Why guppy tanks are a great food source for your reef

His volitan was fed nothing but goldfish.The other fish in the study were fed a variety from other fw species to a more natural diet. The results were enough to convince me that its a bad idea and really unnecessary(if you choose the right fish/invert.)

 

Mysis feed upon phytoplankton and thus have a great nutritional profile, although they are a little high in fat as a whole. They are a great source of food for both FW and marine fish and invertebrates.

Guppies are not as bad as goldfish, but I wouldn't feed either to any of my marine critters. Best to get yourself an acclimated molly pair and keep them around to produce a better feed.

 

Thanks for the input Gresham.Its much appreciated.;D
For those of you who don't know him. He knows fish food.

 

Great.
Hopefully, that was the last nail in the coffin for this thread.

 

Oh man, see that this topic has gotten alot of debate going on! Well, what i know from experience, is that all predatory fish do benefit from live foods. So, yes mollies might have the same amino acids or atleast almost, but i never think it would be perfectly the same. But, as said, occasional feeding of live foods are great, especially if you know they're healthy. Of course, the problems are the amino acids, but they still give good nutrients and stuff. Now, atleast for freshwater (Considering that i also put this in the freshwater forum section) it works fantastic. My predatory african cichlids actually really enjoys them, even my mbuna does. Now, before anyone says "Arent african cichlids herbivourus?" Mbuna cichlids are, which are rockdwelling fish, that live off of algaes that grow on the rocks around their area. Haps and peacocks which are more open water swimmers are actually omnivores, and some of them only carnivorous, but the majority of cichlids we keep, and are getting sold are mbunas. However, i keep a variety of cichlids in my tank. The most important thing is that mbuna does actually need meat in their diet, just a tiny bit. After some research that some scientists made, they actually thrive best with about 15 - 20 % meat in their diet, to still give them proteins to grow. Because they're used to eating other small cichlid cultures in the wild when they get the opportunity (They are sort of oppurtunistic feeders, which also is why you almost can feed african cichlids everything, and as much as you want and they will eat untill they explode, its insane). But, they do in fact benefit from this, and the proteins that are getting consumed from these guppy fry will work wonders for your cichlids or any other freshwater predators. Brackish will eat guppy fry too. But, i actually wonder, mollies can in fact be both in freshwater and brackish, but does the amino acids vary depending on them being in brackish or freshwater? Its interesting. Oh and, just a little thing i was wondering about, doesn't it take quite alot of guppy fry to cause an amino acid defficiency in predatory fish that are used to eating fish bigger than guppy fry? I mean, some fish are really tough, and are just made to eat everything they can. Of course, its unnatural, but i'm almost 100% sure that they eat brackish fish, especially the reef fish that seek cover in brackish lagoons to find food and hiding spots? So, dunno man, it might work with brackish mollies. It just might. Its a very interesting topic though.

 

Dont worry, i dont take you as being mean. I know that the title might not quite refer to what i'm trying to come up with here. I'm just saying that all predatory fish benefit from live foods, i know people feed freshwater daphnia to their saltwater fish (Which is btw in many flake foods for saltwater, strangely enough). I posted this in the freshwater forums to start with too, and as i stated in the post, it works great and fantastic for freshwater. Didn't think that small guppy fry would cause amino acid defficiencies to big predatory fish.

 

I agree with your ideas on live food. Three things I've learned from the aquarium hobby:

1) Fish love live food; anything that's alive and fits in their mouth is food.

2) A fish does not need to be a predator to eat another fish if it fits in his mouth.

3) "Peaceful toward tankmates" only applies to tankmates that do not fit in his mouth.

OTOH, fish will eat most anything when they're hungry, so as their caretakers, it's our responsibility to ensure that they are receiving proper nutrition.

 

Amen Mr. Bill. Very true.

 

+1! Totally agree. Yup, all fish eat any fish than can fit in their mouth pretty much. Its scary

 

Its got nothing to do with aminos for the most part... hufas and pufas. Freshwater fish do not typically produce them in the same high ratio. Diet and fish determine that ratio. nearly all FW don't have anywhere near the levels of marine fish, salmonids of course being one that is an exception.

As per you protein comment, that is specifically for those specific fish and has no application for marine fish. Marine fish typically want a higher protein percent.