What live food should I get?

Hi!

I'm looking into feeding live food for the first time, and am quite overwhelmed by all of the options, so was wondering if anyone could offer some guidance.

I have a few tanks, containing betta, angelfish, bolivian rams, corydoras, tetras, and SAE (currently). I'm also wanting to breed honey gourami in the near future.

I am looking for a food that will be suitable for all or most of the above, including for fry.

I am thinking that I will start an infusoria culture in addition to whatever you all help me decide to do. I'm not really interested in brine shrimp (unless someone offers an affordable way to do this), as 6 grams of eggs cost about $25-30 here. I'd rather go for something that is a one-off cost, which I may even be able to make back by selling starters (I am a broke student haha).

Thank you for your time! I am very grateful for everyone on here and the kindness and generosity that you all continue to show towards people like me!

 

I recommend blood worms.

 

I recommend blood worms.

Thank you for your suggestion. Unfortunately, I can't get live bloodworms here (other than from water troughs on my family farm, but we dose the farm water supply with zinc and minerals so I don't think that's a good idea, not to mention the parasites).

Looking into it, I think the only live food I can buy is daphnia, white worms, and microworms (as well as brine shrimp eggs). Would any of these suit my needs?

 

Blood worms are a good option. Vinegar eels are too, as they are very tiny and can “thrive for years with minimal attention.” (IBC bettas website)

Looking into it, I think the only live food I can buy is daphnia, white worms, and microworms (as well as brine shrimp eggs). Would any of these suit my needs?

Microworms will be small enough for fry, certainly. I think white worms are a little more difficult to feed, and daphnia a little more difficult to keep.

 

Blood worms are a good option. Vinegar eels are too, as they are very tiny and can “thrive for years with minimal attention.” (IBC bettas website)

Microworms will be small enough for fry, certainly. I think white worms are a little more difficult to feed, and daphnia a little more difficult to keep.

Thank you. I had a look into vinegar eels and found someone who is selling some, however, they're a 14-hour drive away which includes a 4-hour ferry crossing, ad they won't ship them. I'll keep looking though and hope something comes up! At least now I know that they are available here, and I can do some research into what keeping them involves.

I am definitely leaning towards microworms at this stage, but I will keep my options open and see what pops up.

Thank you for your help.

 

I recommend blood worms.

I recommend everything BUT bloodworms. They are nutritionally a mess and can cause severe (sometimes fatal) reactions, especially in dwarf cichlids.
Generally preferrable things are Daphnia, adult Artemia, white and black mosquito larvae, actual worms (e.g. Tubifex) and Mysis shrimp.

Looking into it, I think the only live food I can buy is daphnia, white worms, and microworms (as well as brine shrimp eggs). Would any of these suit my needs?

All of them, yes. Daphnia you can (and should) breed yourself. White worms can either be white mosquito larvae (not possible to culture) or enchytraeus worms.

While I find the price for Artemia eggs you give is basically theft, I can tell you a 20gram (40ml) bottle lasts me 3-4 months for 2-3 DAILY feedings (5-10ml each of hatched nauplii) of my main tank.

Besides the Daphnia many these foods are micro foods, though and are of little interest for many of your fish. Bigger fish ignore baby artemia and microworms. Infusoria while easy to culture are also only useful as first food for fry or in a lightly stocked biotope in which the fish forage a lot.

 

You can get a bucket or a bowl at least 2 gallons, of normal tap water and leave outside on your family farm, mosquito will come and lay their eggs within 2 weeks or so and will grow into baby worms that look like bloodworms, collect them will a net and... boom you have free live food, and some tree leaves and a rock in the water for some hiding areas for the worms

 

You can get a bucket or a bowl at least 2 gallons, of normal tap water and leave outside on your family farm, mosquito will come and lay their eggs within 2 weeks or so and will grow into baby worms that look like bloodworms, collect them will a net and... boom you have free live food, and some tree leaves and a rock in the water for some hiding areas for the worms

This sounds like a new way to bring in parasites, I would not do it.

 

I recommend everything BUT bloodworms. They are nutritionally a mess and can cause severe (sometimes fatal) reactions, especially in dwarf cichlids.
Generally preferrable things are Daphnia, adult Artemia, white and black mosquito larvae, actual worms (e.g. Tubifex) and Mysis shrimp.


All of them, yes. Daphnia you can (and should) breed yourself. White worms can either be white mosquito larvae (not possible to culture) or enchytraeus worms.

While I find the price for Artemia eggs you give is basically theft, I can tell you a 20gram (40ml) bottle lasts me 3-4 months for 2-3 DAILY feedings (5-10ml each of hatched nauplii) of my main tank.

Besides the Daphnia many these foods are micro foods, though and are of little interest for many of your fish. Bigger fish ignore baby artemia and microworms. Infusoria while easy to culture are also only useful as first food for fry or in a lightly stocked biotope in which the fish forage a lot.

Thank you very much for your response. I'll go for daphnia then for the time being, and if I ever successfully breed something that lasts longer than about two days, I'll look into something else!

And yes, it is basically theft haha. Fish keeping is extra expensive here! Fish stores are few and far between and have high prices, and online companies either don't ship to NZ, or will cost $30+ in shipping. Don't even get me started in the limited supply of plants, fish and invertebrates! No shrimp, no nerite snails, we have no floating plants excluding duckweed and wisteria, very few carpeting plants, we can only get about 3 types of apistos, there aren't even very many strains of guppy! And of course, they're all expensive. Anyway, it's fine haha. Thanks again for your response!