Help Trying to expand my fishs' diets

[e_watson09]

Well as many of you know feeding a variety of foods is really good for fish. Well I have a couple different foods for each tank that I have but I'd really like to add some more to the mix. I'll tell you about what is in each tank then what I am currently feeding it.....

I'll put the food I feed the most first then the frozen I usually feed once a day

50gal-Freshwater
This is my new project tank, I took this over after my mom pretty much abandon it for months. She had left the parrots and the pleco so then I worked around them and stocked the tank. I've only had control of this tank for a couple months but everyone is happy and healthy right now.

Stock: 3 Med Silver Dollars
3 Small Parrot Cichlids
3 Green Severm Cichlids
1 Common Pleco (5")
Food: Jack's Aquarium and Pets Cichlid Flakes
Wardley Cichlid Floating Pellets (med pellets)
Jack's Aquarium and Pets Seaweed Supreme (Green marine algae)
Ocean Nutrition Formula Two (FROZEN)
San Francisco Bay Brand Sally's Brine Shimp (FROZEN)
How Often each food: They get fed 2-3 times per day.Generally I feed the flakes because most of the fish have too small of mouths for the pellets then once or twice a day, sometimes I'll throw in a couple of the cichlid pellets because some will eat them and if not they'll just go to waste. I give them a third of a cube of the formula two and then they get brine shrimp usually at night. Then they get a piece of the seaweed whenever I see it empty or think about it.
What do I plan to add already: I'm definatly going to be adding some algea wafers and some zuccini for my pleco but other than that I'm open to suggestions.

10gal-Freshwater
This is my personal bedroom tank. It is a species tank so I only have balloon mollys in there. I'm also eventually going to have it be a heavily planted tank. One female just passed so I plan to add another after I find my test kit so I can make sure my water levels are safe.

Stock: 5 Balloon Mollys (two males, three females)
Food: Jack's Aquarium and Pets Tropical Flakes
Ocean Nutrition Formula Two (FROZEN)
San Francisco Bay Brand Sally's Brine Shimp (FROZEN)
How often of each food: They get fed 3 or more times a day since I've noticed these fish have a very harty appatite I feed whenever I walk by really and I put a VERY small pinch of the flakes then they get 1/3 of the frozen food that I thaw out for all three tanks. On occasion I'll also give them some of the seaweed.
What do I plan to add already: As of now I'm I've been tossing around the idea of getting bloodworms but I'm not set on anything else for this tank.

150gal-Saltwater
This is my mom's tank so I really have no say in what she feeds but I plan to buy her atleast proper food because this tank needs help. I usually help feeding this tank because if I didn't I think they'd eat every other day or so. So don't get mad at me for what they eat I just feed what we have. Then I've also added some more food that I have for my other fish. The stocking list is not complete I do not know exactly what is in this tank.

Stock: 2 Ocellarus Clowns (not positive that's their exact breed I forget)
1 Tomato Clown
1 Spotted Grouper
1 Niger Trigger (again not sure that's what he looks like tho)
1 Sailfin tang
1 Yellow tang
1 Hippo tang
1 Soldier fish
1 Domino Damsel
1 Zebra Damsel
1 Sunset wrasse
and then countless inverts
Food: TetraMin Tropical Flakes
San Fransicos bay brand sally's Freeze Dried Krill
Ocean Nutrition Formula Two (FROZEN)
San Francisco Bay Brand Sally's Brine Shimp (FROZEN)
How often each food: Well my mother always feed them the flakes and krill. Then when I go to feed frozen everyday I make enough for that tank as well. They have seemed to be much happier now that I've started feeding them the frozen everyday.
What do I plan to add already: I plan to change the tropical freshwater flakes to a marine flake and then I plan to keep the krill because my mom refuses to feed frozen. Then I think I'm going to go ahead and buy some frozen krill because I've heard it is healthier.


