Fish food

[mplocar]

In my reading I have seen that alot of fish eat brine shrimp, is there away to keep them living in the aquarium with the rest of the fish ? also the plankton can you keep it in the tank or will they not survive and or funk up the biofilter or ecosystem?

 

[yote]

Brine shrimp need pretty nasty water to live and breed.So I doubt they would survive long,plus your fish will snatch em up pretty quick.
besides,once brine become adults,they have little to no nutrients even if they are alive.
Most of th plankton will be used up by the filter feeders quick too.

 

[mplocar]

Thanks Yote,
I have seen these brine shrimp "hatcheries" in my LFS where it looks like you use a 2ltr bottle and an airstone, I could use one of these and add the shrimp and make my fish happy then? I wont have any corals of filter feeders for some time so the plankton will be a later issue then.

and an update, the levels in the tank have reached a point I could add a few chromis I picked up three for now and I think we will eventually add another three for a nice little school since our plan is to have mostly peaceful small fish in the tank. My wife wants a maroon clown for her Birthday with that and a lawnmower bleeny and the clean up crew might top out the occupants for some time.

So let me know what you think and I appreciate it as usual

 

[reeffreak]

Brine shrimp has little to no nutritional value.Use it as a treat and not the main food for you're fish.There are variety of frozen foods that are better suited to feed-mysis,Prime Reef,Rod's Food,Marine Cuisine etc.

 

[yote]

I wouldnt add any more chromis,and dont think I would add a maroon clown.Maroons are the most aggressive clown out there.
Maybe a perc. or ocellaris.

 

[Bifferwine]

The brine shrimp hatcheries work great, and it's kinda fun to add live food to the tank and watch the fish go nuts. But like others have said, brine is not very healthy for fish, so this should be used as a treat and not the main source of their diet.

Frozen foods are your best bet. They have all sorts of good stuff in them.

 

[fatman]

Brine shrimp are fine as a manner of getting vitamins and such to your corals and fish. For an exaple putting Selcon in a brine shrimp anupuli hatchery insure they ingest the Selcon which is then ingested by the fish and coral. If you are serious bout raisng brine shrimp they are easy to raise and is fed properlty they make goog food for fish and coral. However for coral it is best to use/hatch decapsulated cysts (deshelled eggs). Not the best but better than a lot of the commercial prepared foods at the middle to bottom end of the price ranges. For example phytoplankton is also eatten by a lot of corals, clmas and sponges and it is easily cultured. However there is time involved and unless you are using a lot of cultured foods or do not have to be employed you would probably find buying the products for regular feeding better than the time spent maintaining the cultures. My cultures (phtoplankton of two strains, rotifers and shrimp napulii) can take up to four hours a week to maintain.

 

[mplocar]

Ok so far as store bought foods which are better pellts or flakes. my experince is that flakes cloud and funk up the water but some fish seem to have a difficult time eating pellets. What do most of you use? or perhaps what did you start off with before you major setups.

 

[fatman]

Neither pellets or flakes are better. Frozen foods, thawed before being fed are the safest and healthiest form of feeding marine fish, but even some of the frozen foods re pretty un nutritious. That and live foods, which is almost a sure necessity for some fish.

 

[reeffreak]

99% percent of what I feed is frozen fish food.I have literally dozens of foods for the needs of each individual fish.I've never use any flake foods in a saltwater aquarium so I can't comment in which is better.I feed ORA Glow sinking pellets for some of my fish on occasions.Pretty good stuff for small mouth fishes like my mandarin and anthias.

 

[Bifferwine]

I never feed flakes or pellets. Both contain ash, which can lead to algae problems. I feed frozen food only. You can find frozen fish food at any fish store and even the chain pet stores like Petco and Petsmart. Mysis shrimp is the best "basic" type of frozen food. Pretty much every type of fish will eat mysis. That's a good place to start.

 

[yote]

I do like Biff.Flakes and pellets never go in my tank.