Feeding Fish Food
One of the greatest assets to a healthy tank is the food that the fish receive. How, as well as what, you feed your fish is a very important consideration. Most fish can safely be fed once a day, all they can eat in about five minutes. Uneaten food should not be left to decay in the aquarium. Many more fish die from overfeeding, especially at the hands of beginners, than from starvation. Several important factors should be recognized when feeding fish:
1. SIZE OF FOOD PARTICLES. Make sure the particles are small enough for the fish to ingest.
2. VARIETY OF FOOD. Alternate different types of food.
3. QUANTITY OF FOOD. Larger fish, of course, need more food than smaller ones. Feed the fish small uneaten eggs.
1. INFUSORIA. These include such organisms as amoebae, paramecia, blepharisma, rotifers, etc. They are made readily available in pill form that may be cultivated into a strong infusion by the addition of a little lettuce. The infusoria should be fed to newborn fry with an eyedropper. It is inadvisable to drop the pill into the spawning tank, as certain pills will form a scum on the surface.
2. DAPHNIA. These small relatives of shrimp, crabs, and lobsters are excellent food for every type of fish large enough to ingest them. Sifted daphnia are excellent for fry. It is sometimes advisable to enter a few large daphnia into the spawning tank so they may throw off young that will be small enough for the fry. Daphnia may be raised in beakers or battery jars with a minimum capacity of 2 pints. After about six adult daphnia have been selected and placed in the jars, some malted milk, dried, shredded lettuce, infusoria, or hay should be placed in the jar for food. Daphnia will reproduce in large numbers. The water may turn cloudy after the food is placed in it perhaps because of the infusoriabut this should not be a detriment as long as it does not turn moldy. The culture should be changed every month.
5. ENCHYTRAEIDS. These whiteworms are excellent food for all types of fish. They may be chopped up into fine particles for the young fish. Cultures of white- worms may be started with an inoculation of a few worms into some humus. This humus should be kept in a clay pot or wooden vessel. The temperature should be in the fifties, and the humidity should be very high. It may be a good idea to keep the culture in a dark, damp cellar. Food in the form of malted milk, dried milk, and bread of any kind is The culture should stand about a month before being used.
6. TUBIFEX. These red worms are usually available all year round. They are very popular and nutritious for fish. Feedings of tubifex may present two problems. First, tubifex are sludge worms and are usually sold with much of the debris still intact in the culture. This decaying matter is liable to cloud up the culture if the worms are not thoroughly cleaned under cold running water. The second factor is that tubifex may carry with them several types of parasites that are quite dangerous to tropical fish. This is another reason the red worms must be thoroughly cleaned.
These worms may be stored in the refrigerator for weeks in glass jars containing no less than 2 pints of water. The water in the jars should be changed daily. First, pour off as much water from the jar as possible. Then shoot a stream of water, as cold as possible, into the culture so the worms will all be separated. Allow the water to settle the worms will sink to the bottom. Do this until the worms get very red and the water that comes off is clean. Then feed the fish a few worms, making sure that they are able to ingest the worms before they fall to the bottom of the tank. Should the worms fall to the bottom, they will burrow into the sand and be very difficult for the fish to pull out. Tubifex may be fed to the fish two or three times a week. Special feeding rings are available for this purpose.
Scientifically, we know that certain substances increase the appetites of fish and attract them to investigate certain "odors" that might be food. I worked with a few of them and finally found my "fish nip." Once fishes discover it in the aquarium, they tear it apart with such vigor that you would think that they hadn't eaten for a month. After almost a year of testing, I discovered that I could raise angelfish, bettas, Coiydoras, all the livebearers, most of the tetras, and even African water frogs solely on a diet of these freeze-dried tubifex worms.* The food was great! I called them "Miracle Worms."
Further refinements in the processing made possible the following characteristics:
a. If allowed to soak in a glass of clear water, the worms will float for days and will not cloud or discolor the water. The food is also odorless.
b. As the worms pick up moisture, they expand and look exactly like live tubifex worms.
c. When pressed against the inside of an aquarium they adhere, and the fish can be fed so that every bit they eat can be observed. This prevents overfeeding since you can easily remove any uneaten bits of worms. Overfeeding is the single greatest "disaster" that can foul the tank (and enthusiasm) of any beginner.
d. It is so nutritious that it can bring almost every known aquarium fish into breeding condition. This food and brine shrimp are perfect diets for most small fish.
e. The fish enjoy eating it so much, as evidenced by their voracious attacks on it, that they become tame and will eagerly pick at it from between your fingers. I have proven this with nocturnal catfish, mollies, gouramis, angelfish, cardinal tetras, and most cichlids.
Here is the proper method to train your fish. For the first three days merely affix a small piece of freeze-dried tubifex worms to the center of your aquarium glass (or just drop it into the aquarium if you don't want to get your hands wet). Let your fish develop a taste for it. It may take them five or ten minutes actually to attack it since the food emits powerful "odors" and they may be "suspicious." Once they have acclimated themselves to the worms, don't feed them for one day. The next day they will almost eat the freeze-dried tubifex from between your fingers.
7. MOSQUITO LARVAE. Immature mosquitos are fine food for the tropicals. These wrigglers are actually both pupae and larvae of the mosquito. They may be purchased or gathered from swampy pools along with daphnia. The only objection to these larvae is that should they metamorphose before they are eaten, you are liable to have a houseful of mosquitos.
8. EARTHWORMS. These familiar organisms are ideal for large types of fish such as the cichlids. They may be chopped up and fed to the smaller tropicals. Bloodworms and sandworms also fall into the same category.
9. DROSOPHILA. These little fruitflies may be obtained from any high school or college that offers a course in biology or from a biological supply house or a dealer in live foods. A certain mutant type called "vestigial" has very small wings and cannot fly. If a male and female Drosophila are placed in a small cream container or similar jar with a piece of banana or other type of nutrient, they will reproduce very profusely.
10. MICROWORMS. Imported from Europe, these thread-like worms, technically called Anguillula silusiae, are about an eighth of an inch long and make excellent food for all types of newly hatched fish. Young live- bearers also relish this food. The original cost of starting the culture is about the only expense necessary to have a year-round supply of live food for all the young that would be spawned in any home aquarium. They may be purchased at any large tropical fish store. The best type of container for their quickly growing culture is a refrigerator jar. Most purchased cultures come in such a container. They can be kept at room temperature, 68 ° F.
Since most of the microworms are females and reproduce by giving off living young, the food supply diminishes rapidly and new food is required; owing to its contents, the food supply should be changed every two weeks, in any case. The usual mixture that has been found successful is a watery mixture of three parts Pablum to one part yeast. This paste should be placed about one-half inch deep in the refrigerator jars. The worms will not be able to eat all the culture medium before it turns sour. Care must be exercised that the medium does not dehydrate. Some people tape the edges of the refrigerator jar to prevent the loss of water through evaporation. This is a good idea, also, because the worms seem to fare very well with a limited air supply.
Separation of the worms from the culture medium is no problem since the worms do not actually live in the medium but rather prefer to stay on the sides of the glass near the surface of the culture. They may be fed to the fish directly after being scraped off the sides with a finger or knife.
Starting a new culture is usually done by adding a "fingerful" of worms to a freshly prepared culture dish. This dish, containing the same food as the old, should be started a few days before you intend to throw out the old medium a culture should not be kept more than two weeks so you will always have an abundance of microworms for the young fish.
