Live Foods from the Wild
Part I – Nutrition
A presentation for
The Angelfish Society
September 19, 2010
by Tamar Stephens
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About this presentation series
This is the first in a series of presentations on
live foods from the wild. This series will cover a
series of topics related to feeding your angelfish
foods from the wild including:
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Nutritional value
Where to find wild foods
How to culture wild foods
How to collect wild foods
Types of wild foods
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Why use wild foods?
Let’s look at some anecdotal information
first.
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Feeding mosquitoes improved
color and vigor
My next door neighbor had a small aquarium
with several neon tetras. Summertime in Alaska
is mosquito time. If you open your door,
especially in the evening, chances are one or
more mosquitoes will slip into the house.
When my neighbor was bitten by a mosquito in
the house, he would quickly swat it, then drop
the crushed carcass into the little aquarium.
During mosquito season he fed several
mosquitoes a day into the aquarium. The
neons eagerly devoured them. Within days, he
remarked at how much brighter the colors were
on his neon tetras and how much more
energetic they seemed.
Photo from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Mosquito
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Outdoor ponds
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In an outdoor pond, fish can feed on insects that land in
the water, as well as on whatever else grows in the
pond.
If you look through back issues of FinTAStic and look
through forum threads, you will find threads describing
experience with setting up outdoor ponds for raising
angelfish in the summer, or adding angelfish to an
existing pond. What do people report about the
angelfish?
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“They got huge”
“Brilliantly colored”
“They’re not too tame any more”
“Their bodies were as big as the palm of my hand”
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What do these two stories have in
common?
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In both cases, the fish were fed prepared fish
food, but they also had fresh, live food to
supplement their diets.
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In the aquarium, freshly killed mosquitoes were
added.
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In outdoor ponds, insects land on the water,
where they can be caught. Insect larvae and
other living things can grow in the pond.
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Before commercial fish foods
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Before there were commercial fish foods, tropical fish
enthusiasts relied on either collecting wild foods to feed
their fish, raising live cultures, or making their own foods.
Today most people rely on commercial foods, and may
supplement those with live cultures or home-made
foods.
Is there still value in collecting food from the wild?
How can we be sure we are meeting the nutritional
needs of our angelfish?
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Importance of variety for nutrition
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We hear all the time that for our own health we
should eat a variety of different foods.
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The same thing is true for our fish. In addition to
the basics of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats,
fish need vitamins and trace minerals. As with
our diet, it requires a varied diet to ensure that
all of these nutritional needs are met.
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Natural habitat versus aquarium
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In the natural habitat, a fish will feed on a wide variety of
foods. The broad selection of foods provides a rich
source of nutrition.
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An outdoor pond has less variety than the wild habitat,
but does provide variety because of the opportunity for
wild foods (such as insects) to happen by the pond, land
in the water, lay eggs in the water, have larval forms
grow in the pond.
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In an aquarium, fish get only what we feed them. Their
diet is only as good and as varied as the food we provide
them. People can live a long time on poor nutrition, so
can fish. But a high quality diet is necessary for vigorous
growth, reproduction, good health, and a long life.
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Some Key Vitamins
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Vitamin A is essential for growth and
development, and is important in protecting
against infection.
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Vitamin B is important for growth and for
stimulating appetite.
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Vitamin C is also important for healthy growth.
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Vitamin D is essential for normal bone
development.
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Natural Habitat and Sunlight
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A natural habitat is
very different from an
aquarium.
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Fish can get direct
exposure to UV
radiation from
sunlight, which is
necessary for
producing vitamin D.
Window glass and
aquarium glass filter
out the UV radiation.
UV
rays
UV light stimulates
production of vitamin D
UV rays are
deflected by glass
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Food Web Diversity
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Food Web – A
natural habitat will
have a complex
food web
supporting a large
variety of plant and
animal species.
An aquarium often
is limited to one
species, and may
not even have live
plants.
worms
prey fish
predator fish
snails
aquatic insect larvae
zooplankton
plankton feeders
plants
bacteria
phytoplankton
dissolved nutrients
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Provide your fish with variety
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We all know to provide our angelfish with a
varied diet.
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If you think you might want to add wild food to
your angelfish diets, then watch for future
presentations in this series. The next
presentation will talk about where to find wild
foods and how to promote growth of wild food in
your own yard.
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The End
Please return to the chat room for
discussion.
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