B. Macrostoma - Food

Quick Links:

• Frequency and Quantity
• Live Food
• Raw (Dead) Food
• Dry Food

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Unfortunately, like any other animal, your little critter(s) is going to have to eat sooner or later. And if you haven’t already noticed by now, it’s pretty much a bottomless pit and always hungry! And not unlike the human diet, there is a choice good food and bad food, big and small quantities, 3 large meals or 6 small meals.. Choices Choices Choices! Hopefully this page will help us make good meal choices for our Macs.

Frequency and Quantity

In my experience breeding Angelfish, Discus and B. Splendens, one thing has been very evident. Juvies that are being fed more frequently and FREQUENT WATER CHANGES , grow at a faster rate, grow to a larger adult size, are more robust, and are generally healthier. I have no reason not to believe that this be true for Macs also. Most Mac juvies grow quickly into their adult size within 10 – 12 months. Imagine compressing your puberty years into 10-12 months. Within that time span, they can almost increase their body size by 9 or 10 times, and are going to need all the nutrition they can get.

Generally, up to 2 months after release, I feed my fry up to 4-6 times a day. At this age the fry are still somewhat transparent and you can clearly see the bulging stomach that indicates that they are full. Within 2 – 3 hours of feeding, you will notice that the round bulges have somewhat disappeared and by the 4th hour, its all gone. That is why starting with BBS, I feed them at 4-hour intervals enough food to see their bellies bulge with orange BBS. The quantity of food fed at each session varies with the age, size and number of fish, but in general, feed enough so that all the food is consumed within 3-4 min. There have been reports of small fry exploding from being overfed. I have not personally encountered such a thing. But that doesn't mean it never ever happens. If anything, it is good practice to not feed too much because it's a waste of good BBS and leaves us more stuff to vaccumn up later.

From about 2 months, I start reducing the number of feedings till about 6-7 months; I’m feeding them 3 times a day. After they are pretty much adult sized, feeding is reduced to 2 times a day (morning and evening).

Even as adults, their stomach is easily distended when full. This takes a bit of experience, but as adults, when their stomach just starts to bulge, it’s time to stop feeding.

There is however an important consideration when choosing to feed frequently. The more you feed, the more poo there is going to be, hence more frequent water changes up to 3-5 times a week with daily siphoning of the fry tanks. In general, the moment my Nitrates exceed 10ppm, it’s time for a water change. See Waterworks for more info.

Overly Excessive? True…!

Sure. There are others out there who get by with monthly water changes, monthly siphoning of the fry tank and 1 daily feeding. But if I were going wrong, I would rather err on the side on being overly excessive rather than being negligent. Especially with such a rare and expensive fish like Macrostomas. Besides... I have no life anyway... waterchanges are the highlight of my day.

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Live Food

Live food, when fed correctly, is an excellent source of food for Macs. They can be used very effectively when the fish decide to go off their feed. This is especially so for males that has just released a brood of fry. The movement of the food in the water triggers the predatory response in the Mac. This makes live foods an excellent starter food for your newly acquired Mac and you don’t yet know what food it is accustomed to.  I have yet to encounter a healthy Mac that wouldn’t immediately gobble up a wriggling blackworm on sight.

But… live foods can be a double-edged sword. While they may be readily accepted by even the most finiky fish, the main risk is that a host of different parasites and diseases could potentially hitch a ride on board your live food and infect your Mac.

While I acknowledge the possibility of a diseased morsel of live food killing your fish, I have found that 80% of the time, it is absolutely preventable or is directly a result of either the oversight or the inexperience of the aquarist. 

Yes… I said it! It is possible that the reason that your fish died because of “live food poisoning” could be your fault, and you may not even realize it.  Many aquarists today that believe that a certain type of live food is riskier than others and will kill your fish probably heard it from a friend or a forum. It is entirely possible that even that friend or that forum poster heard it from another friend and has never actually had a death from live foods.  IMO, there is little basis in saying that blackworms are riskier than red wigglers or that brine shrimp are less risky than daphnia.

