Foods for Thought, by Ron Brown

Foods for Thought

by Ron Brown
of Liverpool, England
Ron's web site, about the history of the Merseyside Aquarist Society, is at: http://merseysideaquarist.tripod.com

The following is based upon my own personal experiences with keeping, breeding, rearing and feeding fish. Some may agree, whilst others may disagree, with some of the foods used. All I can say is, use them and see!

Ox/beef heart
One of the best foods I've ever used, and taken by practically every fish I ever had, spawned and raised the fry on. After removing all of the fat, I always used it cooked then frozen. From this I then used a cheese grater, the type with three sides, each giving a different size of grating - the coarse grater for large species and the fine grater for the younger fish, including fry several days old. Allow the grated meat to thaw before feeding.

Fish
The finest most natural food for fish is fish! I've used them all (I think!), cod from the chippie (without the batter!), off-cuts from the fishmonger, and tinned fish as well. Sardines and salmon must have the oil washed off before feeding, and I would suggest that you wash all foods first anyway.

Worms
From the humble microworms to the giant earthworm and favoured by all fish. I never actually had any fish big enough to tackle large earthworms. Those fish I did have, usually small and medium-sized cichlids, always refused them live (I suspect because they were too long) but loved them grated! The only problem with grated worms is they can be a bit messy and cloud and foul the water if you just grate them then feed them to your fish. I avoided this by freezing the worms and grating them to whatever size I needed. Feed small quantities at a time to be sure they all get eaten, which is a sensible approach with any type of food you're feeding.

Cheese
Yes, grated cheese! I don't care what people say! I didn't feed my fish with it that often but when I did they loved it!

Shrimps
Another of those natural foods for fish and again they relish it! Many times I would see fish take a piece that was far too large to be eaten in one go, but would the fish it let it go? Like hell it would! Tinned prawns, salmon, cockles and crab are other natural foods, some of which are pickled in vinegar, so again, wash them well.

Greenflies
The only fish that never got to eat them was my catfish - they never got them because they were all eaten at the water surface! My guppies went berserk to get them! Anyone with a garden will have an abundant supply of these throughout the summer. Aphids are another tasty morsel. An obvious but necessary word of caution is to make sure that you, or your neighbours, haven't been using pesticide. I removed them from the plant with an artist's paintbrush and just 'dipped' them onto the water surface. Anyone with a garden and cichlids (or any fish really), small or large, has a 'supermarket' of live foods to feed their fish. If you don't have a garden then set up a window box or flower tub, you won't regret it.

Lettuce leaves
A great food for herbivores but nevertheless eaten by most fish. Depending on the size of the species, chop it up into fine pieces. For feeding to very young fry, try blending it then pour it, in small quantities, into the breeding tank.

Peas
One of the most eagerly sought for and eaten vegetable foods I know. Cook them, crush them gently between your fingers to remove the shell, then drop the pea into the tank. They can be bit messy and cloudy but most fish will devour them without any problems.

Pea pods
Yes! The pea pods that the peas come in, and runner bean pods as well. I just lightly boiled the pods to soften them and dropped them to the bottom of the tank. My armoured catfish (Callichthys callichthys) sat on them for ages 'grazing' away, as did most of the catfish I ever had! My banjo catfish liked them too! I can't speak for fish I never had but if the fish I did have and fed were representative of most omnivores and herbivores, then they're a good food to feed your fish.

Egg yolk
This must be the oldest fry food in existence used by aquarists! Again this can be a bit messy and some fish just won't take it at all for some reason. I once had some kribensis fry that ate it no problem. The next batch of fry from the same parents, they didn't want to know!

Infusoria
Practice makes perfect and that's the best advice I can give! My first attempts at this were a complete abortion. I usually ended up with a heaving mass of grey pungent smelling liquid, fit only for sterilising the drains, which is where it ended up! I tried all of the recommended 'starters' such as lettuce leaves, banana skins or whatever. The trick is not to try and make too much in the first place. I was trying to make it in five-gallon batches for a handful of fry!

I suggest you practice using a half-pint glass each day. Use water from your fish tank and a small piece of lettuce leaf or banana skin. You'll know when it's right when you look through the glass and it looks like a shimmering heat haze. If you're still not sure what I mean then take a glass of cold water, hold it up to the light and pour in some hot water. You can actually see the hot water swirling about - that's what infusoria looks like, but perhaps not so prominent. So, like I said, practice makes perfect. However, if all else fails (and it did for me quite a few times!) then buy a tube of Liquafry before all your fry die off on you!

Flake food
Don't underestimate the necessity of flake food,* which formed a necessary part of my fish diet. Many foods, even if frozen, by the very nature of the way they are prepared and/or stored for human consumption, do not always contain the essential minerals and vitamins that are essential for fish. Past issues of Mersey Beacon contain several articles by the Aquarian Advisory Service, which dealt with this subject in some detail, and are a 'must read' if you are to understand what is going on and also if you want to keep your fish healthy.

A healthy properly fed fish is no problem to keep and will, in the relatively safe confines of a regularly and well maintained aquarium, live for many, many years. It should certainly live longer than in the wild and perhaps even longer than its expected life span (See: Gnasher, The World's Oldest Piranha, Mersey Beacon, v.35:02, June 2000, p31). If you have a food blender then you could try a mix of different foods, blended then frozen, and I would suggest that you mix in either a few garlic granules or the juice from a clove of crushed garlic.

The above foods formed the bulk of the diet of my fish, which I fed several times a day rather than just once or twice. All the foods were well washed to remove most of the oils or preservatives. I varied the diet as much as possible and didn't stick to any one particular food. Observation is essential too. If fish aren't eating what you're offering and they're active and look healthy then move on to something else. If this doesn't work then try the one food that (should!) always work… LIVE FISH!

* I cannot stress enough the importance of flaked foods and the role they play in the successful keeping and rearing of fish. I urge all fish-keepers to read through information leaflets, supplied by Aquarian Flaked Foods, which cover all of the relevant aspects of food nutrition etc.

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Culture Your Own, by Ian Bangham.