Live food & flakes

[Zoom]

Hi guys,

I am currently feeding my community tank on Omega 1 flakes in the morning, and Tetramin Flakes in the evenings. The fish LOVE the Tetramin flakes, but I find that they are leaving the Omega 1 flakes alone. Even my Cory's aren't picking up the wasted flakes anymore.

Is this a sign of old flakes, or are the fish 'bored' with the Omega 1?

I've also seen a lot of frozen 'live' foods at LPS. Should I be feeding the fish this? and how do I go about doing this?

I've also seen live worms being sold... also good/bad?

(I have Angel, Betta, Pristellas, black widow, Danios, Guppy and Cory's)

[veegal]

Zoom the frozen foods are also great for the fish as it provides roughage, especially the bloodworms etc - and they'll LOVE it. Just don't feed them the frozen foods too often though. Defrost them before feeding though (or take some water out of your tank and let it defrost in that water) as I've heard that it can cause swimbladder problems if the fish eat them frozen? This is especially a concern with Angelfish because they are such pigs that they will eat the food even if it is freezing! :)

With regards to the live foods - there is more risk involved when feeding live foods in that the live foods may have harmful bacteria/parasites which will obviously be passed onto the fish when eaten. HOWEVER, I've recently discovered that you can use the Waterlife Myxazin to sterilise live foods. Just put the live foods into fresh water and add one drop of Myxazin per liter of water. Let it stand for at least 2 hours and according to their package, the food is 'safe'. I've been doing this with my daphnia etc and haven't picked up any problems yet.

[brentnorm]

Hi guys,

I am currently feeding my community tank on Omega 1 flakes in the morning, and Tetramin Flakes in the evenings. The fish LOVE the Tetramin flakes, but I find that they are leaving the Omega 1 flakes alone. Even my Cory's aren't picking up the wasted flakes anymore.

Is this a sign of old flakes, or are the fish 'bored' with the Omega 1?

I've also seen a lot of frozen 'live' foods at LPS. Should I be feeding the fish this? and how do I go about doing this?

I've also seen live worms being sold... also good/bad?

(I have Angel, Betta, Pristellas, black widow, Danios, Guppy and Cory's)

If they are not eating the Omega One flakes its pointless putting them in the tank. It will only become a source of pollution.

[Henk Hugo]

Which OmegaOne flakes is it?

[TyroneGenade]

Forget about the Omega 1 and just go straight Tetramin. Its a balanced diet and the fish like it. Better yet, ask the Prof about the flake foods he feeds his fish.

For your fish, I wouldn't worry about frozen or live foods.

[Henk Hugo]

I do believe OmegaOne is more balanced that Tetra....

[TyroneGenade]

How can anything be more balanced?

My comment about switching to tetramin had nothing to do about nutrional value. Omega 1 is a good food, but if the fish don't want to eat it they are not going to eat it. The fish are eating the tetramin and its a balanced fishfood. Why bother with something they won't eat. Though on careful reflection I guess they are not eating the food because the fats/oils have gone rancid. Ashley, how did you store the food? Cool and dry, or in warm place that may have got some direct sun shine?

tt

[Zoom]

Which OmegaOne flakes is it?

It's the red one... "Omega One Natural Protein Formula; Super color; spectacular colr for all tropical fish; made with fresh sea food." (That's what's written on the front.
It was the one sold to me innitially when I started keeping fish. Which is exactly 2 months ago today. So the container has been open for 2 months. Could it be old? I don't know how long a container can be open for before it's considered old.

The Prof originally told me it was highly recommended food.
It's not that the fish aren't eating it at all.. they seem to take one or 2 flakes, but then leave the rest. Whereas the TetraMin they gulp down very quickly!


How can anything be more balanced?

Ashley, how did you store the food? Cool and dry, or in warm place that may have got some direct sun shine?

tt

Cool, dry and dark cupboard.


I do believe OmegaOne is more balanced that Tetra....

I thought so too. That's also why I was asking about the fozen food stuff. What frozen food would you recommend? There's so much stuff at the LPS that I don't want to get something that'll just go to waste.

[speedz]

can any one recommend a tried and tested recipe fish food mix ?

