QT food question

[half-astronaut]

What do you all add to metro/focus to make the food more appealing? My current round of fish are eating fine (LRS nano) otherwise, but they are barely touching the medicated stuff. 

Edited May 7, 2023 by half-astronaut

[Micah]

What kind of quarantine is this? Is this medicated quarantine, or just isolation quarantine ?

 

If it's medicated quarantine, I always usually put the fish in unmedicated isolation to make sure that they're eating correctly first. If they're not, I get that problem fixed first. Sometimes even dosing prorazi first before the other medications.

If it's just an isolation quarantine, and the fish aren't eating, that may be a bigger issue. Make sure the water quality is absolutely perfect and feed high quality foods like LRS soaked in selcon.

Always buy fish that are eating at the pet store.

[Eatfrenchfries]

For medicating foods I try to gutload some sort of live prey with it. 

-White/black worms eat anything mixed into their diet. 

-Brine shrimp for fine foods and some medications

-Copepods are a hit or miss with gutloading for medicating versus nutrition. 

- I order mysids by 500 counts when I can't produce or have to train finicky eaters. They're pretty easy to gutload with medicine. Trade off is they are expensive to order in and are a pain in the butt to hold. 

 

If not possible I'll use garlic juice / seafood chum (fish guts, fresh oyster/clam guts) to entice fish. 

I usually feed reef chum (seafood + algae mix) with aloe vera and egg whites to bind the mixture with any supplements (vitamins) I add. Add RODI to consistency. 

Don't really use garlic past quarantine because it's not ideal long term. 

I have two quarantine tanks stuffed with macroalgae and 3D prints I can't sell because of possible disease/medicine contamination. The third quarantine is bare bone so whenever I get a fish order I can make note of anything troubling. 

[half-astronaut]

I’m following the humble fish QT. In general the fish are little pigs, but they don’t like the metronidazole-laced food. 

[half-astronaut]

4 minutes ago, Eatfrenchfries said:

For medicating foods I try to gutload some sort of live prey with it. 

-White/black worms eat anything mixed into their diet. 

-Brine shrimp for fine foods and some medications

 

Is there a local source for the worms?

[Eatfrenchfries]

Some freshwater, reptile (amphibian) stores will carry either white / grindal / black worms. 

I culture white / black worms but have been slowly moving toward culturing just white worms (Enchytraeus albidus) and ordering bulk black worms to hold since I stopped keeping planted freshwater. 

 

Grindals are the smallest and can be kept closer to room temp. (Kept in substrate). Freshwater Portland FB groups has a couple members who keep these. (Can't remember the name)

White worms are variable in size. Small colony will be tiny, big colony will have some lengthy individuals. Cooler Temps required. (Kept in substrate)

Black worms are lively and easy to spot. They require a bin with water or a spot in your fridge depending if you'd like to culture them or just keep them. Common to find. (Frequent maintenance required)

[half-astronaut]

1 hour ago, Eatfrenchfries said:

Some freshwater, reptile (amphibian) stores will carry either white / grindal / black worms. 

I culture white / black worms but have been slowly moving toward culturing just white worms (Enchytraeus albidus) and ordering bulk black worms to hold since I stopped keeping planted freshwater. 

 

Grindals are the smallest and can be kept closer to room temp. (Kept in substrate). Freshwater Portland FB groups has a couple members who keep these. (Can't remember the name)

White worms are variable in size. Small colony will be tiny, big colony will have some lengthy individuals. Cooler Temps required. (Kept in substrate)

Black worms are lively and easy to spot. They require a bin with water or a spot in your fridge depending if you'd like to culture them or just keep them. Common to find. (Frequent maintenance required)

I ordered a white worm starter culture since I couldn’t find any locally. Once it’s up and running, how do you control dosage? 

Edited May 7, 2023 by half-astronaut

[Eatfrenchfries]

Once you get the hang of feeding your culture and have it established you'll be able to see how much food they go through before you need to refresh. Helps to split your culture into some tupperware so you can rotate them once you have enough. I rotate three plastic totes of worms to make sure I have enough to feed 2-3 days a week. Surface area is more important. 

Worm feeders are easy to make if you find fish are dominating the feeding zone. Suggest looking into Paul B. 

I feed them plain yogurt mixed with spirulina and selcon. Bread soaked in yogurt + medication works too (white or grain).  If I am medicating then I will mix medicine instead of a gutload. Pretty much any supplement mixed with the yogurt will be consumed. The food mixture cannot be more than a 1/3 medicine. If the medicine you are using is too dry or vice versa liquid then use RODI/agar powder accordingly. *you will be amazed how agar can help make a lot of DIY foods the perfect consistency for reef application, even possible to just mix medicine and gelatin (diy masstick for brine or making fine foods tangible for larger feeders like ghosts) 

The nitty gritty is estimating  the amount of food your fish consumes in its own bodyweight per day. I'd say a good range for reef fish would consume 2% - 5% of its bodyweight daily. Just look up generic bodyweights if you can't weigh the fish. Therefore a couple days before I'll gut load the worms with medication in advance. The worms will feast for 1-3 days and then you'll weigh them out according to your regimen to feed. 

 

Between feeding my fish medicated white worms + adult brine shrimp (gutloading in low brackish is easier) they are pretty much covered. Basically whatever I can't gutload worms with (dewormer) I'll gutload the brine shrimp with. 

Edited May 7, 2023 by Eatfrenchfries