Live Food Discussion Thread

[Myka]

Minced...the biggest pieces are 1/8" and the smallest are basically liquified. The gelatin binds it all. I put it in freezer bags and roll it out to 1/4" flat packs. For feeding I break off a day's worth and thaw it in the fridge. I use a baby spoon (nice small size) to half squish the food and half chop it. Dump it in. Corals and small fish eat the fines. The amount of gelatin compared to the total food weight is important...note the ratio.

 

[Wrangy]

Minced...the biggest pieces are 1/8" and the smallest are basically liquified. The gelatin binds it all. I put it in freezer bags and roll it out to 1/4" flat packs. For feeding I break off a day's worth and thaw it in the fridge. I use a baby spoon (nice small size) to half squish the food and half chop it. Dump it in. Corals and small fish eat the fines. The amount of gelatin compared to the total food weight is important...note the ratio.

Fantastic! That you so much Myka

 

[Maximizer]

I don't have the pleasure to be close to the ocean or let alone a lfs, are there any suggestions for live food that I could get fairly easily? The only thing I could think of are baby earth worms from the bait shop or I could order some red Wiggler's. I would like to feed some live food to offer variety. As of right now I only feed lrs.

 

[mcarroll]

I also found this MACNA presentation by Todd Gardener really informative and helpful.

Good video. I've never heard of this dude before.

 

[Emery]

Great thread! I am currently mulling the idea of cultivating my own phyto, rotifers and pods for my new 120g build. I found some nice 3g clear plastic jugs with spigots. Was thinking of getting 6, 2 for each culture. I want to run one air pump with a gang valve splitter for the six jugs. What size air pump would I want for a culture that size?

 

[WandaMay]

Paul b How do you seperate those tiny white worms from the soil? I got a starter batch and the worms did great. I am storing them in a Styrofoam box I stole from lfs. I keep them in my 8 year old sons room-he loves it lol I feed them and scoop them out but they are so small it takes me 30 min or more to try to rinse the soil off and lose probably 50 percent of the little buggers.

 

[Paul B]

My worms used to love saltless crackers, so I would put in a cracker, the worms would cover it and I would remove them. Now they got high class and don't like crackers any more. But after a while, you get so many worms that they clump up on the sides of the box and you scoop them up. Before that happens I just remove a clump of dirt that is loaded with worms and put it in a container. Keep filling it with tap water and after a few seconds, the worms sink and I pour off the soil. Eventually you are left with just worms and some large pieces of sticks and things that made up the soil. The worms stay on top of whats left and I suck the worms off that with a baster

 

[Greenstreet.1]

I feed black worms I just cleaned out a 20g today to start pods and just read about the white worms with Mr. Paul B so I’ll be starting that soon also.

 

[lapin]

Just got my first fish for the new tank. 6 cardinals. Very small sized fish are in QT now. They were not very interested in the frozen food. The min I fired up the brine shrimp hatching cone everything changed. They now come running when they see me. Live foods are the best. Im currently raising stuff for the new tank and its occupants. Roti, Pods, Phyto, White Worms, and the brine shrimp. I need to get Paul to send me a pail of fresh bay pods )))))

 

[Clownfish2]

Here are my copepod cultures, tigrioupus californicus:

Salinity 1.025
Temperature 73-76 no heater
Air pump: low to medium bubbles
Food: feed live nannochloropsis, BRS reef chili, spirulina powder.

Just began culturing brown algae isochrysis Galbana.

Note all the tiny nauplii:

 

[TVo]

i fed cyclop-eeze for a while and noticed that I was growing a lot of hair algae really fast. The corals love it but it spiked up my nitrates. I spot feed but can't seem to get around it. Are there better alternatives? I've stopped using it and my tank is getting back healthy again.

 

[mcarroll]

Unless you are feeding your fish the Cyclopes it's hard to imagine that you can feed it slow enough for the corals to get it versus going to waste.

So unless the system in question is fishless, I would just not feed the corals and instead feed the fish as well as you can.

Corals are much more likely to benefit this way, IMO.

 

[Wrangy]

Unless you are feeding your fish the Cyclopes it's hard to imagine that you can feed it slow enough for the corals to get it versus going to waste.

So unless the system in question is fishless, I would just not feed the corals and instead feed the fish as well as you can.

Corals are much more likely to benefit this way, IMO.

^^ This is spot on With the exception of NPS and if you just enjoy feeding certain corals haha I've never fed my goni's or LPS, they get all the fish poo and leftovers they can handle

 

[Osidedude]

I culture white worms in soil and have been doing that about 8 years. Blackworms I feed every day and have been using them about fifty years but only 46 years in my reef. I don't raise them because they reproduce to slow so I buy them every 2 weeks or so.
I hatch brine shrimp every day for my pipefishes, mandarins, queen anthias and a few others. I don't know when I started that but it must have been 20 years ago.
I also collect amphipods by the thousands in a bay in the Long Island Sound and dump them in. They breed and live under all my rock.
It takes about 5 or 10 minutes a day to hatch the shrimp and separate the white worms from the soil. The blackworms I just suck up with a baster looking thing that I make and target feed them. I would never just put any food in my tank without a baster.
Because of this food (including clams) all of my paired fish are spawning including the pipefish, bangai cardinals, clown gobies, mixed cardinals, mandarins, fireclowns, watchman gobies and ruby red dragonettes

Here are some of the pipefish eating new born brine shrimp.