[sarf]

Depends on which type of fish you are keeping speedz

[speedz]

i've got some juvenile angels and some cories

[solex69]

I feed a mixture of the following per feeding session

OmegaOne First Flake
OmegaOne TropicalFlake
Prof Dirk's Goldstar # 4
OmegaOne Shrimp Pellets
OmegaOne Veggie Rounds
Dajana Tropi granulate
Tetra's Betta Flake (inc krill)

So as you can see, my fish are spoilt wrt to variety, but they are on a strict diet and I normally skip a day on certain tanks to keep them in shape. My baby angels (shouldn't say baby anymore) are fed twice a day though with a cycle of two days only being fed once.

For my fry, Prof Dirk's Frozen Bosmids & Rotifers

Cheers
Dale

[Henk Hugo]

dont forget your OmegaOne betta flakes and pellets :D

[city bowl]

With regards to Omega and Tetra, I think an accurate comparison should be between Colour Flake and Tetra Ruby as colour foods or between Freshwater Flake and Tetramin as a staple diet.
Personally I find my fish take Freshwater flake over Tetramin.
The point of difference between Omega and Tetra is that Omega is a step closer to natural foods, which logically has got to be a good thing.

[veegal]

Personally my fish go CRAZY over the Omega products but perhaps they are like humans in a way....each with their own preference to taste :)

[brentnorm]

With regards to Omega and Tetra, I think an accurate comparison should be between Colour Flake and Tetra Ruby as colour foods or between Freshwater Flake and Tetramin as a staple diet.
Personally I find my fish take Freshwater flake over Tetramin.
The point of difference between Omega and Tetra is that Omega is a step closer to natural foods, which logically has got to be a good thing.

It's a pity you can't just sit your fish down and explain the benefits of one food over another. If you have found something they enjoy eating then just feed them that.

[veegal]

It's a pity you can't just sit your fish down and explain the benefits of one food over another. If you have found something they enjoy eating then just feed them that.

:bigsmile: Wish you could do that with children too :p:blink1:

[brentnorm]

My fish have always been fond of Tetra food sothats what they get. Tetramin, tetra ruby and tetra bits. I feed brine shrimp on occasions too.

[Philfarm]

Fish can be spoilt brats feed them whats best for them, they might not like it at first but once they get hungry enough belive me they will eat whatever they can get!

[solex69]

Good point phil....I have started doing that with some of my bettas that are fussy. They used to ignore certain food types that I wanted to feed them and then I starve them for about 3 to 4 days and only then offer them the food they didn't want to accept in the first place. That's how I got around their food preference.
Might sound cruel to some of you guys, but it's the only way some bettas learn and adapt.

Cheers
Dale

[Zoom]

Hey... fish can go for 2 weeks without food. (so I've read) so starving them for 3 days ain't so bad. I've skipped a feeding this morning, and planning on treating them to some bloodworm this avie.

[Dirk Bellstedt]

I would suggest to you to read through the thread under the "Ask the Professor" forum about feeding discus and other tropical fish. That will certainly answer some of your questions.

Then, I would like to say, particularly in reply to Tyrone, that if fishes do not take a food, it does not mean that one should not try to entice or eventually force them to eat it. Humans like eating sweets, but we know that you cannot survive on sweets alone. Discus are cronically fussy eaters. If they had the choice they would eat bloodworm all day long and that's it. Well, they would not survive on such a diet in the long run, because bloodworm does not contain a balanced nutrient mixture. Some flakes are more tasty than others. Particularly those containing a certain percentage of fish meal are attractive to fishes. Those are the ones that smell fishy when you open the tin. Tetra have always added this to their flakes, because a very important part of their marketing is that they want the customer to see that the fish like the flakes. By comparison, other flakes contain less fish meal and are therefore less tasty. I have had similar experiences with Omega One, but this does not mean it is nutrionally poorer, on the contrary, it has an excellent and balanced composition of nutrients. If you read on the label, you would see that they do use fish products in the flakes, but they do not smell so fishy and therefore are not so readily eaten by fishes. This happens particularly in a situation where you feed the one flake and then the other as you are doing. If you want your fishes to eat the Omega One, and you have most probably bought it because of what it contains, then you should just not feed the Tetra and feed Omega only. Eventually it is your choice, you must make the comparison of what these flakes contain and then feed one of them and not both.

Kind regards,

Dirk