Clams, The Best Food for a Reef

Paul B · Nov 25, 2018

Victoria M said:
I decided you were the coolest guy ever.

That was my goal in life, to be the coolest guy ever.

White worms are worms about the same size as blackworms but you culture them in potting soil and feed them bread with yogurt on it. They multiply very fast.

They come from a place called "On Line" where you Google Whiteworms and you buy a culture which is pretty cheap. They will give you instructions how to culture them or I can tell you in another post if you need help. My culture is going on for years and my worms are now much larger than they were when I got them.
They also live almost 5 days in salt water which is great for mandarins etc.
These must be Jewish worms as they are eating a Matzo.

Here is something I wrote about feeding fish if you are interested.

http://www.saltwatersmarts.com/want-healthy-spawning-fish-feed-them-properly-5010/

Paul B · Nov 25, 2018

MnFish1 said:
..There is no real evidence that reef fish eat 'the entire fish' including guts (or is there)?

You don't do a lot of SCUBA diving do you?

Victoria M · Nov 25, 2018

MnFish1 said:
A varied diet is probably best for all reef fish. Im not sure that there is any good reason to feed 'guts' but thats just me....There is no real evidence that reef fish eat 'the entire fish' including guts (or is there)?

Didn't you watch nature shows as a kid?

. many predators just eat the belly out of they prey when prey is plentiful. When prey is not, they eat everything but the bones, and some crack open the large bones for the marrow. We could come up with a million reasons why we think they do that, but there is no doubt they do it.

Dancingmad · Nov 25, 2018

Everyone in my tank loves clam day. I feed on the half shell. Even fish that aren't "Designed" to eat clams get in on it. My Marine betta will grab a clam and push it out in front of him, spin it around, and keep striking the fleshy side till the meat comes off the shell.

Everyone. Loves. Clam. Day.

There is only mediocre excitement for Krill day. But clam day? That's the event. Everyone buys tickets.

Victoria M · Nov 25, 2018

Paul B said:
That was my goal in life, to be the coolest guy ever.

You know that you like that I think you are a super duper cool guy. come on, you know you do.

MnFish1 · Nov 25, 2018

Paul B said:
You don't do a lot of SCUBA diving do you?

That’s why I said is there. Of course fish eat other fish whole. My point was it’s not a requirement for life

MnFish1 · Nov 25, 2018

Victoria M said:
Didn't you watch nature shows as a kid? . many predators just eat the belly out of they prey when prey is plentiful. When prey is not, they eat everything but the bones, and some crack open the large bones for the marrow. We could come up with a million reasons why we think they do that, but there is no doubt they do it.

Yes. Of course. I meant I’m not sure it’s mandatory for survival

Victoria M · Nov 25, 2018

MnFish1 said:
Yes. Of course. I meant I’m not sure it’s mandatory for survival

LOL. Gotcha.

I think grizzly bears think it is mandatory. but that is another story.

Paul B · Nov 25, 2018

Victoria M said:
You know that you like that I think you are a super duper cool guy. come on, you know you do

Of course I do. I always try to please all the ladies.

MnFish1 said:
That’s why I said is there. Of course fish eat other fish whole. My point was it’s not a requirement for life

A requirement for life? No. For that we can feed flakes, pellets, oatmeal or bread and our fish would live. I want them spawning, immune and only dying of old age so I feed guts

MnFish1 · Nov 25, 2018

Paul B said:
Of course I do. I always try to please all the ladies.

A requirement for life? No. For that we can feed flakes, pellets, oatmeal or bread and our fish would live. I want them spawning, immune and only dying of old age so I feed guts

How do we do with cooked food and no guts? Humans I mean.

Victoria M · Nov 25, 2018

MnFish1 said:
How do we do with cooked food and no guts? Humans I mean.

That is a whole nuther debate. ;Wacky It is starting to be like politics, and religion. What folks consume is beginning to be like identity politics.

Paul B · Nov 25, 2018

MnFish1 said:
How do we do with cooked food and no guts? Humans I mean.

Modern people get vaccines to ward off diseases. Before we invented those we had to contract the disease to become immune to it, unfortunately many times we died in the process.

(Research Bubonic Plague)
Fish become immune from contacting diseases as we do and also sometimes die while waiting to become immune but fish also have a different digestive system than we do and a different immune system which works somewhat through their kidneys. They have no bone marrow to make antibodies. Fish stay immune by eating the living bacteria, parasites and viruses in the guts of their prey. Fish also evolved to need fish oil in their diet and they get that from fish guts.

MnFish1 · Nov 26, 2018

Actually before vaccines people died of disease. And they still didn’t eat guts

LBReefer · Nov 26, 2018

cromag27 said:
i never had a full mixed reef flourish more than when i was exclusively feeding blackworms.

How do you get/keep blackworms?

cromag27 · Nov 26, 2018

LBReefer said:
How do you get/keep blackworms?

i used to buy the frozen packs because they are a pain to keep fresh and breed.

https://www.aquaticfoods.com/BlackwormCareM.html

Paul B · Nov 26, 2018

MnFish1 said:
Actually before vaccines people died of disease. And they still didn’t eat guts

Maybe that's why they died

And people are not fish. Duck Billed Platypuses' eat almost nothing but worms, Panda's eat nothing but Bamboo, Aardvarks eat ants, loggerhead turtles eat jellyfish and Supermodels may eat an M&M but all species are supposed to eat certain things. Fish are supposed to eat whole fish, bones, guts and all. But if you want to feed your fish something else. That's fine, but your fish probably hate you.

Kampo · Nov 26, 2018

So my typical food I feed is it take a bag of trader Joe's seafood meddally a few sheets of norri, a handful of a quality flake food. But of garlic and a bit of paprika. Blend that all up and freeze it in sheets in plastic bags. It sounds like I should incorporate clams and mussels. Would it be a good or bad idea to scoop all the goodies out of the clam and add it to the food processor in place of some of the other meat?

Paul B · Nov 26, 2018

Kampo I would ditch the flake food no matter how Quality it is advertised to be. You also don't need the Paprika or garlic. Trader Joe's food is great for people but has parts of seafood that don't have the best nutrition for fish. For them clams and mussels would be best with maybe some LRS food added in.