Live Fish As Food - Nutritional Value & Concerns

[perok]

I was just looking at this entire thread, and for the past 3 years I have always had at least a dozen if not two or three dozen feeder varieties swimming about my tank at all times. I used to buy a lot of rosies, then I read they have weak nutritional value so I cut down and now it's mostly guppies and ghost shrimp. However, I do pick up a few rosies because they tend to be bigger and more filling for my fish.


Maybe I'm just lucky, though I think people tend to make fish keeping a bit more complicated than it needs to be.

 

[Naso2]

I feed primarially live food. Brine and silversides for saltwater and guppies and ghost shrimp for freshwater.

 

[fishylee]

This is interesting because I have been feeding my pacu soybeans since he was about the size of a silver dollar. I got him when he was the size of a quarter, and only because I am on an extremely tight budget, I started looking for food alternatives. yes he loves to chasedown a feeder, but because my girlfriend doesn't like the 'kill' and 'teeny tiny" is supposedly a vegie eater.I chose to use a high protein food that i could buy in bulk. Frozen edamame was my best guess. 25 inches x 11 inches x 3 inches, my bean eater is a definite monster that has been in need of a new home for a long time. His 150 gallon 25x25x60 is toooo smallll . will your buddy at "sea world" give him a good. home?

 

[jag14]

What about using platies and swordtails? My husband will be starting a 30 gallon tank with peaceful, non violent fish. Kind of boring I think compared to the personality of a cichlid. I was planning on feeding some of the extra platies and swords to my 14 inch Jag/Dovii hybrid. Not all the time, but just once in a while.

 

[Oddball]

Once in a while is OK. These warm-water LBs have higher thiaminase content than cold-water species. You can help the nutritional value of LBs by gut-loading them just prior to feeding them to your fish.

 

[dragonfish]

Lot of good info on not feeding freshwater feeders to marine, but what about the reverse. Can I feed marine bait fish to freshwater predators or is there an issue?

 

[Oddball]

Across the board, thiaminase is found to lesser degrees in marine bait fish and whitemeat fish species than in freshwater species. The cooler the water marine feeders are caught in, the less thiaminase is found in feeder fish.

 

[Dem Oscars]

What would be the best live feeders to feed my two Tiger Oscars and Red Devil? It would mainly be a once a week treat kind of thing.

 

[Thari82]

Thanks for the information.

 

[alanwcollins]

Cool