What is the best way to gut load brine shrimp?
- Thread starter sjgsm
- Start date
fish addict
Member
Well I don't know how but you could just buy frozen brine shrimp at your LFS and you won't have to deal with gut loading them b/c they already have nutrients or w/e in them.
sjgsm
Member
Originally Posted by fish addict
Well I don't know how but you could just buy frozen brine shrimp at your LFS and you won't have to deal with gut loading them b/c they already have nutrients or w/e in them.
I would do that but i'm trying to entice a fish with other live foods which could eventually lead to frozen
Well I don't know how but you could just buy frozen brine shrimp at your LFS and you won't have to deal with gut loading them b/c they already have nutrients or w/e in them.
I would do that but i'm trying to entice a fish with other live foods which could eventually lead to frozen
poniegirl
Active Member
"The most economical feed for me was the spirulina but BSD's Tahitian Blend makes things so easy, albeit at a greater cost. I have used rice bran powder, pea powder, and a few other things from the bulk barn, but the spirulina worked best of all those things but not as convenient as the TB."
From an outside source.
Also you can feed them ground wheat germ in addition to the algae and veggie based foods to boost protein content.
From an outside source.
Also you can feed them ground wheat germ in addition to the algae and veggie based foods to boost protein content.
murph
Active Member
If your trying to food train a finicky species you are probably all right for now without gut loading the live brine and just mixing in frozen with the training regimen. You should start to see some results within two weeks any way or you may have problems training the fish in general.
Food training will be easier in as small a tank as the species will allow with another compatible fish to serve in showing the fish in training that prepared foods are indeed a food item.
If its a Mandarin try a ten gallon with a small fire fish as a tank mate. Offer as many small feedings as time allows with at least one that is exclusively frozen items. You will basically be overfeeding the tank so keep an eye on water quality.
Food training will be easier in as small a tank as the species will allow with another compatible fish to serve in showing the fish in training that prepared foods are indeed a food item.
If its a Mandarin try a ten gallon with a small fire fish as a tank mate. Offer as many small feedings as time allows with at least one that is exclusively frozen items. You will basically be overfeeding the tank so keep an eye on water quality.
sjgsm
Member
Originally Posted by Murph
If your trying to food train a finicky species you are probably all right for now without gut loading the live brine and just mixing in frozen with the training regimen. You should start to see some results within two weeks any way or you may have problems training the fish in general.
Food training will be easier in as small a tank as the species will allow with another compatible fish to serve in showing the fish in training that prepared foods are indeed a food item.
If its a Mandarin try a ten gallon with a small fire fish as a tank mate. Offer as many small feedings as time allows with at least one that is exclusively frozen items. You will basically be overfeeding the tank so keep an eye on water quality.
I have a small mandarin (1 inch) that I am indeed trying to train. it is in a 30 gal. with 2 occ. clowns who aren't aggressive to her. So basically are you saying I should be feeding small amounts of live brine and frozen mysis shrimp together as much as possible through out the day? and if so should i turn off my water current (3 PowerHeads 1 Filter) while doing so?
OR should I set up a new 10 gallon tank with water from my old tank to serve as the "training grounds?" if there is a way around this part letme know since setting up a new tank will be difficult and I dont feel like pulling my reef tank apart to get her. I will if i need to just let me know what you think i should do. Thanks Murph
If your trying to food train a finicky species you are probably all right for now without gut loading the live brine and just mixing in frozen with the training regimen. You should start to see some results within two weeks any way or you may have problems training the fish in general.
Food training will be easier in as small a tank as the species will allow with another compatible fish to serve in showing the fish in training that prepared foods are indeed a food item.
If its a Mandarin try a ten gallon with a small fire fish as a tank mate. Offer as many small feedings as time allows with at least one that is exclusively frozen items. You will basically be overfeeding the tank so keep an eye on water quality.
I have a small mandarin (1 inch) that I am indeed trying to train. it is in a 30 gal. with 2 occ. clowns who aren't aggressive to her. So basically are you saying I should be feeding small amounts of live brine and frozen mysis shrimp together as much as possible through out the day? and if so should i turn off my water current (3 PowerHeads 1 Filter) while doing so?
