scotts wrote:
I consider myself a beginner to advanced FW fish keeping (if that makes any sense?) but why is live food better than frozen? I keep mostly NW cichlids and they devour it leaving very little for the bottom feeders. Would live food be suited for smaller, more timid fish, or fish that are difficult in captivity?
thanks Scott
Hi Scott,
You pretty much hit the nail on the head.
my $.02 :
For some fish, live foods help promote spawning (especially rich foods like whiteworms).
It can also be good for some of the more finiky fish like apistos or gudgeons, who might not eat prepared foods (ie flake, pellets), or wild caught fish who need to be weaned onto frozen food (I'm hopefully getting some South American fw flounders this weekend, and will be starting them on blackworms, then moving them to frozen foods over time).
Many of the smaller live foods are also great for baby fish - especially freshly hatched brine shrimp, microworms, and vinegar eels.
When local stores carry live foods, they're usually blackworms, earthworms, ghost shrimp, or adult brine shrimp (at least in my experience).
Whiteworms, microworms, daphnia, vinegar eels, and grindal worms are usually cultured by the hobbyist (too much work to be profitable to sell retail).
For the bigger SA/CA cichlids, gut-loaded crickets, shrimp, and crayfish are also good treats.
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Rich_______
Part-time fishguy at Uncle Ned's Fish Factory (saturdays)
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Species I am currently keeping/breeding include :
Copadichromis borleyi "redfin"
Labidochromis caeruleus yellow labs
Aulonocara sp. "Lwanda"
Ancistrus cf. cirrhosus "
Super Red Ancistris"
Xiphophorus montezumae Montezuma Swordtails
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(I'm in the middle of resetting and redesigning my fishroom - so things are kinda quiet)