Opinions on food

[Naturestee]

Hi everybody! I'm new here, but not too new to aquariums. I've been keeping various tanks for over 5 years now. I'm getting back into learning more again as I'm changing my one (29 gallon low light/tech planted) tank almost completely as far as stock and water goes. My 4+ year old tetras died this summer from ich and my only remaining fish was my Krib. A few weeks ago I started restocking with platies and one trio of mollies and now I'm slowly changing the tank over to slight brackish.

Anyway, my real question is on food. These guys are all omnivores although I understand the mollies need lots of veggies. I'm feeding mainly spirulina flakes now- Nutrafin brand- and some color enhancing tropical flakes- Aqueon brand. The krib is getting a lot more color with the new veggie-heavy diet (previously on regular Nutrafin flakes/pellets). A few days ago I tried peas for the first time and they went nuts, especially the krib. Oh, and the molly girls like to graze on the algae so I've stopped scraping the back tank panel. I feed flakes twice a day, peas in place of flakes once every few days right now.

Is this a good diet for my fish? What other veggies can I add? I have 5 house rabbits which mainly eat veggies and hay so I have a wide assortment of veggies available. I always hear about feeding cucumber but I don't see why I'd want to feed such a watery veggie to fish.

Also, what flake brands do you like and why? These guys all refuse pellets, unlike my old tetras, so that's a no-go. I've heard Omega One is great but it has so much fat in it and I've heard fatty liver disease is a problem in aquarium fish.

Sorry about the long post! I get to use my Biology degree for my pets more than my job, unfortunately. I get a bit obsessive.:22:

[Naturestee]

Sorry! I didn't see this forum way down on the bottom. :ssuprised:

[Lady Hobbs]

I like the Tetra crisps for my community fish. Floats longer and the fish love it.

[Naturestee]

How hard are those? I used to have super-small pellets that my tetras loved but the platies and mollies just spit them out. I don't think they like anything hard because they're quite happy to take huge mouthfuls of peas that they have to work at to swallow.

[Wild Turkey]

The more variety the better, without exception (as long as they are all the right type of food for the fish)

[Fishguy2727]

For the flakes I would switch to New Life Spectrum's freshwater flakes.

[Gemini]

My fish LOVE cucumber!!! But they also enjoy zucchini, carrots (blanched), watermelon, strawberries etc.
I like Hikari as a brand but haven't seen flakes, so if you can maybe try the NLS flakes that FishGuy2727 suggests.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

I would personally go with a good mixed diet that includes lots of frozen foods and a high quality pellet food like New Life Spectrum.

Just as a side question, why are you switching the water to brackish? None of the fish you have in it are brackish fish.

[Naturestee]

Mollies do better in brackish and platies and kribs can live happily in mild brackish. Kribs just have a poor gender mix when breeding in brackish but since I only have one that's not an issue. And all my plants supposedly will do just fine in brackish. I'm doing it really mild, working up to a salinity of maybe 1.0002 or so if I remember the number right (written down at home).

I got a lot of info here:
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

Where can I get NLS foods? And where do I find the dietary and ingredient info? I checked the maker's website once and couldn't find what I was looking for. I know it's highly recommended stuff but I hate buying things blind. And I do not believe that any one specific type of pellet/flake can provide all the best nutrition for several different community species at once. That doesn't even always work within species, at least with mammals. Just ask me about rabbit nutrition once. :)

Thanks for the responses, guys!

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Mollies do better in brackish
This is actually a myth that has been handed down by many through the years. The fact is, Mollies are a freshwater fish that has Eurhaline capabilities. Simply put, they adapt to brackish and marine conditions. Salt simply allows you to keep them in lower water quality without the problems associated with the water quality. There was an excellent article on this issue in Tropical Fish Hobbyist in the "Livebearers Unlimited" section. Ted Colletti, president of the American Livebearers Association handled the whole salt issue in the second part of that article. I believe you will find it in the September 2007 issue.

Where can I get NLS foods? And where do I find the dietary and ingredient info? I checked the maker's website once and couldn't find what I was looking for.

There should be a list of dealers on the NLS website. You may be able to find a location through that. Hope that helps. If not, you can always find it online at places like Big Als. I would recommend the Community Formula .5mm slow sinking pellet.

[Wild Turkey]

100% agree with GB here, I just want to add, you have to consider that even if a fish comes from a place with a little salt in the water (almost every fish), 99% of them are tank bred and so are accustomed to having NO salt at all, probably over several, several generations.

Salt in the water is often used when its not needed, and usually is just a way to get away with poorer water quality, as mentioned.

Salt is a treatment, not a preventative and should be used as such, IMO

[Naturestee]

I did do a lot of reading before selecting my fish and deciding to go brackish, including opinions on both sides of the salt arguement. I agree that adding aquarium tonic salt aka plain sodium chloride does nothing except treat some preventable problems (ich, nitrate sensitivity, etc). Sea salt is different as it has a lot more components and increases the hardness and pH some, which I do want.

Also it's been my experience that no matter how long an animal has been kept and bred in particular conditions, with a proper transition they usually do just as well if not far better in conditions more similar to their original wild habitat. Hence no-grain or even raw diets for cats/dogs, no- or low-pellet diets for rabbits, Mediterranean diets for humans... And with fish, their natural preferences for particular water types and food has just as much to do with genetics as where/how it was raised.

I know I tend to see things a little differently as I'm a trained eco/bio nutcase. But I really do take a lot of stuff into consideration because of this.

On the food- I think my mollies may be eating my duckweed- it hitchhiked in on my hornwort and I don't mind it. It's been disappearing faster than it's growing. How nutritious is it? Could I grow some in a jar in the window and feed it as a supplement?

[Fishguy2727]

Yes, duckweed is a great fresh food for them.

If you are concerned about keeping these fish in their natural waters why stick so many known true freshwater fish in brackish to meet the very arguable 'needs' of one species?

Platies are freshwater. Kribs are freshwater. Some species of mollies can go into all types of water BUT they definitely thrive in freshwater. However you define thriving, they do it in freshwater (they breed in it, they are healthy, colorful, etc. long term). I personally would say if it was just the mollies then you could experiment with different salinities to see what your mollies seem to do best in, but with all those definitely true freshwater fish you are knowingly harming some to meet debated 'benefits' for one.

The best resource for accurate information on the natural conditions of fish is fishbase.org. On this site they are listed as freshwater and brackish BUT they are listed in mainland references, not oceanic. So although they can tolerate brackish enough to live in it short-term, this in no way means they can live in it permanently and definitely does not mean they need it.

As for diets that really depends on the quality of the diet. It is getting to the point now that the best prepared foods meet or exceed more natural diets. A person would really need to be a college educated animal nutritionist to try and take on the entire diet of any animal. Or they can buy foods that were developed by that type of person. Otherwise it is simply guesswork.

What is the pH?
KH?
GH?

In the U.S. most people have naturally hard water out of the tap, perfect for any hard water species except the extremes like some rift lake cichlids.

Out of curiosity, what is your training as an ecologist/biologist?