Favorite fish foods
- Thread starter Humblefish
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Agree, live black worms are probably the ultimate in getting finicky fish to eat. They aren't easy to get/keep but they work. I've had great luck with LRS foods, the fish frenzy actually contains frozen black worms. I've also had good luck with Hikari mysis , probably due to their smaller size.
ON prime reef flakes, all forms of brine shrimp they each have a purpose, thumbs up on black worms and oyster mush for finicky fish and corals in general. Also had a rainford goby that was a pain to feed BUT black worms oyster mush and decapsulated brine eggs would get eaten until he couldn't move lol.
I have a whole list...
TDO Chroma boost
SA hatchery diet
LRS Reef frenzy
LRS fish eggs
AF/PE calanus
PE mysis
TDO Chroma boost
SA hatchery diet
LRS Reef frenzy
LRS fish eggs
AF/PE calanus
PE mysis
pandagobyguy
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So the list of foods I've tried:
Pretty much all of the fresh water tetra flakes etc.
Formula 1 & 2 flake
Homemade algae flake
Algae wafers/discs
Sinking algae pellets
Nori
Freeze dried bloodworms
Baby brine shrimp
Frozen mysis
Dead copepod "sludge" (Dr. Gs or something)
Recently i have been raising my brine shrimp to adulthood in a ten gallon. I'm waiting on mature adults before harvesting. I have also started phyto and have roti cysts in my fridge. I bought a Christmas present for myself! It's vinegar and micro worm cultures. Still waiting for delivery.
I can update on those when i do feed them if you're interested.
Of all of these here are my thoughts:
Freeze dried blood worms are garbage and nothing eats them (if you have cubes you can stick them to the glass and fish are sort of interested in it. Plus, its fun.)
I have yet to come across "bad" flake food. Even tetra flake was perfectly fine for my clowns. Formula 2 is THE absolute favorite!!!! (Fresh and marine)
Don't waste money on any algae products. Buy nori. I have not found an algae based fish food (if you don't count formula 2) that is anywhere near as happily accepted. A far better option is to make flake food out of tank harvested algae (which works great!). [Also i have seen people just freeze algae]
Baby brine have received the most enthusiastic feeding of all! I am excited to see how the larger brine are accepted.
Frozen mysis was the first food i fed my tank. I find it to be an adequate food but in my experience a very mediocre choice. It messes with my tank params. Its hard to feed the right amount (in my experience an adult occ. Clown eats 1 maybe 2 full mysis in a single feeding) and it is annoying to store if you use less than a full cube (and goes bad quickly). Fish dont love it either. Honestly my clowns very obviously prefer flake to frozen mysis (and i have no complaints $$$ wise [emoji23])
Ok and my biggest waste of money (because i didnt pay for the bloodworms) was the copepod sludge. I wasnt aware how very drastic the difference is between dead and live copepods is. Occasionally i shake my ATS off in the dt. My fish love snagging the copes and amphis that jump off. They do not touch dr. G's. I occasionally use it as a paly coral food but it isnt great for that either (i would much rather opt for coral frenzy or a dedicated coral food next time)
Finally the thought has crossed my mind often that i should try to create a frozen cube blend of these foods. While the idea seems nice, i wonder how it ends up working out... i tend to spot feed particular foods to particular things and it just seems like a recipe for overfeeding... but no experience there... i will definitely try it when i get around to it.
Well thats my fish food eval lol. Just my experiences and interpretation of results. Sorry for typing so much X)
TLDR; LIVE FOODS, NORI AND FORMULA 2 FLAKE [emoji7]
Pretty much all of the fresh water tetra flakes etc.
Formula 1 & 2 flake
Homemade algae flake
Algae wafers/discs
Sinking algae pellets
Nori
Freeze dried bloodworms
Baby brine shrimp
Frozen mysis
Dead copepod "sludge" (Dr. Gs or something)
Recently i have been raising my brine shrimp to adulthood in a ten gallon. I'm waiting on mature adults before harvesting. I have also started phyto and have roti cysts in my fridge. I bought a Christmas present for myself! It's vinegar and micro worm cultures. Still waiting for delivery.
I can update on those when i do feed them if you're interested.
Of all of these here are my thoughts:
Freeze dried blood worms are garbage and nothing eats them (if you have cubes you can stick them to the glass and fish are sort of interested in it. Plus, its fun.)
I have yet to come across "bad" flake food. Even tetra flake was perfectly fine for my clowns. Formula 2 is THE absolute favorite!!!! (Fresh and marine)
Don't waste money on any algae products. Buy nori. I have not found an algae based fish food (if you don't count formula 2) that is anywhere near as happily accepted. A far better option is to make flake food out of tank harvested algae (which works great!). [Also i have seen people just freeze algae]
Baby brine have received the most enthusiastic feeding of all! I am excited to see how the larger brine are accepted.
