Feeding live food

[lisacush]

My local shop sells packets of live food (brine shrimp, water fleas etc.).
They are sealed plastic packets, half full of water and swarming with
goodies. Being a complete beginner I'm not sure of the best way to get
these to my fish.

My first thought was to just pour the contents into the tank - but then I
worried about the amount of debris this would introduce and whether it was
healthy to add the water to my tank. So then I thought I should strain out
the food and discard the water - but that still introduces a lot of debris
to the tank. I tried picking out the goodies with a dropper - very time
consuming and difficult to do, and still puts some of the water from the bag
into the tank.

What's the best way to prepare or wash the food?

Or am I just worrying too much (I am very much a beginner and don't yet know
what I should and shouldn't worry about!)

Thanks for any help

Lisa

[Happy'Cam'per]

Hi Lisa

This is what I do:

Pour contents of packet into a small fish net (do this in the back garden on
the grass). Hold the net full of shrimp or worms or whatever under a running
tap, just let the water kind of rinse all the ugly stuff away. Turn the net
inside out onto an old saucer or something emptying all the food into it.
Feed the fish and whatever is left over can be stuck in the fridge/freezer
for the following feeding. Be careful when buying live foods, use only as a
treat say once a week. It can get a bit heavy on the water clarity if too
much protein is rotting in the bottom of your tank.

And to the rest of the group, surely there can't be a worse smell than
opening up a "Ripe" baggie of brine shrimp or bloodworm. LOL, That freaks me
right out :)
--
**So long, and thanks for all the fish!**



"lisacush" > wrote in message
...
> My local shop sells packets of live food (brine shrimp, water fleas etc.).
> They are sealed plastic packets, half full of water and swarming with
> goodies. Being a complete beginner I'm not sure of the best way to get
> these to my fish.
>
> My first thought was to just pour the contents into the tank - but then I
> worried about the amount of debris this would introduce and whether it was
> healthy to add the water to my tank. So then I thought I should strain
out
> the food and discard the water - but that still introduces a lot of debris
> to the tank. I tried picking out the goodies with a dropper - very time
> consuming and difficult to do, and still puts some of the water from the
bag
> into the tank.
>
> What's the best way to prepare or wash the food?
>
> Or am I just worrying too much (I am very much a beginner and don't yet
know
> what I should and shouldn't worry about!)
>
> Thanks for any help
>
> Lisa
>
>

[NetMax]

"Happy'Cam'per" > wrote in message
...
> Hi Lisa
>
<snip>
> And to the rest of the group, surely there can't be a worse smell than
> opening up a "Ripe" baggie of brine shrimp or bloodworm. LOL, That
freaks me
> right out :)
> --
> **So long, and thanks for all the fish!**
<snip>

A canister filter which was put into storage with water in it, has a
'lovely' odour when opened (rotten eggs), but there is nothing like a bag
of dead snails from the far-east to clear your nostrils. The smell
sticks to everything it touches. If you handle them, regular hand
washing is not enough to get rid of the smell. I'm not sure if that's
worse than 'ripe' frozen food. Someone forgot a cube of frozen
bloodworms on a CF canopy one night. It quickly melted and oozed into
the canopy's innards to 'ferment'. That was not a pretty smell the next
morning.

NetMax

[lisacush]

Thanks for that.

But ... "whatever is left over" ??? my fellas *loved* this stuff! Nothing
left over at all after the regulation two minutes ;) they were taking it
out of each others mouths where they could.

I have 6 x White Cloud Mountain Minnows, 2 x Cherry Barbs and 1 x small
Ancistrus (who obviously wasn't one of those going mad about brine shrimp)
in a 120 litre, recently cycled tank.

I'm planning on flake most of the time, live food once a week and vegetables
once a week (plus algae wafers for the Ancistrus). My first try with
spinach wasn't too successful - they ignored it completely - but the live
food is a hit.

Of course, being new to this the main problem I'm having is that I'm
probably feeding too much. I keep misjudging the amount of flake/algae
wafers I'm adding and finding that the tiny amount I'm putting in isn't as
tiny as I thought. It spreads out, the fish loose interest and the bottom
is flaked again. At least with the live food they eat it all!

Thanks again for the advice

-- Lisa




"Happy'Cam'per" wrote:
>
> This is what I do:
>
> Pour contents of packet into a small fish net (do this in the back garden
on
> the grass). Hold the net full of shrimp or worms or whatever under a
running
> tap, just let the water kind of rinse all the ugly stuff away. Turn the
net
> inside out onto an old saucer or something emptying all the food into it.
> Feed the fish and whatever is left over can be stuck in the fridge/freezer
> for the following feeding. Be careful when buying live foods, use only as
a
> treat say once a week. It can get a bit heavy on the water clarity if too
> much protein is rotting in the bottom of your tank.
>
> And to the rest of the group, surely there can't be a worse smell than
> opening up a "Ripe" baggie of brine shrimp or bloodworm. LOL, That freaks
me
> right out :)