Some foods I've been tossing in the air about are...
-Frozen bloodworms to mix every once in a while with the brine shrimp
-Formula one for all my tanks
-Freeze dried blood worms to toss in the tank every once in a while when feeding since I only feed frozen once a day
-Small cichlid pellets or small tropical pellets (I'm kinda leaning towards tropical pellets) for my 50 gal

 

[Shawnie]

the best thing to do, and the cheapest healthy way, is make your own
theres a ton of different methods if you do a search on the forum you can see a few members that make their own ......
for your first 2 tanks, you can do a variety similar to what I do......

frozen bloodworms & brine shrimp
crab leggs shells and all
fresh fish (haddock or something without oils)
fresh beef heart
fresh shrimp (shells and all)
spirulina flakes
pretty much any fresh veggie is ok other than broccoli (makes a mess when it thaws) or corn (sweet veggies ive never tried...and corn dont digest well in humans so never tried that one )
add some of your flakes and pellets
add some of your freeze dried foods
1 multi vita min
(mixing and matching with other things is great....)
put it all in a blender (get a cheap one for just your fish foods) with a few tsps of water ....getting it to the consistency of pudding.....
then add 3-4 tsp of plain gelatin to the mix....(DONT forget this step or you will have mud in your tank.....
get an icecube tray that makes small cubes ..not the normal trays....pour the mixture in there and freeze over nite....take out cubes as needed....

 

[Meenu]

I totally admire Shawnie's strong stomach, as she makes her own incredible food. Not being so brave, here are some suggestions of things you can add:

freeze-dried bloodworms pre-soaked in garlic juice
freeze-dried daphnia pre-soaked in garlic juice
Of course, either of these frozen

zucchini, cucumber, lettuce, blanched carrots, shelled green peas, kale, nori (seaweed) sheets. You can grow your own algae in a jar with rocks, water non the bottom, stuck in sunlight. Other fruits and veggies work.

Of course, you can also get some livebearers set up in a tank and raise fry as feeders.

 

[Shawnie]

I totally admire Shawnie's strong stomach, as she makes her own incredible food. Not being so brave, here are some suggestions of things you can add:

freeze-dried bloodworms pre-soaked in garlic juice
freeze-dried daphnia pre-soaked in garlic juice
Of course, either of these frozen

zucchini, cucumber, lettuce, blanched carrots, shelled green peas, kale, nori (seaweed) sheets. You can grow your own algae in a jar with rocks, water non the bottom, stuck in sunlight. Other fruits and veggies work.

Of course, you can also get some livebearers set up in a tank and raise fry as feeders.

nose clips are cheap

 

[striker]

You can feed them spinach. Just boil it till it turns soft.

 

[Jaysee]

There are a variety of frozen foods out there. Also, earthworms bought at the bait shop are good, after they've been washed off. You'll have to cut them up for smaller fish.

 

[Aquarist]

Good morning!

Some great suggestions above. I like to feed my Bloody Parrots a treat of SF Bay Freeze Dried Krill (presoaked). They love it. Just a couple of times a week. Actually all of my fish love it.


The link above is the staple that I use for my Bloody Parrots. Everyone in the tank loves it too.
I usually order it from here as they have different size pellets:


I feed my Silver Dollars a pellet staple along with 1 leaf of Romaine lettuce every morning. My Pleco gets a slice of zucchini every morning. Thawed, frozen, shelled peas are a treat too and it's great for their digestive system and keeps them regular.

I'm glad to hear that your Bloody Parrots are doing well!

Ken

 

[e_watson09]

the best thing to do, and the cheapest healthy way, is make your own
theres a ton of different methods if you do a search on the forum you can see a few members that make their own ......
for your first 2 tanks, you can do a variety similar to what I do......

frozen bloodworms & brine shrimp
crab leggs shells and all
fresh fish (haddock or something without oils)
fresh beef heart
fresh shrimp (shells and all)
spirulina flakes
pretty much any fresh veggie is ok other than broccoli (makes a mess when it thaws) or corn (sweet veggies ive never tried...and corn dont digest well in humans so never tried that one )
add some of your flakes and pellets
add some of your freeze dried foods
1 multi vita min
(mixing and matching with other things is great....)
put it all in a blender (get a cheap one for just your fish foods) with a few tsps of water ....getting it to the consistency of pudding.....
then add 3-4 tsp of plain gelatin to the mix....(DONT forget this step or you will have mud in your tank.....
get an icecube tray that makes small cubes ..not the normal trays....pour the mixture in there and freeze over nite....take out cubes as needed....

Humm I'll think about that but idk I don't think I am that brave and I don't want to go buy a blender haha.

