Juvenile Dovii Help

[VRWC]

I fed mine live shrimp caught in the waterway, live earthworms, live crickets, live mealworms, live grasshoppers, live moths, market shrimp, hikari pellets, cichlid sticks, frozen peas & more and they grew like crazy.

High protein (shrimp) packs on the pounds faster than anything else IME.

 

[BIG_ONE]

I see thanks! I guess I can pick up some minnows at the baitshop as they are suppose to be disease free. And a couple of other live stuff...
I'll try and post some pics as soon as I get a couple of them this weekend...or the following weekend.

 

[VRWC]

personally, I wouldnt use minnows from a baitshop...especially if they are liek the ones near me that stay outside the store 24/7 with a screen top. no telling what could get in there. The only way Id feed live fish to them is if I raised them myself.

 

[cchhcc]

no live and no "scraps of meat from your meals"

pellets, fish, and pellets.......raise a healthy fish

I totally agree. Get a good pellet (NLS, Omega, etc.), and depend on it for 90% of your feeding. The nutritional profile of the better pellets just can't be beat nowadays. The only reason I'd add any other foods would be to get the fish used to eating raw shrimp since they'll need a taste for that in the future. Market shrimp can be a huge part of their diet when they get large. At that point, market shrimp stuffed with pellets or wafers works well. For the little guys, just try a little mysis shrimp here and there for now.

If you MUST feed live food, just make sure you breed and raise it yourself.

 

[BIG_ONE]

personally, I wouldnt use minnows from a baitshop...especially if they are liek the ones near me that stay outside the store 24/7 with a screen top. no telling what could get in there. The only way Id feed live fish to them is if I raised them myself.

The baitshop here...every single live bait stays inside with glass lid and aeration with super clean water. And the fish are perfect in looks, no signs of any damage, sores except a torn fin or two only and being extremely active.
I buy those minnows a lot during crappie season(they also have super and jumbo size minnows). The fish shows no signs of disease and non of them ever die when I take it to a fishing trip. I even had some that lasted roughly a year in my tank until it caught ich and died

As that is being said...mysis shrimp? Is freeze dried any good at all?

 

[cchhcc]

I only use frozen mysis. I don't like that freeze dried foods blow up in the stomach! Haha!

Regarding baitshop minnows, you can't see what a minnow is carrying from sight. Also, and more importantly, since they come from the wild they are exposed to more pathogens and parasites since the life cycle of many nasties can go full circle there but often cannot do so in a tank. Tank raised fish are then exposed to an entirely new set of issues.

 

[uncwnells]

I agree with what everyone is saying about the minnows. You may be right and they may be healthy, but the odds are not in your favor. You will be exposing your fish to parasites and eventually you will lose your fish. Buy a male and a female convict at your favorite cichlid store for no more than $6-8.00, and they will breed like rabbits.

 

[BIG_ONE]

I see, thanks...no freeze dried my soon to be dovii then.
But I don't know how the law regulates your guys bait....but every single live bait in my baitshop are farmed as I talked to the owner of the baitshop. Especially crawdad's, minnows, crickets, meal worms, wax worms and night crawlers. The only thing I know that aren't technically farmed are pile worms aka rag worms and ghost shrimp aka sand shrimp. Not being ignorant...just some truth to it as of being a fisherman.
Anyways back to the topic and thanks for the info

 

[TWiST]

obviously the live food you guys get in usa is crap as ive heard many times that everyone says not to do it, but the goldys we get over here are good no one i know has ever had a prob

also with the scraps im only talking a little bit of lamb or steak, roughly a 1cm cube, which i is roughly a 3rd of inch so not much occasionly, my one used to go skitz for it

 

[BIG_ONE]

obviously the live food you guys get in usa is crap as ive heard many times that everyone says not to do it, but the goldys we get over here are good no one i know has ever had a prob

also with the scraps im only talking a little bit of lamb or steak, roughly a 1cm cube, which i is roughly a 3rd of inch so not much occasionly, my one used to go skitz for it

yup that's true...the live food in LFS here are crap.