live food sor reidi

[bourbeau]

I bought two reidi at a LFS two weeks ago. One male one female. The female eats frozen mysis readilly. The male is not eating. He is interested in the mysis, looks closely at them but does eat. I am very worried I am going to lose him shortly. I have started a batch of live brine shrimp. It will take a while before they are large enough for him. Any other suggestion on what I could feed him or where I can get live foos in Canada ? I am in Montreal.

Thanks.
p.s. serves me right for not asking to see them eat in the store.

[StevieK]

my males rather hunt as well, so no worries assuming your tank is from April 2007 you should have lots of pods around for him to hunt.

i have also set up a feeding station for them, it works pretty good as the female will sit on it and eat away, some mysis eventually drop and swept up within the current in the water. it appears that my male likes this better (maybe they look like a challenge).

hope this helps

Steve

[River]

I found the only places that sell live pods are out west like J&L but the cost of shipping is very expensive. I also did some reading on arctic-pods and such and it got me wondering how live are the pods in those products. I have not used them myself so I can only go by others but not all seemed happy they also say since they are a cold water species they will not be any good if you are trying to restock the life in your tank.
I eventually found a place that sell 3 or 4 different types of live pods and also gives you instructions on setting up a breeding tank for pods. And these are the kind you can restock your tank or sump with. The only drawback is once again the shipping.
I decided to go ahead and order all the kinds they sell and will breed my own.
I figured no matter where I was getting them I had to pay the shipping so I liked the look of this place and they sell the type that live in our tanks plus give helpful info on keeping them. They are not a sponsor so if you are interested in the name of the company you can PM me.

Rick

[StevieK]

i believe our newest sponsor sells arctic pods etc

http://www.reefaquatica.com/store/

you can check with Vaporize

[rayjay]

My male reidi can seldom be seen to eat the frozen PE Mysis, but obviously is getting enough as it grew to full size quite fast.
He is very lazy, prefering to sit and wait for something to come by his perch instead of going looking for food like the female does.
Eventually he will go to the feeding bowl I have set up but does more looking than feeding.
I siphon out each day, probably 95% of the PE mysis that I put in for feeding, so they don't eat a great deal.
On Sunday's, I feed them live adult brine shrimp that I grow, but I gut load the brine on Tahitian Blend cryopaste or on spirulina food for an hour before the brine get fed to the horses.
My brine are fed on green water up to the late juvenile stage and then are fed on Tahitian Blend from Brine Shrimp Direct for the balance of their lives so they have excellent nutrition right from that point on, with using spirulina every other week to gut load only and give different qualities than the Tahitian Blend.

[River]

i believe our newest sponsor sells arctic pods etc

http://www.reefaquatica.com/store/

you can check with Vaporize


No luck I checked there first but he did not carry them at least not on his site.
Also I read that arctic-pods are not usable to restock you tank as they are a cold water species and will not live long in your tank. I wanted something I could breed in a separate tank and also live in my DT and hopefully multiply in there too.

Rick

[Reef_Aquatica]

Hi everybody,

We do have a small shipment of articpod & tiggerpods coming in later this week, will post when it lands. There will be the standard 6oz version, if other version is desired, please email us in advance.

Please note, Artic-pod is actually a refrigerated version of copepods that are grown in colder water, it is around 3000 micron size, and are especially rich in protein, reddish color and marine fatty acids. It is not live. Available in 6, 16, 32oz.

Tigger-pods is the live amphipod version that is good for live feeds or to seeding refugiums. Only available in 6oz.

If there are any questions, please feel free to pm me or email us (http://www.aquariumpros.ca/forums/sendmessage.php?do=mailmember&u=11014). There are alot of items that we can get by special orders and does not cost you any extra.

Watch for our fish & reef health announcement later.

Cheers, Hubert

[Dene]

I bought two reidi at a LFS two weeks ago. One male one female. The female eats frozen mysis readilly. The male is not eating. He is interested in the mysis, looks closely at them but does eat. I am very worried I am going to lose him shortly. I have started a batch of live brine shrimp. It will take a while before they are large enough for him. Any other suggestion on what I could feed him or where I can get live foos in Canada ? I am in Montreal.

Thanks.
p.s. serves me right for not asking to see them eat in the store.

