Live Silversides?

J

jcrim

Guest
Funny, I was just wondering this myself. Sorry but I'm not here for an answer, just jumping on this thread's bandwagon. :joy:
 

aw2

Active Member
Most of the time, you can find them at LFS that sell frozen foods.
They are not, however, a good staple diet for other fish. They're mainly bony, with little meat.
 

djminus1

Member
Originally Posted by AW2
Most of the time, you can find them at LFS that sell frozen foods.
They are not, however, a good staple diet for other fish. They're mainly bony, with little meat.
Are you talking about frozen or live? I have not found anyone who sells live silversides.
 
T

tizzo

Guest
OK, are you ready?? Put live menidia beryllina in your search engine. A sight that begins with mblaq sells them live. I think they are expensive, but that's one I found.
While searching, I noticed a lot of "live bait" stores carry them. :thinking:
 

djminus1

Member
Is there a reason they are so hard to get? I have to believe that there would be a lot of interest if online fish sellers could sell them? Are they hard to raise or something?
I want to get some live food for my Lionfish. Are there any other healthy alternatives to Silversides?
 

squidd

Active Member
If you lived near the ocean, and were able to catch your own, in a bay, estuary, or even brackish water area it might be a reasonable and somewhat safe food alternative...Although limited in range and difficult in obtaining.
However if you get pre-caught, or tank raised "bait fish" you take the chance of introducing disease into your tank...The crowded "commodity" conditions for "bait/feeder" fish is abhorrent to the health and survival of said fish and the conditions (crowded, poor water, transportation) produce immune system shut down and stress related disease outbreaks...
These "observations" come from the freshwater feeder/bait industry and are coherent to the saltwater industry...
 

1journeyman

Active Member
Originally Posted by Squidd
If you lived near the ocean, and were able to catch your own, in a bay, estuary, or even brackish water area it might be a reasonable and somewhat safe food alternative...Although limited in range and difficult in obtaining.
However if you get pre-caught, or tank raised "bait fish" you take the chance of introducing disease into your tank...The crowded "commodity" conditions for "bait/feeder" fish is abhorrent to the health and survival of said fish and the conditions (crowded, poor water, transportation) produce immune system shut down and stress related disease outbreaks...
These "observations" come from the freshwater feeder/bait industry and are coherent to the saltwater industry...
I'd even go further Squidd. I went to school in Corpus Christi. We did a lot of sampling from the surrounding bays... I'd say if you were introducing fish caught there into your tank it is only a matter of time before disease/parasites/ etc. make it into your tank.
 

cartman101

Active Member
go with anything put silver sides. Next time when you are at the lfs ask them to let you see the nutrion facts. On the package i saw it said 90 something % of water and the rest was meat :thinking:
 

mitzel

Active Member
CARTMAN101 : Almost every type of frozen food has a very high water content. every living thing is made up of water. thats part of what keeps living creatures alive. If there was little or no water content then the food would be more like flake then meaty. Take silversides.for example if you removed all moisture (water ) from them then they would be very dry and brittle and would crumble up into pieces or even powder if ground up. The water /moisture content has very little to do with the nutritional values of food.
 

mitzel

Active Member
This is all I have the packaging for But this is about the normal. Sallys frozen brine shrimp is 92% moisture and sallys frozen muscles are 86% water.
 

xtech

Member
i keep feeder guppies in a qt tank...been in there for a month or so....they are used as an occasional treat for my lion,NOT AS A PRIMARY SOURCE OF FOOD! my lion now eats flake,formula2,and goes crazy over frozen krill. i also make my own mixture that everyone loves.
frozen mysis
frozen brine
frozen baby brine
formula2
dried krill
phytoplex
liquid vitamins
put it all in a food processor then i scrape it out and place in an old jar and keep refrigerated. i only make enough to last a week,as it seems if it gets much older than that it clouds the water some. you could also do this and freeze it on a tray then cut it up into little cubes. what i have seen feed off of this is:
2- open brains
100 misc zoo polyps
tang
foxface
lion
damsels
flame angel
rta
 

mitzel

Active Member
Originally Posted by reeftank27
is thier any kind of live fish we could feed that will survive in saltwater for awhile?

Damsels ! but that can get expencive fast. its best just to ween them to frozen
 

pfitz44

Active Member
Originally Posted by mitzel
Damsels ! but that can get expencive fast. its best just to ween them to frozen
were did u read that??
 
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