I totally admire Shawnie's strong stomach, as she makes her own incredible food. Not being so brave, here are some suggestions of things you can add:

freeze-dried bloodworms pre-soaked in garlic juice
freeze-dried daphnia pre-soaked in garlic juice
Of course, either of these frozen

zucchini, cucumber, lettuce, blanched carrots, shelled green peas, kale, nori (seaweed) sheets. You can grow your own algae in a jar with rocks, water non the bottom, stuck in sunlight. Other fruits and veggies work.

Of course, you can also get some livebearers set up in a tank and raise fry as feeders.

Aren't frozen better than freeze dried? That's another question I forgot to ask haha.

But I don't think I have anything that really eats other fish do I, if so I can just go to work and pick up some feeder guppies, I think they're like 7cents with my discount haha.

You can feed them spinach. Just boil it till it turns soft.

I am going to have to consider that because we don't ever have spanach here haha.

There are a variety of frozen foods out there. Also, earthworms bought at the bait shop are good, after they've been washed off. You'll have to cut them up for smaller fish.

I've been thinking about these too, are they really good for the fish? I've heard yes and no

Good morning!

Some great suggestions above. I like to feed my Bloody Parrots a treat of SF Bay Freeze Dried Krill (presoaked). They love it. Just a couple of times a week. Actually all of my fish love it.


The link above is the staple that I use for my Bloody Parrots. Everyone in the tank loves it too.
I usually order it from here as they have different size pellets:


I feed my Silver Dollars a pellet staple along with 1 leaf of Romaine lettuce every morning. My Pleco gets a slice of zucchini every morning. Thawed, frozen, shelled peas are a treat too and it's great for their digestive system and keeps them regular.

I'm glad to hear that your Bloody Parrots are doing well!

Ken

Yup everyone is doing well, and I'll probably order some of those pellets or see if I can get it locally somewhere. But everyone is happy and healthy in my parrot tank, I just have issues in my little 10 gal haha.

 

[Shawnie]

Humm I'll think about that but idk I don't think I am that brave and I don't want to go buy a blender haha.



.

you can get a blender now a days for $10

cheaper than all the foods you have on hand now

 

[Elodea]

How about live foods? Mosquito larvae, bloodworms, small crickets, etc?

 

[Meenu]

the problem with store-brought feeder goldfish is that they are often-disease-riddled. You'd be better off growing your own feeder fish (if you want to feed live fish).

As far as frozen vs. freeze-dried, I would assume that frozen would be more nutritious. But freeze-dried works as well. The key is to have a variety, and also to always pre-soak all freeze-dried foods (in tankwater or garlic juice)

 

[Elodea]

I would suggest ghost shrimp over feeder fish, as shrimp have more carotenes, calcium, and are healthier overall, pertaining to the fact that they rarely carry diseases.

 

[e_watson09]

I would suggest ghost shrimp over feeder fish, as shrimp have more carotenes, calcium, and are healthier overall, pertaining to the fact that they rarely carry diseases.

I don't think that my fish will eat the shrimp? I've been thinking about adding them to the 50 gal to clean up the bottom a bit but that can be an expensive meal at 89cents each.

 

[Elodea]

Oh, really? My Petsmart carries them for 30 cents each.

 

[Shawnie]

I don't think that my fish will eat the shrimp? I've been thinking about adding them to the 50 gal to clean up the bottom a bit but that can be an expensive meal at 89cents each.

not sure on the salties, but everyone of your fw fish will eat them...especially if they can catch them!

 

[e_watson09]

Oh, really? My Petsmart carries them for 30 cents each.

I'm also on the other side of the country so that might have something to do with it.....but idk I'll check around and see because hey I mean they can clean the bottom then my fish can eat them, two for the price of one I think

not sure on the salties, but everyone of your fw fish will eat them...especially if they can catch them!

My trigger in the Saltwater made it clear that he loves shrimps....and scallops.....and clams the hermits and snails are okay tho. Haha but if I get a puffer again I'm sure he'll take care of them too. But I don't think my balloon mollies will eat them er well I don't think they can fit them in their mouths but everyone else maybe. I'll just go buy a bunch on monday (because I get 50% off all fish) and I'll try some out and heck if they stay they stay if they get eaten of well