It is not a good idea to feed horses adult brine shrimp at all (even if they are gut-loaded). Brine should always be well rinsed before introducing to a horse tank (otherwise you will introduce Vibrio sp. to the horse tank, which horses are susceptible to). BBS that are between 2-7 days can be gut-loaded and survive rinsing (approx. 1 minute rinse). Gut-loading should be done with an additive that is extremely high in DHA and NOT EPA. Marine organisms (like horses) can convert DHA into the necessary requirements of EPA, but not vice versa. But for adults gut-loaded BBS should NOT be a part of their staple diet, this is only an emergency measure for a circumstance like this.

If you set-up a feeding station and get the female to eat from it, the male will follow suit. You can also try feeding the male directly from your finger tips. Keep an eye on the male, he may be more interested in available pods at the moment, if that's the case he'll take frozen when he's done hunting.

[bourbeau]

Aouch... I have already introduced live BBS without rinsing them. They were in green water and I actually just siphoned out 10-20ml and dumped it into the SH tank. The shrimp swam around the SH who took no interest.

Can you tell me more about introducing the disease along with the brine shrimp ?

[rayjay]

As mentioned, never add brine shrimp to a tank before rinsing properly.
Before you hatch out your cysts, decap them or sterilize them with bleach.
To sterilize the cysts, place them in bleach water for 30 minutes (17 ml of 5% bleach in a gallon of water), rinse VERY well, and then hatch out.
For juvenile or larger horses, the brine will also need to be juvenile or adult sized for the horses to take any interest in.
The largest horse forum on the internet says that no more than one feeding of loaded live brine per week, as the mysis as in PE mysis are more nutritious for the horses. Also, if you feed them live brine more than that they will probably refrain from eating frozen and will have to be retrained again.
I suspect your horses having lasted this long, and, assuming they are not showing signs of wasting away, are eating even thought you don't see it happen. Hopefully so and then you don't have to worry about feeding live product.

[StevieK]

:iagree:

for the most part. it is also well documented not to feed PE mysis constantly either and once a week live brine is a good thing

S.

[mark0933]

it is also well documented not to feed PE mysis constantly either and once a week live brine is a good thing

S.


I have never seen any documentation on PE mysis as the sole food source having any negative consequences - please site your source as I'd love to read up.

With respect to live brine, IMO, I would not feed this to horses at all. There are better sources of food (PE mysis the best, other mysis next, etc) than any live food - once the horses get live, they may refuse frozen food, and the disease potential from brine or even fresh water glass shrimp is already discussed.

Mark

[StevieK]

it is also well documented not to feed PE mysis constantly either and once a week live brine is a good thing

S.


I have never seen any documentation on PE mysis as the sole food source having any negative consequences - please site your source as I'd love to read up.

With respect to live brine, IMO, I would not feed this to horses at all. There are better sources of food (PE mysis the best, other mysis next, etc) than any live food - once the horses get live, they may refuse frozen food, and the disease potential from brine or even fresh water glass shrimp is already discussed.

Mark

Good discussion, so indeed we can all learn a little. I will try to find the source, it was not on this board, however, it was distinct, something about too much fatty foods (PE Mysis), so to take a day off per week. I recall it was a reliable source and i tried to follow protocol as this was my first set of horses a couple of years back.

[Dene]

it is also well documented not to feed PE mysis constantly either and once a week live brine is a good thing

S.


I have never seen any documentation on PE mysis as the sole food source having any negative consequences - please site your source as I'd love to read up.

With respect to live brine, IMO, I would not feed this to horses at all. There are better sources of food (PE mysis the best, other mysis next, etc) than any live food - once the horses get live, they may refuse frozen food, and the disease potential from brine or even fresh water glass shrimp is already discussed.

Mark

Good discussion, so indeed we can all learn a little. I will try to find the source, it was not on this board, however, it was distinct, something about too much fatty foods (PE Mysis), so to take a day off per week. I recall it was a reliable source and i tried to follow protocol as this was my first set of horses a couple of years back.

That is a theory or practise from Ocean Rider. It doesn't imply that PE Mysis should not be the sole food source, what it is implying is to avoid deaths from a liver disease that is caused by excessive fat build up in the liver you should give your horses one day of fasting per week to give them the opportunity to break down any fatty build-ups.