Blackworms / Bloodworms: How Often?

[zfarsh]

Hi everyone,

I have some Corydoras Paleatus and some Aspidoras Albaters, all adults or adolescent at least. I have bought some frozen blackworms and some mini bloodworms cubes. How many times per week should i feed them this food. They also get a home made gel food i make with veggies as the other fish eat it, and the cories eat it too (not the aspidoras so much). I also have some Frozen Krill and Brine Shrimps cubes as well...

I was thinking like once a week go for frozen blackworms, and once bloodworms, the rest veggies (and maybe once brine shrimps or krill). Any tips would be appreciated.

[Richard B]

Personally I prefer to feed as wide a variety as possible. Modern fish food manufacturers like tetra, new era, etc provide all that is needed in their products & it is always handy to have something so convenient to hand.

As an example, I keep C118, cory pygmaeus & cory weitzmani. I feed tetra prima, 3 different types of flake, earthworm pellets, several types of small sinking pellets & wafers, tetra delica bloodworm & brine shrimp, bloodworm sticks and some homemade foods. There is a clear preference for some but keeping them interested & providing variation is the key

[racoll]

These are natural-type foods for

Corydoras

, so you can feed them as frequently as you like.

And yes, as Richard says, variety is important.

[zfarsh]

Thanks guys,

I do also have Earthworm Pellets, Spirulina Pellets, and Veggie Pellets, which i only give to my spidoras. However, I want to stear away sort of from dried food, and concentrate on gel food / frozen food.

I guess my worry was giving them TOO MUCH protein... thus i had hesitations feeding the blood worm / blackworm / Krill / Brine Shrimps everyday, cause they all have protein. My homemade gel food has a variety of vegies which at least the corydoras like, and should keep the tank cleaner (protein is messier than veggies) and not go too much protein for the catfish. I do sometimes feed specifics veggies too, like blacket zuccini / grean peas.

So the more specific question is: How often (times per week) do you feed "protein" type foods (ie worms / shrimps) per week when not specifically trying to get the corys to breed?

[racoll]

First off, I'm not a cory expert, so someone may correct me on this ...

However, I want to stear away sort of from dried food

Why? Dried food is good! It's designed to be nutritionally complete, easily digestible, and supplemented with vitamins. I would feed a good quality flake in combination with frozen---or better live---foods.

I guess my worry was giving them TOO MUCH protein

This would be a problem for herbivores with long guts (e.g. Tropheus,

Baryancistrus

), but Corydoras are "designed" to eat this kind of food. It will do them no harm providing you don't overfeed them (i.e. the quantity per feed, rather than the number of feeds). Little and often is the best way.

[donpetty]

I wanted to interject an opinion here about feeding frozen/Live/Manufactured foods.

While I agree that feeding modern flake and pellet foods are nutritionally correct and balanced, I believe that more is involved then just “eating”. There is a mental function and activity level involved with feeding natural foods. For example; when I feed “live black worms” or freshly frozen “live” foods, I see a noticeable improvement in activities such as breeding, foraging and group activity in my Corydoras. Manufactured foods are complete and will offer quality of life to your fish. - They will be healthy, have good colors and may even reproduce for you. But, I have read and observed in my own breeding program that activity increases, my fish seem much more “excited” by being offered foods that are more natural. My Corydoras seem excited by moving - live foods.

Whether this is a perceived difference or a real one is one for the experts.
I feed California black worms at least 2-3 times a week, with frozen (thawed) brine shrimp and blood worms on other days, I rarely feed any flake and the only manufactured pellet I feed is the New Life Thera catfish pellet to my Corydoras. I will state here that I feed the Repashy foods and my fish eagerly eat that gel food as if it were live, My Aspidoras seem to go crazy for it.

There was a post on Ian Fuller’s “Corydoras-World” site that did mention that some folks have experienced strange fatty nodules that can appear on the fins and bodies of Corydoras that are receiving too much protein. I have seen this on fatter bodied Cory’s and Brochis. The assumption is that they are fed a diet of only black worms or bloodworms, I believe that I read that Mr. Fuller and others changed up the diet to include some flake or brine shrimp and the nodules went away with no harm to the fish.
As stated above this is my opinion and others may know more about this as well and can interject or correct my statements.

Thank you,
Don

[zfarsh]

Don, thanks for sharing, i had the fear of that. Unfortunately, my wife wont allow live worms, so i cant give them what my fish really want, and it is a shame. But i can give them the frozen ones, so its less bad ;). So I could give them the brine shrimps and krill on the off days. About the Ripashi gel food, which one do you use. The current gel food i made is non meat (i used to have krill in the last batch, but wanted to make it fully veggy for some of the other inhabitants to safely try it), and has grean peas, sprirulina, kale, zuccini, garlic, wheat germ, flaxseed oil amongst things.

I think i will go 2 day blackworm / 1 day bloodworm / 1 day brine shrimp (along with the veggy gel food) and the other days just the veggy gel food. What do you think about that?

[donpetty]

I've used both the soilent Green and meat pie.
my fish love the meat pie best. The great thing about this type of food is that you can add things to it.
So if you wanted to medicate you could add powders directly to the food.
for frozen;
I believe that Hikari makes a blackworm frozen cube food. Also Dan at California Black worms sells frozen Black worm cubes and blocks (Flat packs) I have never used krill with my cats, but, have fed it to larger Cichlid's before.
Take care,
Don