Let's talk food!

[Bill S]

Ace, don't give me credit for this - it was Richard (CB Pets) that turned me on to it.

I just dump it all into a big bucket. No blender involved. Unlike Ace, I don't re-use the packages, I use quart ziplocks. I place the flats on a cookie sheet and re-freeze.

There's then no decision process on what to feed. My neighbor, who takes care of the fish on weekends, just breaks off a chunk and feeds it.

As most folks know, my RBTAs - which are prolific - are almost never fed. A bit if krill every month or 2.

[ismvel]

Good to know guys....I think i will jump in on that order and get some things and get to mixing....have a deep freezer, so I have plenty of space for the fish food.....

thanks guys

[princer7]

Bill, could you share your shopping list?

Also, when looking at Drs Foster Smith, are cyclopse and mysis and cyclopeze all different.

How do saltwater fish do eating freshwater product? Wasn't sure if mixing was ok.

[Bill S]

When looking at frozen food, be SURE and look at the moisture content - you are buying water. I've found, in general, that the Hikari foods are a better buy than the SF/Sally's brands, because of moisture content. For example:

Hikari Biopure frozen brine shrimp: 86% moisture (that's 14% non-water)
SF Brand brine shrimp: 92% moisture (that's 8% non-water)

You get nearly twice as much for pound for the Hikari, and they are essentially the same price per pound (Hikari is 20 cents a pound cheaper).

So, I buy:

Hakari Blood worms, brine shrimp, mysis and SF/Sally's plankton. Pretty much in equal parts except brine, which is about 50% more than the others.

Avoid the cubes - when you are dumping into a bucket, your fingers will freeze painfully quickly enough, especially with the cubed products below. Oh yeah. When doing cubes, keep the packages frozen until you are ready to "pop" THAT package. They don't work well softened or melted. At all.

For the coral food, I also make up some of the above and add:

Daphnia
Baby brine
Cylops/cyclopeeze (either - when it came out, the SF brand was on sale and cheap, and I bought 50 boxes)
Rotifers
Dried Zoplan and Phytoplan
Coralfrenzy

Personally, I avoid the bottled products - for instance, Marinesnow, which is nearly $1 an ounce, is 99.6% water.

As for fw vs sw foods, the bloodworms (mosquito larvae) are a real favorite. I also like the white larvae, but they are hard to find. They float too.

BTW, Bob Fenner says I should be feeding New Life Spectrum, so I do a couple of times a week. Just recently started.

[princer7]

Thanks Bill. I'm feeding the NLS Cichlid pellet which has the same ingredient order and content as the saltwater pellet - checked line by line. I bought the big pale and have plenty - If you want to give some a try, I could send some your way.

I am really kicking myself for missing the meeting with Bob Fenner.