Had anyone fed their flowerhorn live food? The local pet store has mealworms waxworms crickets and nightcrawlers. I was thinking about trying some meal worms as a supplement to pellets. I'm just worried about parasites and if the mealworm skin is too hard for their digestive system. Any body have any experience with this?
Feeding FH live food?
- Thread starter Bolo058
- Start date
I would recommend the night crawlers instead. They aren't as hard on their digestive system and have a slightly higher nutritional value. Only down side is that feeding only live food can have some negative side effects. Essentially it can cause the fish to get fat over time as well as cause the fish to reject artificial foods later out of preference to the live food instead.
Btw wax worms are even worse as they are mostly fat with almost no nutritional value.
I was just looking for something to supplement his pellets. He is eating a couple of different pellets with no problem. Just read you wanted to feed a varied diet. I also read that you have to be careful with live food as it could have parasites. Do you have a FH and if so what do you feed?
I do actually. I mostly feed pellets but I do get her some earthworms or some culled guppies from one of my breeding projects. As far as parasites are concerned I've never had any issues with the store bought worms. Also as far as ik, I don't think the same parasites that infest insects will live inside of a fully aquatic animal, at least for most parasites that come to mind they can't. I would still go with store bought just to be safe.
If you're in america, PetSmart sells worms specifically bred as feeders now. Most local pet stores sell them as well, however.
Thank you for the info. I really appreciate the advice. I had a really bad experience with my last FH. It got either a parasite or bacterial infection and quit eating. I spent 6 weeks treating him and finally got him to start eating again. I really thought he was going to come through it. Started putting on some weight and getting some better color. I fed him, went to work, and came home to find him dead. It was really heart breaking to watch him go from being bright colored with a huge full Kok to being dark and dull and his KOK was all shrunken in. I really hated sticking the syringe down his throat to give him meds and food.
I'll check with my local fish store for worms. Thanks!