By Donna M. Recktenwalt
One of the complaints often heard about killifish is that they won’t eat dry food.
Not true. In fact, the staple food for many killikeepers is commercially produced dry foods. These are of various types, including flakes, freeze-dried, and pelleted forms. Of course, all fish will do better if they have variety in their diets, and breeding fish especially benefit from generous helpings of live foods.
“I have 26 varieties of plant-spawning killies,” John Burns writes. “The core diet I feed is Hikari Sinking Carnivore Pellets.” In a blender, he processes the pellets to a fine powder; this floats for a time, then remains in the water column for even longer. He feeds this to all his fish, with juveniles and adults receiving bloodworms as well. “They all ‘eat with gusto,’ ” says John.
“I’ve observed that most killies will eat ground up Purina Trout Chow [primary ingredient fish meal] but will not touch flake foods,” says Lee Harper. “They will also eat without much persuasion any of the dried shrimp, worms, etc. They apparently don’t care for cereal-based foods. In any circumstance, no one food should be used alone; a variety including live foods is essential.”
“Every killie I have ever kept has eaten flake food,” reports John van Rompu. “Some are reluctant at first, but after a few days they get the hang of it.” However, John agrees, “you must give them a varied diet. All my killies also receive at least one feeding of baby brine per day and in season, mosquito larvae, etc. Do not feed just one food if you want healthy robust fish.”
“I have raised more than 10 generations of Epiplatys dageti Monroviae on a basic diet of TetraMin, with irregular additions of frozen brine shrimp, live brine shrimp, and small earthworms,” says Bruce Stallsmith. “My Rivulus marmoratus, on the other hand, definitely need real ‘meat’ on a regular basis, although they take TetraMin too. Interestingly, wild-caught native Fundulus species will start eating TetraMin after several days in captivity.”
“Most killies will eat flake food,” agrees George Slusarczuk. “The best method to teach them to accept dry flake food is to start feeding early, when the fry are about 1/2″ long, one feeding a day. I usually feed dry food in the morning, when they are the hungriest.” George uses TetraMin Staple and TetraMin Ruby, crushed and sieved to proper size.
Sue Katz says that many of her killies relish OSI freshwater flake food. “Even many of the ‘well fed but picky’ fish … have transferred to eating the OSI. They’ve refused some of the other flake foods I’ve tried, so it might be something OSI alone has.”
“I don’t recall ever having a killi species that never eats dry food,” says Wright Huntley, “and I usually have close to 50 species around. Some new wild fish are tough to get going [on dry foods] but all others can be taught.” The trick is to introduce quality foods they will like, into a “feeding frenzy” situation. “I have found Brine Shrimp Direct brine shrimp flake to be accepted by all, once they know it is good to eat. Introducing it into the competition of the rearing tank is sure to get them going.”
“Many of my fish would just starve to death before eating the standard Wardley and Tetra flake stuff,” he continues, “I don’t know why.” Wright usually feeds mostly live foods, but includes dry foods of various types: micro-pellets, flake foods, etc., especially “right after vacations and field trips, when they are good and hungry.” That way, when the live food sources fail, the fish will still eat and remain healthy.
“My favorite food to teach babies to eat dry stuff is Hikari ‘Oranda Gold’ minipellets, ground in a hand pepper mill,” says Wright. “Most of it floats, but enough sinks to get them striking at it. Once they find out how good it tastes they are off and running. An advantage of the ‘Oranda Gold’ is the high quantity of color-enhancing algae in it.”
“Another good [starter] food is crushed spirulina pellets from either JBL or Tetra,” suggests David Skop. For smaller surface-feeding killifish fry, Artificial Plankton Rotifer (APR) is an invaluable early dry food, and high in fish protein. The fish will take it from the surface, or as it falls through the water.
– G.C.K.A. Newsletter, November 1999