OR should I set up a new 10 gallon tank with water from my old tank to serve as the "training grounds?" if there is a way around this part letme know since setting up a new tank will be difficult and I dont feel like pulling my reef tank apart to get her. I will if i need to just let me know what you think i should do. Thanks Murph
puffer32
Active Member
I have a scooter blenny and a mandrin in my 150 gal tank and lots of pods. But just in case having 2 pod eaters eat all my pods faster then my fuge can produce them I decided to try getting them both to eat frozen mysis to suppliment pods. I used live brine shrimp since they both will eat them. I slowly added frozen mysis to the mix, and they just ate whichever they could catch and they now eat either one. The scooter was the easiest to train, it took many tries before the mandrin would only pick out the live brine.
murph
Active Member
Originally Posted by SJgsm
I have a small mandarin (1 inch) that I am indeed trying to train. it is in a 30 gal. with 2 occ. clowns who aren't aggressive to her. So basically are you saying I should be feeding small amounts of live brine and frozen mysis shrimp together as much as possible through out the day? and if so should i turn off my water current (3 PowerHeads 1 Filter) while doing so?
OR should I set up a new 10 gallon tank with water from my old tank to serve as the "training grounds?" if there is a way around this part letme know since setting up a new tank will be difficult and I dont feel like pulling my reef tank apart to get her. I will if i need to just let me know what you think i should do. Thanks Murph
That set up should work fine. I don't shut off circulation when food training mandarins as I find that if the frozen mysis is drifting a bit, around and toward the bottom of the tank they are more prone to take it. Just make sure your clowns are not grabbing it all before the mandarin has a crack at it and that a feeding or two a day consist of nothing but frozen offerings.
I have a small mandarin (1 inch) that I am indeed trying to train. it is in a 30 gal. with 2 occ. clowns who aren't aggressive to her. So basically are you saying I should be feeding small amounts of live brine and frozen mysis shrimp together as much as possible through out the day? and if so should i turn off my water current (3 PowerHeads 1 Filter) while doing so?
OR should I set up a new 10 gallon tank with water from my old tank to serve as the "training grounds?" if there is a way around this part letme know since setting up a new tank will be difficult and I dont feel like pulling my reef tank apart to get her. I will if i need to just let me know what you think i should do. Thanks Murph
That set up should work fine. I don't shut off circulation when food training mandarins as I find that if the frozen mysis is drifting a bit, around and toward the bottom of the tank they are more prone to take it. Just make sure your clowns are not grabbing it all before the mandarin has a crack at it and that a feeding or two a day consist of nothing but frozen offerings.
sjgsm
Member
I bought some arcti pods today from my LFS store... i was wondering if you have every tried using them murph. if you don't know what they are you can go to a website called reefnutrition which is the products company. It said on the bottle that finicky fish like mandarins love them. I put a teaspoon in my tank to ensure that they would get down to the mandarin and she seemed to get pretty excited... i couldn't tell if she was able to get them as the current was blowing them down to the bottom and then back up to the top. I'm assuming with how excited she became that she will pick them off wherever they lay at. I was just wondering if you've heard of using them. Also I was wondering if anyones ever tried using "Melev's Mandarin Diner" if you don't know what it is you can google it. I was thinking about trying this approach but my mandarin is still new and too shy to come to the front of the tank. Please let me know what you think, thanks
murph
Active Member
This is excellent supplement for small mandarins. Try to find a ball of cheato to add to the tank and just pore the whole bag in at night so the pods have a chance to establish prior to being hunted down.
The cheato ball will soon become infested with pods. you should even be able to make out these tiny reef pods with a magnifying glass crawling on the side of your tanks glass. When they become less obvious add another bag. I have a local source for these reef pods also.
Continue on with your food training efforts and IMO there is a pretty high likely hood the mandarin will come around to frozen. The hikari brand of frozen mysis seems to be the smallest and probably the best suited for this mandarins small size.
Most important is not to add any pod hunting species to the equation that will present competition for the food source. I.E six line wrasse. These guys will eat every pod in a system in half a day. If you cant find reasonably priced cheato email me martinmurphy1@comcast.net I can send you some.
The cheato ball will soon become infested with pods. you should even be able to make out these tiny reef pods with a magnifying glass crawling on the side of your tanks glass. When they become less obvious add another bag. I have a local source for these reef pods also.
Continue on with your food training efforts and IMO there is a pretty high likely hood the mandarin will come around to frozen. The hikari brand of frozen mysis seems to be the smallest and probably the best suited for this mandarins small size.
Most important is not to add any pod hunting species to the equation that will present competition for the food source. I.E six line wrasse. These guys will eat every pod in a system in half a day. If you cant find reasonably priced cheato email me martinmurphy1@comcast.net I can send you some.