Tropical Fish Forum

Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Food and Feeding => Topic started by: fcmf on December 20, 2015, 08:16:18 PM

Title: Gel-based (or live or frozen) brineshrimp or daphnia - experiences?
Post by: fcmf on December 20, 2015, 08:16:18 PM
Has anyone tried/used this or the food in this range?  https://fishkeeper.co.uk/product/tetra-tetranatura-brine-shrimp-mix-80g

I used to feed my goldfish (RIP) frozen food now and again until he fell incredibly ill and had a near-death experience and which I could only put down to the frozen food, so I didn't ever want to risk that again with him. As a result of that, I've been very reticent about using live or frozen food with the tropicals - they get a mix of flakes and pellets plus a chopped pea once or twice weekly - although note from Seriously Fish that daphnia and brineshrimp are recommended for my fish (x-ray tetras and harlequin rasboras). I have tried some Tetra Delica sachets although stopped when the various problems started with the pygmy cories.

Thoughts on this or other forms of these foods (daphnia, brineshrimp) welcome, especially whether others have experienced problems. Thanks.
Title: Re: Gel-based (or live or frozen) brineshrimp or daphnia - experiences?
Post by: Extreme_One on December 21, 2015, 08:22:37 AM
I feed a variety of different dried food 5 days a week.

On Saturday I feed Live Daphnia.

One day in the week I'll feed a couple of defrosted blisters of frozen food. This might be frozen Bloodworm, Daphnia, Brine shrimp or Tubifex.
I pop one out into a small bowl, put that into a larger bowl with an inch of near-boiling water to defrost it.

I also feed some veg, like courgette or cucumber occasionally.

My fish love the frozen food.

The Livebearers in the boys tank upstairs love it too.
Title: Re: Gel-based (or live or frozen) brineshrimp or daphnia - experiences?
Post by: Diz1 on December 21, 2015, 08:47:22 AM
I have cories in my tank, so I feed frozen live daphnia every other day and sometimes frozen live bloodworm (though not as often because I don't like chopping it up!).
On a non-frozen day I put 3 different types of food in so that all fish are covered:
Hikari granules – for everyone
New life spectrum cichlid granules – just a few for my Bolivian Rams
JMC (I think!) – sinking meat-based pellets for my cories.

On alternate days I also put in some cucumber or courgette for my BN plec.

I know this seems like a lot, but the overall amount is not a lot, it's just made up of a few different types of food so that everyone is catered for.

I've had no fatalities in that tank for months now, so I do think everything's working out well and the live frozen doesn't seem to be causing any problems. Never tried the gel-based food though. :)
Title: Re: Gel-based (or live or frozen) brineshrimp or daphnia - experiences?
Post by: Richard W on December 21, 2015, 11:33:24 AM
"frozen live" sounds a bit of a contradiction?
I rarely feed mine anything other than dried food, flake as the basis, also freeze dried foods, brine shrimp is the most popular among the fish, tubifex the least. I also use quite a lot of pellets, many fish, especially barbs, seem to really enjoy pellets made for catfish. They spend hours searching the bottom for every last crumb, it seems to keep them occupied. I rarely feed frozen food and can't say that my fish have shown any problems living almost entirely on dry food.
Title: Re: Gel-based (or live or frozen) brineshrimp or daphnia - experiences?
Post by: Sue on December 21, 2015, 12:00:06 PM
I've never had problems with frozen live food. With the goldfish, did you put the cube in the tank frozen or defrost it first? I have read of problems with fish eating a frozen chunk which is why I always defrost mine before putting it in the tank.

I have a quartet pack of frozen food - blocks of dahnia, brine shrimp, mysis and bloodworm - for the main tank and betta, and frozen cyclops for the 50 litre tank with its tiny occupants. I feed one of these on a Sunday. The only 'problem' I have is that the betta refuses to eat daphnia until he realises he won't get anything else  ;D

The rest of the week they get a mixture of flake and pellets.


The only gel food I ever tried was Delica but it was too expensive to use on a regular basis so I just tried the one pack.
Title: Re: Gel-based (or live or frozen) brineshrimp or daphnia - experiences?
Post by: Sue on December 21, 2015, 12:16:23 PM
Richard posted as I was typing.

The only things I know about that cause problems with dried food are with certain fish. Bettas have the most often quoted problems. Flake can cause them to bloat, as can freeze dried bloodworm. The remedy is to soak them in water before feeding.

Fish fed on flakes and pellets are usually healthier than those fed exclusively on live food (whether alive, frozen or freeze dried). Flakes and pellets are made to contain all the nutrients fish need while the very limited range of live food available can't contain everything they need. In the wild fish would eat a wide range of 'natural' food not just half a dozen types.
Bloodworms are the food most often cited as causing problems if fed too much. They are very fatty leading to comparisons to us living on burgers.
Title: Re: Gel-based (or live or frozen) brineshrimp or daphnia - experiences?
Post by: fcmf on December 21, 2015, 05:02:41 PM
Many thanks, everyone - all very helpful indeed.

Re the problems with my goldfish, it was the quartet packs of frozen food which I used to feed him; I sliced off a quarter or a half of a cube, put the piece of cub in a mug and filled it with just enough boiling water to cover it, then swilled that until it defrosted completely, then filled the rest of the mug up with cold water, let it sit to cool, then poured it into the tank. He sat on the bottom for the best part of a week, sunken into the substrate without moving except for occasionally to lift himself up or tilt himself differently as he had a sore belly area, and was clearly very ill, then eventually did a very stringy white poo and eventually responded to Internal Bacteria Infection treatment or coincidentally recuperated around that time, and took another few days to eventually get back to normal.
Title: Re: Gel-based (or live or frozen) brineshrimp or daphnia - experiences?
Post by: Sue on December 21, 2015, 05:12:44 PM
I've not had anything like that with my fish. It might have been coincidence or perhaps goldfish respond differently to some types of food.