Live Foods?

I have now read many articles being a newbie on the hobby and was wondering
what peoples views are on live foods.

Most articles relating to individual fish state their food preferences and
in this for most fish it says to supplement with live food, I have also read
that live food is also one of the major ways to bring in disease.

I have seen in my local big fish stores Daphnia, Bloodworm, & Larvae but as
yet none have sell by dates or any indication of how fresh it is.

So what do you think about this and with me being new should I avoid live
foods and aim for flakes and frozen all the time and would this be unfair to
my fish.

Thanks again for your thoughts.

We are out getting our fish today!

Haynes'ey.

--
Haynes'ey.

"Haynes'ey" wrote in message
...
I have now read many articles being a newbie on the hobby and was
wondering
what peoples views are on live foods.

Most articles relating to individual fish state their food preferences
and
in this for most fish it says to supplement with live food, I have also
read
that live food is also one of the major ways to bring in disease.

I have seen in my local big fish stores Daphnia, Bloodworm, & Larvae
but as
yet none have sell by dates or any indication of how fresh it is.

So what do you think about this and with me being new should I avoid
live
foods and aim for flakes and frozen all the time and would this be
unfair to
my fish.

Thanks again for your thoughts.

We are out getting our fish today!

Haynes'ey.

Maybe this will help
http://www.2cah.com/netmax/whatfishwant/food/food.shtml

The menu will depend on what kind of fish you are buying, but generally,
I would use flake as the daily staple food, once or twice a day. Several
times a week, replace one of the flake feedings with something else.
This can range from making the night feeding always freeze-dried foods,
and every weekend some frozen foods, or random pelleted/FD/frozen food
during the week.

The key is to provide enough of a variety that they have an abundance of
the required vitamins & minerals, without over-feeding and without
over-loading your biological filter. AFAIK, frozen foods have 2 disease
vectors. The least likely is that it was packaged with it and it
survived the freezing. Some suppliers irradiate the food before freezing
(Hikari?). The odds on this being a problem are (imo) low. It's far
more likely to have bad frozen food because it thawed sometime between
the supplier and your freezer. When I receive a frozen food order which
has signs of having thawed in transit and/or been re-frozen, I reject it.
I don't know what your local LFS's procedures would be. Thawed re-frozen
foods quickly develop nasty bacteria (also imo). Fortunately, a visual
inspection through the clear plastic packaging is usually sufficient to
determine if this has happened. hth
--
www.NetMax.tk

I regularly feed two kinds of live foods: brine shrimp and black worms
(not to be confused with tubifex worms). Brine shrimp is extremely safe,
since they live in salt water it is unlikely they will carry parasites
that will survive in fresh water. Black worms are raised in California
in specialty ponds, so they are very clean. I haven't had any problems
with either of them.

--
Victor Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

Check with the "fanatics". ;-) If you want live food it is probably best to
grow it yourself.
http://fins.actwin.com/live-foods

bob


"Haynes'ey" wrote in message
...
I have now read many articles being a newbie on the hobby and was
wondering
what peoples views are on live foods.

Most articles relating to individual fish state their food preferences and
in this for most fish it says to supplement with live food, I have also
read
that live food is also one of the major ways to bring in disease.

I have seen in my local big fish stores Daphnia, Bloodworm, & Larvae but
as
yet none have sell by dates or any indication of how fresh it is.

So what do you think about this and with me being new should I avoid live
foods and aim for flakes and frozen all the time and would this be unfair
to
my fish.

Thanks again for your thoughts.

We are out getting our fish today!

Haynes'ey.

--
Haynes'ey.