NEWS102
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Glassworm
ut innoway is this simply todowith
the ingredients of the live food. A
balanced flake food, carefully produced
frozen food, freeze-dried food, and all
sorts of other ornamental fish foods
generally contain what they say they do
and guarantee healthy fishes. But things
are somewhat different when it comes to
breeding. Thus some fishes won’t spawn
unless theyaregiven live food.And finally,
live food representsgenuinevariety in the
sometimes ratherboringeveryday livesof
our aquarium fishes. Live food awakens
thehunting instinct and thusenriches the
lives of fishes in captivity. People who
keep wild animals refer to this as
“environmental enrichment”and the term
is veryappropriate.
B
Live food iswithout anydoubt oneof thebest foodsof all.The successful
maintenance of some species isn’t possible at all without live food, and
others require itwhile settling in - but all fishes love it!
Live food inbags
byHenrikWeitkamp
Obtaining live food
In the old days there were two ways of
obtaining live food:thepondand the local
aquarium store. The weekly pond
excursionwas a permanent fixture in the
life of the conscientious aquarist, and
whenever possible that should still be an
option today.But unfortunately it is rarely
feasible.Aswell as legal restrictions there
is the problem of lack of time. Andmany
aquarists havenowayof storing the food
collected for useover theweek. In theold
days, not surprisingly the local aquarium-
storeownerwent“ponding”just likeother
aquarists. However, he didn’t feed all his
catch to his stock, but offered some for
sale to those who, for whatever reason,
couldn’t orwouldn’t collect their own.But
thosedays are longgone.
Nowadays the live food offered in the
aquarium trade originates from carefully
monitored stocks. The live food sources
usedbyAmtra-Groci areall Europeanand
–with theexceptionofwater fleas,where
thereare sometimes seasonal shortages–
can supply top quality live food year-
round. And nowadays storage isn’t a
problem any more either, as the food
organisms are hygienically stored in little
plastic bags that can be stored in the
refrigerator for 8-9dayswithout problem.
Thevarieties
1.Glassworms
Zoologically speaking,glasswormsare the
larvae of phantom midges (family
Chaoboridae). Important note: any larvae
that aremissedby the fishes anddevelop
won’t cause any grief to the aquarist and
his family, as the midges don’t bite and
don’t suckblood!
Thedifferent live foodvarieties fromAmtra-Groci are sealed inbreathableplasticbags and canbekept
for around8-9days at 6-8 °C.
Food