Frozen mysis was the first food i fed my tank. I find it to be an adequate food but in my experience a very mediocre choice. It messes with my tank params. Its hard to feed the right amount (in my experience an adult occ. Clown eats 1 maybe 2 full mysis in a single feeding) and it is annoying to store if you use less than a full cube (and goes bad quickly). Fish dont love it either. Honestly my clowns very obviously prefer flake to frozen mysis (and i have no complaints $$$ wise [emoji23])
Ok and my biggest waste of money (because i didnt pay for the bloodworms) was the copepod sludge. I wasnt aware how very drastic the difference is between dead and live copepods is. Occasionally i shake my ATS off in the dt. My fish love snagging the copes and amphis that jump off. They do not touch dr. G's. I occasionally use it as a paly coral food but it isnt great for that either (i would much rather opt for coral frenzy or a dedicated coral food next time)
Finally the thought has crossed my mind often that i should try to create a frozen cube blend of these foods. While the idea seems nice, i wonder how it ends up working out... i tend to spot feed particular foods to particular things and it just seems like a recipe for overfeeding... but no experience there... i will definitely try it when i get around to it.
Well thats my fish food eval lol. Just my experiences and interpretation of results. Sorry for typing so much X)
TLDR; LIVE FOODS, NORI AND FORMULA 2 FLAKE [emoji7]
Last edited:
Live brine.
Clams on the half-shell.
Blackworms, as mentioned above.
LRS and Rod's food; I feed fish, reef and herbivore varieties in rotation.
And sometimes . . .
Ocean Nutrition pellets. The Quoy's loved 'em and still does, and my new regal vacuums them up with gusto.
~Bruce
Clams on the half-shell.
Blackworms, as mentioned above.
LRS and Rod's food; I feed fish, reef and herbivore varieties in rotation.
And sometimes . . .
Ocean Nutrition pellets. The Quoy's loved 'em and still does, and my new regal vacuums them up with gusto.
~Bruce
Kamden Uelton
Well-Known Member
I feed LRS Fish Frenzy to my Mimic Filefish, My Hectors' Goby and Pipefish live off whats in the tank.
Flippers4pups
Fins up since 1993
LRS reef frenzy. Ocean nutrition reef flakes. Nori.
4FordFamily
Tang, Angel, and Wrasse Nerd!
Live blackworms for nearly everything, live mussels for finicky angels, wrasse, and idols, and live brine for tangs and most other finicky eaters!
Red nori seems to get tangs eating better than green. I mix frozen foods per this video otherwise:
Red nori seems to get tangs eating better than green. I mix frozen foods per this video otherwise:
pandagobyguy
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Do yall buy blackworms or culture them yourselves?
From what i have already seen they typically live in fresh substrate, if that's right?
Anyone got Links to culturing guide or thread (sorry to hijack thread)?
From what i have already seen they typically live in fresh substrate, if that's right?
Anyone got Links to culturing guide or thread (sorry to hijack thread)?
Pola0502ds
Zoa Addict
I have been making my own for 2 years and the fish go nuts over it but prior to that i was a Rods Food guy. Loved that stuff. And i also started feeding the PE dried mysis to the fish in my frag tank. They love it.
nautical_nathaniel
Indecision may or may not be my problem.
LRS Nano Frenzy for small fish and LRS Reef Frenzy or Rod's Food Original for bigger fish. Mine also love Cobalt Aquatics Omni Flakes and TDO Chromaboost Pellets. I got the pellets as a sample from MACNA and my fish go nuts for them and will pick them over the flakes, so I may be ordering some more of that soon.
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Nice thread!
Zagreus
Active Member
Live Black-worms are like like crack for my fish. I wonder how healthy it is to feed them often. I buy them live from my LFS. Sells me a bunch in a clear plastic bag that I keep in my refrigerator. I just change the water with fresh rodi water once a week and they stay alive forever, like a month my last batch before they were all inhaled by my fish. Seriously they scoff at mysis now.
The problem with live blackworms is that my fish get spoiled by it. I feed nls pellets during the day, then pe mysis or lrs reef frenzy when I get home. Then they get live blackworms for dessert. They lose interest in mysis and reef frenzy and wait for the worms.
ca1ore
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Pretty much all the regular stuff here too. If I have a really problematic new fish, spirulina brine usually does the trick. If that fails then I try the LRS fish eggs. If that fails I break out the nutramar ova. If that fails then the fish likely isn't going to eat. I've enticed a bunch of picky feeders this way: achilles tangs, potters angel, LemonPeel Angel, regal angel and a bunch of leopard wrasses.
I do use black worms if I can find them, but no great desire to raise them. Got the other things that are just as good.
I do use black worms if I can find them, but no great desire to raise them. Got the other things that are just as good.
BigJohnny
2500 Club Member
Live blackworms, nutramar ova, and live baby brine are my gotos for finicky fish. Have never had a fish not eat one of the three. I feed primarily lrs fish frenzy in my display and supplement with live blackworms and nutramar ova.
