Live Food For Fish

Incorporating live fish food into your fish’s diet is a great way to keep your “fishies” happy and healthy, especially if you plan on breeding with them. You can start your endless supply of natural live fish food at home today and never worry about what to feed your fish when you run out of fishy food flakes.

Below, I will discuss the at-home options available to you, and how you can get started with the possibilities of live fish food.

Worms

We fishkeepers are usually gardeners, too; a great way to have food for your fish and your plants is by having a worm farm or worm bin. Fish-favorite worms to keep would be the following:

Worms eat kitchen scraps and other organic materials at home. Do not add citrus, onions, or garlic scraps to your worm bin, as this will make it stinky. Also, ensure you use pesticide-free peels and rinse your worms before feeding them to your fish, especially if any soil is involved.

I usually cut my worms a little smaller for my smaller fish with scissors and freeze them for convenient storage and feeding.

Microworms, Banana worms, and Vinegar Eels live off bread, yeast, and sugar and are pretty easy to keep with no additional setups required, which is so convenient and effortless. I use this combination for my Betta fry as these worms are so small.

Mosquito Larvae

If you have a water tank or pond outside, you are bound to have mosquito larvae swimming around without effort. Mosquito larvae are packed with protein and an excellent food source for freshwater fish, encouraging breeding.

Aquarium Snails

Some fish love eating aquarium snails, which is extremely helpful, especially when dealing with a snail problem. Bladder and Ramshorn snails are usually very likely to be overpopulated and can be easily purchased from your local pet store.

These snails will start multiplying soon, so it might be a good idea to set up a separate tank for them and add snails to your fish tank when needed to avoid your fish overeating.

Daphnia

Daphnia is an excellent food source for predatory fish and can be fed to fish almost daily. Unfortunately, daphnia isn’t a fantastic option for herbivore fish as they could experience bloat, which could be fatal. Daphina can also be used to encourage breeding in fish.

If you want to grow or cultivate daphnia, you will need to set up an additional tank, which requires a bit more work and maintenance.

Brine Shrimp

Brine shrimp are a great source of food that can be hatched, grown, and even frozen for later serving. They are also great when having a sick fish in a hospital tank that doesn’t want to eat.

Hatching brine shrimp from eggs requires patience, salt water, and aeration. If you want to grow your baby brine shrimp into adults, they do well by feeding them spirulina powder and giving them a natural environment to breed.