them out) but wouldnt swallow it. my kribensis and dempseys didnt recognize it as food i suppose, so i took them back out