Here are some amphipods I collect. (video)


Here are some of them eating live blackworms. All of these fish are spawning except the copperband.(I would love that but that aint happening) The copperband was very small here, he is much larger now and needs more than worms. (Video)



I also use this feeder every day filled with new born shrimp mainly for the mandarins and other dragonettes but the pipefish feed from it also. The mandarins have been spawning for many years.
I believe live food is needed every day. (video)

I started growing rotifers from Reef Nutrition last month...My dragonette and red scooter have more then enough food. I have noticed my Rusty Angle and Canary Blenny picking them off the glass as well. I feed twice a day sometimes if home all day 3 or 4 times as they eat fast. It only takes a few minutes for each feeding. I also spend a few minutes each day collecting and feeding tank. I started target feeding to anemones and certain corals as well...little too soon to give an opinion yet on the target feeding. I spend 10 min twice a week with cleanings of 5 gallon bucket and filter. So in all I would say about an hour each week and well worth the nutrition to my fish and other critters not to mention the cost savings from buying a bottle every week. I plan on starting Tigger-pods this week and will give another up date once going. I have been giving them away to folks in SDMA and plan on donating to SCMAS raffle going forward. In fact if I don't figure out how to get rid of more they may end up going down the drain as my culture produces more then I can use...good reason to start a seahorse / pipefish tank??? The reason I am going to try tigger pods as well...people have asked me for a bigger food source.

My Rotifer farm!!!

 

[mcarroll]

@Osidedude how do you do your harvesting for feeding time?

 

[Osidedude]

@Osidedude how do you do your harvesting for feeding time?

At first I was using just a cup but ended up buying a Zooplankton harvest sieve.

 

[mcarroll]

Link?

 

[Subsea]

Just got my first fish for the new tank. 6 cardinals. Very small sized fish are in QT now. They were not very interested in the frozen food. The min I fired up the brine shrimp hatching cone everything changed. They now come running when they see me. Live foods are the best. Im currently raising stuff for the new tank and its occupants. Roti, Pods, Phyto, White Worms, and the brine shrimp. I need to get Paul to send me a pail of fresh bay pods )))))

In the fall, when it cools off, we should go on a collection trip to Corpus Christie: pods, Peppermint Shrimp, Green Mollies, Sheepshead Minnow. I use the pods and small fish as live food for refugium kits.

https://saltybottomreefcompany.com/Ghost-Feeder-Shrimp-Saltwater_p_153.html

 

[Subsea]

I culture white worms in soil and have been doing that about 8 years. Blackworms I feed every day and have been using them about fifty years but only 46 years in my reef. I don't raise them because they reproduce to slow so I buy them every 2 weeks or so.
I hatch brine shrimp every day for my pipefishes, mandarins, queen anthias and a few others. I don't know when I started that but it must have been 20 years ago.
I also collect amphipods by the thousands in a bay in the Long Island Sound and dump them in. They breed and live under all my rock.
It takes about 5 or 10 minutes a day to hatch the shrimp and separate the white worms from the soil. The blackworms I just suck up with a baster looking thing that I make and target feed them. I would never just put any food in my tank without a baster.
Because of this food (including clams) all of my paired fish are spawning including the pipefish, bangai cardinals, clown gobies, mixed cardinals, mandarins, fireclowns, watchman gobies and ruby red dragonettes

Here are some of the pipefish eating new born brine shrimp.


Here are some amphipods I collect. (video)


Here are some of them eating live blackworms. All of these fish are spawning except the copperband.(I would love that but that aint happening) The copperband was very small here, he is much larger now and needs more than worms. (Video)



I also use this feeder every day filled with new born shrimp mainly for the mandarins and other dragonettes but the pipefish feed from it also. The mandarins have been spawning for many years.
I believe live food is needed every day. (video)

Paul,

I was on Long Island for a week, when you made this post. We went fishing near the Inlet, then three Cajun brothers went calming with “bare feet” in the sand. It was quite fun.

If I only knew where your secret collection spot was. Actually, there is a large hatchery for Grass Shrimp on the Connecticut side of the Sound.

Laissez les bonne temps roulee,
Patrick

PSS: I have caught thousands of grass shrimp in less than an hour. You got to wade in with the gators to get to the good spots.

https://www.chesapeakebay.net/S=0/fieldguide/critter/common_grass_shrimp

 

[Reef Nutrition]

I started growing rotifers from Reef Nutrition last month...My dragonette and red scooter have more then enough food. I have noticed my Rusty Angle and Canary Blenny picking them off the glass as well. I feed twice a day sometimes if home all day 3 or 4 times as they eat fast. It only takes a few minutes for each feeding. I also spend a few minutes each day collecting and feeding tank. I started target feeding to anemones and certain corals as well...little too soon to give an opinion yet on the target feeding. I spend 10 min twice a week with cleanings of 5 gallon bucket and filter. So in all I would say about an hour each week and well worth the nutrition to my fish and other critters not to mention the cost savings from buying a bottle every week. I plan on starting Tigger-pods this week and will give another up date once going. I have been giving them away to folks in SDMA and plan on donating to SCMAS raffle going forward. In fact if I don't figure out how to get rid of more they may end up going down the drain as my culture produces more then I can use...good reason to start a seahorse / pipefish tank??? The reason I am going to try tigger pods as well...people have asked me for a bigger food source.

My Rotifer farm!!!

Great talking with you yesterday! We look forward to seeing what you can do with the Apocyclops panamensis copepods!

I have a quick question about your rotifer culture. How much RGcomplete are you offering them daily? Are you feeding them multiple times a day?

Chad