Alternative Foods for Apistos

[parkap]

Hi All,

Would love some advice on alternative foods for apistos, particularly in regard to risks associated with them.

Their staple diet (when I get them) will be colour bits, which I've used before and they seem to be fine with them. But reading over old posts in this forum the general consensus seems to be that to bring out their best colours and behaviours you need to add variety.

What's good? I'm a very risk adverse kind of person so don't want to risk introducing diseases either through live or frozen food. So would appreciate your advice and knowledge in regard to what risk there actually is of doing that with the different kinds of foods you can buy.

Thanks.

[Kribbie]

Hi there,

I've been feeding mine with "New Life Spectrum Thera + A for Small Fish" as their staple diet for a couple of months, and so far the fish are doing very well and all have natural bright colourings on their bodies. However, you need to spend a little bit more $$$ if you are going to feed yours with this brand, but I reckon it's worth the value though.

You can also get them some live/frozen brine shrimp, but I would not recommend you to feed them blood worms since they could easily catch some internal parasites and other diseases.

HTH

[steph]

I would highly recommend some variety in their diet and something more than commerical food if you are trying to breed them.

Apisto's need a high protein diet, and eat a large amount of insect larvae and insects in the wild.

Options to consider:

- frozen brine shrimp

- frozen blood worm - I dont see any problems with this as long as its a decent commercial brand and hasnt been thawed and refrozen. Tubifex is more of a problem in terms of parasites and disease as its sourced from polluted water.

-frozen mysis shrimp

- live mosquito larvae (shouldnt be too hard to source at this time of year, just leave a bucket of water outside for a few days)

- live brine shrimp - available from your LFS most likely

The main risk in live foods is the introduction of either a predatory animal (hydra) or pollutants. This can be minimised by rinsing any food well before adding it to the aquarium.

Other ways to reduce risk is to feed food grown in salt water eg: brine shrimp, mysis, krill etc as saltwater bacteria and parasites are far less likely to transfer into a freshwater environment - especially a soft acidic environment. Fish based proteins are also much better for fish to feed on than animal based proteins.

HTH

Steph

[parkap]

Kribbie and Steph,

Thanks heaps for the great info.

p.

I would highly recommend some variety in their diet and something more than commerical food if you are trying to breed them.

Apisto's need a high protein diet, and eat a large amount of insect larvae and insects in the wild. 

Options to consider:

- frozen brine shrimp

- frozen blood worm - I dont see any problems with this as long as its a decent commercial brand and hasnt been thawed and refrozen. Tubifex is more of a problem in terms of parasites and disease as its sourced from polluted water.

-frozen mysis shrimp

- live mosquito larvae (shouldnt be too hard to source at this time of year, just leave a bucket of water outside for a few days)

- live brine shrimp - available from your LFS most likely

The main risk in live foods is the introduction of either a predatory animal (hydra) or pollutants.  This can be minimised by rinsing any food well before adding it to the aquarium. 

Other ways to reduce risk is to feed food grown in salt water eg: brine shrimp, mysis, krill etc as saltwater bacteria and parasites are far less likely to transfer into a freshwater environment - especially a soft acidic environment.  Fish based proteins are also much better for fish to feed on than animal based proteins.

HTH

Steph

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