F8 general feeding/nutrition of blackworms vs. bloodworms...

[luna1580]

so far my small F8 has been getting a bit of frozen brine shrimp daily (i refroze a few melted cubes in a thin, flat layer in a "snack size" bag and then broke it into small "single use" chunks that went right back in the freezer. -to avoid over feeding), a bunch of home raised small and smallish pond snails about every-other-day, but everyday if i can "catch" enough of them- (raised in a snail & cherry shrimp dedicated tank, fed on real tank plants, available tank algae, hikari algae wafers, and occasional flake food -"tetra color", for right now, is about once weekly), -does this count as "gut loading" them??

if not, how can i better "gut-load" home-grown feeders?

"catching snails" -i have great results w/leaving an algae wafer in a very small (like 4-6 oz i think) glass jar on its side on their bottom gravel of the breeding tank, the shrimp eat some first, then the solo apple snail -mellow yellow- has a bit, but then many, many pond snails go in to eat "the remains" after the first 6-24 hours, depending on their 'mood'.

this is how i "catch" them to add to the F8 tank. when that lill' jar is full of snails but cleaned of excess wafer, well, then into the puff tank they all go!

and i want to try feeding the live cherry shrimp too, but am waiting for my first berried female (i only have one now visibly berried-out of around 10 CRS-, and she's been carrying at least 2 weeks, but i can't see 'baby eyes' yet in the eggs) to hatch some babies and observe -i really want a breeding colony w/occasional "new blood" shrimp introduced for genetic health, not just a NON-cost-effective "holding tank" for purchased shrimp. i have removed all fish from this tank and hope the shrimp breeding is going to show results in 2 more weeks or sooner! then we'll see if 'pumpkin' the puff even wants to eat them!. But there are ghost shrimp in the 20g puff tank, started with a dozen from the same tank as the F8 from the LFS, now i only see maybe 5 of them... so i assume puff will like CRS too

why i got frozen brine shrimp:

i just wanted to feed a "familiar food", as this puff had been at the LFS for about a month, in case s/he was a picky eater. and i asked the fish manager what they were eating....she said they got frozen brine shrimp daily, snails weekly, and any housed-with-ghost-shrimp they wanted to eat. so, i wanted to include at least one "familiar in the tank" food to smooth any "bumps" in a new diet introduction. but this was not a problem, lol! s/he DEVOURS pond snails of any size!

so, it seems to be told frozen brine shrimp are low in nutrition? is that true? should i even bother to feed them at all?

i also have from hikari "dried ocean plankton" which looks to my eye like dried krill, my RES and painted turts love it, but it seems no amount of daily soaking causes it to sink, so i haven't tried to feed it to the puff. i also worried that soaking it for more than a few hours at room temp might not be "food safe" for my wet pets.... should i try overnight (or more) but in the fridge?

so....as i already have a cone feeder -which works greats for those little still frozen brine shrimp "chunks"- i think i should buy some "worms".

is there a nutritional benefit with choosing blackworms vs. bloodworms in frozen form? or does anybody know a chicago-land live breeder/seller for either? AND is it truly better for them to be live? or is that just another avenue to wildly walk down parasite lane?

and i know i should try some "crabby-type" shellfish, but crab legs are like anywhere from 6-20 USD/pound where i live! but i do plan to look at local asian markets for better deals..... and frozen, raw, shell-on (but sadly headless) shrimp are (relatively) cheap-ish at the regular supermarket here.

anyway, thanks for reading this long post, and thanks for any feeding advice!

-laura

[luna1580]

oh, p.s.-

i have no idea if pumpkin-puff will want to eat either blackworms or bloodworms! but i'm looking for a way to provide a more balanced diet than "i mostly eat home-raised pond snails, hey". as i said, i will look for local frozen crab legs and stuff (for less than 20/USD/LB! i hope...), especially in a local asian market....

but do you all have strong recommendations for foods i should seek out to nutritionally complement my basic home-grown-pond-snail diet? and/or more gut-loading shrimp and snail advice (i'm now counting on hikari algae wafers to do the job), and if it was between frozen blackworms or bloodworms is one more nutritious for an F8 puff? what else should i seek out?

thanks, very muchly, laura o

[luna1580]

here is the snail & CRS tank (10g US), plus a close up of mello yellow hogging the "collection jar"

[RTR]

My F-8s (lots of them) have been given a diet of 90-95% hone-raised snails. They definitely had no detectable nutritional or dental issues. They also have longer than anyone else's that I have heard about. Variety is great, but none of my f-8s have ever shown any burn-out of taste or activity on a primarily snail diet.

Frozen/thawed brine shrimp is a good eating inducer for fish who do not take to prepared or home-based foods easily or quickly. But nutritionally is is almost completely worthless. It also pollutes the water quite well.

Both thawed/rinsed bloodworms and live blackworms are nutritious foods. Either or both make good treats. Their crunch value is quite low however and I would not make either a staple other than for DPs - which need very little crunch.

HTH

[luna1580]

thanks RTR!

i was getting a "general thoughts" gathered idea that home-grown-and-fed snails could suit most F8 puffer needs, if the snails were well fed and raised. but i will still look for fresh and good shell-fish in local markets to supplement my new guy/gal + some occasional blood or black worms to "treat" my lill' puff.

cool, thanks for the input.

laura

[luna1580]

and here is my puff and "her" tank for anyone who is curious:

[luna1580]

and here we see one tiny and one pretty much full grown pond snail cleaning and eating the algae from mello yellow's shell

[fugu99]

Im having this same problem right now, how to manage good crunch food at low cost, also wondering about the bloodworms and how to get my hands on some. But Im definitely going to try what I read elsewhere on the site, getting some frozen raw seafood from the grocery store to add to their diet.

btw my name is laura too, I also have an F8