Live Food and parasites?

[NikosKoul]

Hi i am feeding my striata with meal worms and morio worms live food not frozen and some krikets live. Do you think my striata can have problem when i feed only live with parasites. I realized today that my fish doing some unknown movements like it has some problem. ( i bought waterlife’s Sterazin) It maybe have parasites i am not sure.. What other can i feed him ? Can i feed food with beef heart? He does not accept krill(!!) and hikari pellets. Help please.

 

[headbanger_jib]

The striata thought would eat insects, but it is a deep water Channa, you need to supplement at least some amount of freshwater fish meat to. It's diet. Feeding only insects might effect the Channa.


Also on a side note, super. Worms and meal worms are not very good as a main portion of Channa diet, even insectivore Channa for that matter

 

[NikosKoul]

Freshwater fish meat like tilapia meat? Should i cook the meal or when its frozen i just defreeze it and feed my striata? Thanks for the answer buddy. I am trying to feed this guy some pellets but is extremly hard. He only ate 4 cichlid pellets and not interest for krill or hilaki food sticks

 

[headbanger_jib]

Go with Tilapia fillet, just let the fillet thaw out and feed, do not boil or cook, raw is good for them, just get, the one that's cleared for human consumption, that way you get parasite free stuff

 

[NikosKoul]

Can i use it as staple food?

 

[NikosKoul]

And one more question , here in Cyprus i think Tilapia’s fillet ll be hard to find can i feed salmon or other freshwater fillets instead?

 

[Madou]

You can use a lot of things as a staple, but it's always safer to use insects as staple for all sub-tropical channas. That being said, only shelled worms isn't going to be working long term. Try crikets, locusts, earthworms, etc. on top of what you already feed him.

I am definitely not against fish filets every now and then, but again, not as a staple.

As for salmon and hikaris, those should be consumed in very (and I mean VERY) limited amounts, both of them being way too fat for any channa.

To the issue of your fish squirming, I am pretty sure it's not because he only eats worms. If it swims funny, it has a problem that is different then the diet.

 

[headbanger_jib]

And one more question , here in Cyprus i think Tilapia’s fillet ll be hard to find can i feed salmon or other freshwater fillets instead?

Any freshwater fish fillet is great

And yes, as stated above, avoid fatty foods, not good for Channa.

Never seen salmon meat

 

[headbanger_jib]

Striata is a tropical Channa, and has a large distribution.

Amongst Channa species, striata is a piscivore, even so they do get insect on their menu, as any top water predator would, a diet of only meal worms and super Worms will cause health issues even in insectivore channas such as stewartis, aurantimaculata, barca.

 

[NikosKoul]

So a balanced diet will help my striata grows healthy like twice a week inscects,worms twice pellets, once some shrimp(?) maybe (not eure if shrimp ll be ok tho..) and once fillets