ALL live foods carry the risk of infection, if it is alive, there is a possibility that it may be sick. The onus is on WE, the buyers to minimize the chance of infestation. Some people buy live food from unreliable sources or buy live food that is clearly sickly without recognizing the telltale symptoms. These telltale symptoms vary between the different live foods. My advice is BEFORE bringing that bag of worms home to your hungry fish, do as much research on that food AND food source so that you can immediately spot sickly food.

Live food that I have seen people feed their Macs include: Red wigglers, baby earthworms, scuds, wingless fruit flies, white worms, walter worms, grindal worms, brine shrimp, tubifex worms, Cyclops, baby live breeder fish, daphnia and finally my personal favorite……blackworms.

For fry, the best live food is undoubtedly Baby Brine shrimp, followed by microworms. Some breeders claim success with vinegar eels, but I have found that the eels are way too small, even for newly released fry to get a good stomach full. Go to my Live Food Culture For Fry page for more info.

For more info on culturing your own live foods, Go HERE

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Raw (Dead) Food

Another very good food for Macs when done correctly. A good variety of raw foods that have been specially formulated for aquarium fish are now available in your Local Fish Stores. Flash frozen foods such as Brine Shrimp, blood worms, Cyclops, beef heart are carried by most good aquarium stores. Although there is almost no food preparation and are easy to use, they are a little bit pricey. Also, generally you have no idea how long the store has had it in their freezer nor if it has ever been thawed out before. Bloodworms especially do not take too well to thawing and refreezing. The following pointers can help.

Look at the packaging date. Most flat packs will have a date stamped somewhere on the aluminum backing or laser engraved onto the plastic. I generally do not feed anything to my fish that is more than 2 (sometimes 3) months old, although this is sometimes not possible. Generally, select the foods that have been packaged the latest.

See if you can spot if there are any signs of previous thawing. This is difficult for the sealed “cubed” packs, but is possible with the “flat” zip-top packs. Avoid deformed / folded / twisted packs. This indicates that the pack was probably thawed, deformed and re-frozen again. Also look for frozen liquid, which originally came from inside the pack, which has been frozen on the exterior of the pack (usually near the corners). Obviously leaking fluid means that the pack was probably thawed while it leaked.

If you have some interest and a little time, you might want to prepare your own food. These require a bit of prep work, but they are generally inexpensive and you can control the amount of nutrition that you put in. Homemade foods may also be medicated before freezing in order to deliver oral medications.

Personally, I have only fed my Macs finely chopped raw beef hearts and finely chopped raw shrimp, and they love it! (If you have a recipe or feed other types of raw foods, send me an e-mail and it will be added to this list)

Unfortunately, raw foods do have their not so good points. For one, they tend to foul the water quicker than live or dry foods. Always make sure that you feed only just enough for the fish to consume all of it. Trust me… a piece of raw beef or shrimp floating around in the tank for 2 days or so is not the way to go!

Secondly, like live foods, raw foods that have gone bad may impart diseases to your fish. If you are making your own raw frozen foods, do not use meat that you wouldn’t eat yourself. I once knew a fellow discus hobbyist who feeds his fish with meat that has been sitting in his freezer for quite a while and is ready to be thrown out. By that time, the darn piece of meat was so freezer-burned that the discus would not eat it either! I imagine that the piece of meat got lost among his plants in his planted tank and probably decomposed.

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Dry Food

IMO, this is the best way to go. Nothing beats dry foods when it comes to ease of use, price, variation and balanced nutrition. Also, most foods are processed in a manner, which reduces bacteria and other harmful microorganisms which may kill your fish. Above all, it is very convenient and stores well. If you are away for a few days, nothing gives you peace of mind for your aquarium more than your trusty auto feeder filled with dried food. (Now try putting a block of raw beefheart in your feeder for a week).

All good quality dried foods should come with a nutrition chart, so you know exactly what your fish are getting. Besides that, the fact that they are dry, means that they can keep for longer periods of time and are easily dispensed. I personally feed my Macs Tetra’s “Colorbits” as a stable and supplemented by occasional, live / raw foods.

For Macs (as with all fish), the trick is to wean them off live foods and onto dry foods. This is especially challenging with wild caught fish. But once done, it will make your life much easier. For more info on this, check out my article on weaning wild fish off live food and onto dry food.

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