feeding small fresh water natives

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twistedsnap

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 14, 2009
636
4
0
southern il
i got some pygme sunfush pirate perch, and mosquito fish i got from the swamp i duck hunt. not real sure what to feed them they have been pecking at the shrimp pellets and flake food but if there is something better im all for it
thanks for any help you can give
 
Pygmies are hard to get on prepared food. If you can get live daphnia, bloodworms, etc. they'll enjoy those. Pirate perch are about the same but can take larger live foods such as ghost shrimp and small earthworms. They will sometimes eat frozen foods and pellets too, but are skittish so it helps to feed just before lights out. Mosquitofish usually take to flake right away.

By the way, I suggest you keep only one of those species per tank. Pirate perch, once they get big enough, will eat the other two, and mosquitofish are vicious fin nippers. They're all fun fish though, good luck with them!
 
You can try live scuds they can be found on aquabid and are easy to culture or you could get baby shrimp which are the same thing made by tetra called sun dried gammarus.
 
It would be best to try to vary between the different suggestions above as that will help to balance there diet.
 
you can buy frozen blood worms, glass worms, danphia (SP?), brine shrimp in easy to use packages at petsmart, or most any local live fish store. they look like small ice trays, just pop out a cube and dump it in the tank.

there are also freeze dried varieties of the same.
 
well unfortunatly they all became infected with a fungus and i couldnt get it to got away and stay way they wall died but before they died they were all eating the blood worms and shrimp pellets
 
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