Food ratios for a GT

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DrawnToBeaches

Gambusia
MFK Member
Aug 31, 2011
216
5
18
Orange county, CA
My title may not be clear but hopefully I can clear it up a little.
I want to feed my gold saum like a king, or atleast as close to a wild diet as possible. I don't really like pellets or flake because they get cooked. I do however like making my own food for them as supplements, the saum right now gets a few hikari cichlid gold floating pellets some kens fish veggie sticks with calcium and some home made gelatin[beef heart, market shrimp, spinach, and some more veggie sticks with calcium] and his colors really show he likes it, or she. i treat my tanks 2-3 times a week with worms[red wigglers, earth worms, white worms]. I'm hoping to get a fish biologist or comparable expert's attention.
At what rate can I feed my saun by taking out the pellet, I just want to feed live insects and supplement with either vegetable sticks or vegetable based gelatin. I'd like to achieve maximum growth and as close to natural as possible. I realize that most fish won't see earth worms floating around but its easy, full of fat and protein, and very clean. any helpful information is greatly appreciated.


I am not asking if I can feed Live only. I know its not healthy to not have vegetation in a gt's diet.


PS: I use hikari because I have ALOT of it and out of the pellets I have tried with my saum it is the only one he doesn't spit out, besides ocean nutrition pellets which by the way are my favorite prepared food by far.



Any other live recommendations welcomed, I will not feed fish to non piscivorous fish however
 
Have you started a worm box? You can find some good plans online for cultivating your own worms. This will also help with keeping the all natural diet you are going for since you'll know what the worms are eating and that they are healthy. When i use to keep Oscars, i had access to a mountain stream that was teaming with crayfish. I would capture them by the dozen and raise them in a seperate tank to quarantine them. You could do the same with glass shrimp and raise your own food. My largest O only ate Hikari, worms (many varieties), and crayfish and shrimp and he grew to be 15in. in a 90gal with great color and zero health problems. He really liked being handfed the worms.
 
I both compost and have large rubbermaids full of earthworms and red wigglers =] and handfeeding worms is another reason I no longer want pellet =p veggie sticks will be a necessary evil to keep the big fella regulated. before I kept fish I kept iguanas and snakes. earthworms mealworms and other insects were staples and my "worm boxes" never left the house when the reptiles did. its a good way to rid myself of leftover fruits veggies and starches.
wish I had a local river or stream I would do the same. I may some day raise crays for my cichlids but at a later date. thanks


Goodnight for now =]
 
I don't want to start a huge debate here, but I think it needs to be said that IMO a high quality pellet is going to provide everything your fish needs in ratios that likely exceed what a "mixed" diet will give. Ultimately everyone feeds what they want, but my fish are 100% pellet fed and IMO eat better nutritionally than anything I could whip up at home. Just my 2 cents, I'm sure plenty more people will chime in with their own. ;)
 
To clarify what i was stating earlier, I use a high quality staple pellet for my cichlids, I just supplement with the crayfish, and worms. Because of the potential for disease/parasites that can happen with store bought feeders, I always raise my own. I agree that it is hard to find a substitute for a good cichlid pellet when trying to make sure your fish get all of the nutrients they need.
 
I understand why people like to feed live food and watch fish eat it, I was just pointing out that on a strictly nutritional level I don't think you're providing anything not found in a good pellet.

For me, I've done the whole live AND frozen thing, as well as fresh veggies. I don't enjoy the extra work and I think my fish look better and are actually healthier on the pellet I feed now anyway. I buy in bulk every few months and throw in a few pinches 1-2 times a day. That's it. Someone might get a snack of fry now and then from when I don't remove fry from my community tank, and that doesn't take any effort on my part anyway. ;) Leaves more time for the important stuff, like sitting back and enjoying my tank.
 
I appalud your enthusiasm, however I agree it is compleatly unnessisary not to mention a lot of extra work where the effort will out weigh the benifit. IMO a high quality pellet (I use NLS) provides everything your Saum will need in the correct amounts. If you want to treat your fish every once in a while with an earthworm, skinned peas, spinach, krill/market shrimp that's fine but the diet should be pellet based. I have raiesd a few of these and found NLS to be the best staple diet for these guys (Thera +A is great for GTs). I would recommend at minimum removing the beef heart from the diet. I have found it is important to keep the digestive track moving and this is especially important when young as anything that slows it down could lead to problems, same with shrimp and krill shells if not removed and or feed too often.

My advise for what it's worth would be feed a pellet based diet treat occasionally if you feel the need and put the extra time/effort in maintance and extra water changes. Your GT will grow large, healthy and happy with amazing color or as amazing as it's genetics will allow.

Good Luck.
 
Aquanero said:
I appalud your enthusiasm, however I agree it is compleatly unnessisary not to mention a lot of extra work where the effort will out weigh the benifit. IMO a high quality pellet (I use NLS) provides everything your Saum will need in the correct amounts. If you want to treat your fish every once in a while with an earthworm, skinned peas, spinach, krill/market shrimp that's fine but the diet should be pellet based. I have raiesd a few of these and found NLS to be the best staple diet for these guys (Thera +A is great for GTs). I would recommend at minimum removing the beef heart from the diet. I have found it is important to keep the digestive track moving and this is especially important when young as anything that slows it down could lead to problems, same with shrimp and krill shells if not removed and or feed too often.

My advise for what it's worth would be feed a pellet based diet treat occasionally if you feel the need and put the extra time/effort in maintance and extra water changes. Your GT will grow large, healthy and happy with amazing color or as amazing as it's genetics will allow.

Good Luck.
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Thank you! this was very well written and I'm glad I asked, I just recently got into bigger fish and since my smaller community fish THRIVE on live as apposed to processed I would be doing very little extra work. I have been making the gelatin for a long time but haven't tried it with my gt without pellets, i'll keep it in mind and I still have loads of NLS bulk so i'll be using that till the date prohibits it, however I can't get him/her to eat it. only pellet he/she has taken is hikari, though I don't have big enough pellets for the saum it LOVES ocean nutrition, and I swear by that pellet just can't find the larger varieties. again I appreciate your post i'll for sure keep my gt on pellets but I will still include gelatin as a large part of its diet, just gonna throw pellets into the mix. Will also axe the beef heart and just use worms and shrimp meat and fish that I catch and poach. I believe I have a ton of thera +A but I think it is much too big for now.


Also too much work is relative, I like spending time taking care of my fish =p I even take great care of their food sources.
gotta get a camera I still need to get a proper ID hoping it is a female GT
 
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