You don’t have to run to the pet store if you want to feed your fish live food — you can raise your own at home!
Some fish are predators that mainly eat other fish. So what can you feed them?
- Goldfish are a traditional feeder fish, but they are bony and have tough scales. Only very large predators can actually eat them!
- Guppies are smaller and softer, so more predators can enjoy the feast. However, guppies only have an average of thirty babies per month, so your predators may not get enough to eat or your bearing females may end up as part of the feast.
- Danios (like the zebra danio) scatter many more eggs than guppies.
- Convict fish produce many babies that are larger at hatching, so they may have better chances of living to an eatable size.
Don’t forget to give your feeder fish a last meal before they go into the tank with predators — this way, the predator fish benefit from the nutrients in your feeder fish’s stomach.
Fish of all sizes can enjoy worms — larger fish can eat the worms whole and smaller fish can eat chopped or food processed worms.
- Compost worms can be raised in a compost bin — and will help you dispose of kitchen scraps while making something healthy for your garden.
- White worms can grow alongside your compost worms in the bin. These worms are smaller. To collect white worms, place a slice of bread soaked in milk on top of the compost pile. Leave it overnight — the worms will gather under the bread and can be scraped off into the compost in the morning.
- Microworms (also known as nematodes) are a great food for fry (baby fish). Get a starter culture from your favorite fish supplier or ask a friend who raises nematodes. Raise microworms in a plastic container and feed a mixture of corn meal, baker’s yeast, and water.
Wingless fruit flies are another good food source for fish of all sizes — especially top feeders. Order a starter culture from your favorite fish supply company. Raise your wingless fruit flies in a mayo jar covered with a piece of cloth and a rubber band. Encourage reproduction by feeding a mixture made from one teaspoon of molasses, a pinch of baker’s yeast, five tablespoons of water, and three tablespoons of instant potato flakes. You’ll have hundreds of flies in just a few weeks!
Baby brine shrimp are a good food for baby fish and small adult fish. Hatch dry eggs in salt water — you can raise them in a sort of funnel (like an inverted soda bottle with the bottom cut off) with an airstone at the point of the funnel.