Earlier today I caught a few Orange-throat Darters with a friend and kept a couple. What should I feed them?
Orange-throat Darters
Started by
Guest_Fenway_*
, Nov 10 2012 06:50 PM
7 replies to this topic
#2
Guest_EricaWieser_*
Guest_EricaWieser_*
-
- Guests
Posted 10 November 2012 - 07:28 PM
Should? Can? I fed them the following foods with the following results:
1. Swordtail fry: Accidental. They loved them. My profile picture (here's a bigger version: http://gallery.nanfa...ageViewsIndex=1 ) is of an orange-throat darter climbing up into ceratophyllum demersum (hornwort/coontail) to eat them.
2. Snails: Accidental. They loved them. The species were physa fontinalis and ram's horn snails, not sure the species but they looked like this: http://www.ratemyfis...-main.php/30430
3. Flake food: Intentional. They ignored them.
4. Pellets: Intentional. Again not much interest. They knew it was food but they didn't really successfully ingest it.
5. A cocktail shrimp, unbreaded, frozen, that has been grated on the fine side of a cheese grater: Intentional. They loved to eat the little bits of shrimp. I recommend you wear gloves during grating so you don't hurt your hand. This option is very low cost as they only eat like a shrimp or two a day. Any frozen unbreaded seafood you have grated up would be great.
6. Cubes of frozen bloodworms, thawed: Intentional. They loved them.
7. Freeze dried bloodworms and freeze dried food in general: Intentional. They got gross before the darters found them.
8. Live Californian blackworms: Intentional. They loved them. But they were expensive, so if I were going to feed darters a worm nowadays I'd go with the easy to culture low cost grindals instead of the unculturable (without them getting their own fish tank! *gasp*) and expensive blackworms.
9. Grindal worms. Didn't try them because at the time I had darters I didn't know about them. If I got darters again I bet they'd love them, and they're easy to culture. Link: http://forum.nanfa.o...ks/page__st__20
Not sure if you know this or not but they enjoy strong water flow. In the years that have passed since I kept my orange throat darters I found cheap powerheads/wavemakers on ebay for less than I paid for the one I got my darters, for more gallons per hour of flow. Local pet store powerhead prices are very different from ebay powerhead prices. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I figured I'd let you know about it. At the time I was buying the powerhead for my own darters I would have liked to have had more options.
Also when you're catching things I'm sure you already know this, but make sure to have the license you need to be legal about it and familiarize yourself with the local endangered species so you know what they look like and can avoid them.
1. Swordtail fry: Accidental. They loved them. My profile picture (here's a bigger version: http://gallery.nanfa...ageViewsIndex=1 ) is of an orange-throat darter climbing up into ceratophyllum demersum (hornwort/coontail) to eat them.
2. Snails: Accidental. They loved them. The species were physa fontinalis and ram's horn snails, not sure the species but they looked like this: http://www.ratemyfis...-main.php/30430
3. Flake food: Intentional. They ignored them.
4. Pellets: Intentional. Again not much interest. They knew it was food but they didn't really successfully ingest it.
5. A cocktail shrimp, unbreaded, frozen, that has been grated on the fine side of a cheese grater: Intentional. They loved to eat the little bits of shrimp. I recommend you wear gloves during grating so you don't hurt your hand. This option is very low cost as they only eat like a shrimp or two a day. Any frozen unbreaded seafood you have grated up would be great.
6. Cubes of frozen bloodworms, thawed: Intentional. They loved them.
7. Freeze dried bloodworms and freeze dried food in general: Intentional. They got gross before the darters found them.
8. Live Californian blackworms: Intentional. They loved them. But they were expensive, so if I were going to feed darters a worm nowadays I'd go with the easy to culture low cost grindals instead of the unculturable (without them getting their own fish tank! *gasp*) and expensive blackworms.
9. Grindal worms. Didn't try them because at the time I had darters I didn't know about them. If I got darters again I bet they'd love them, and they're easy to culture. Link: http://forum.nanfa.o...ks/page__st__20
Not sure if you know this or not but they enjoy strong water flow. In the years that have passed since I kept my orange throat darters I found cheap powerheads/wavemakers on ebay for less than I paid for the one I got my darters, for more gallons per hour of flow. Local pet store powerhead prices are very different from ebay powerhead prices. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I figured I'd let you know about it. At the time I was buying the powerhead for my own darters I would have liked to have had more options.
Also when you're catching things I'm sure you already know this, but make sure to have the license you need to be legal about it and familiarize yourself with the local endangered species so you know what they look like and can avoid them.
Edited by EricaWieser, 10 November 2012 - 07:36 PM.
#3
Guest_Fenway_*
Guest_Fenway_*
-
- Guests
Posted 10 November 2012 - 07:31 PM
Thanks for your response. I was looking up what to feed them online and it said they need mainly live food. I've got frozen or freeze dried tubifex worms, bloodowrms, gammarus, and flake foods.
#4
Guest_EricaWieser_*
Guest_EricaWieser_*
-
- Guests
Posted 10 November 2012 - 07:35 PM
Whoever said live food probably meant 'still in insect form' food, which is different than 'still wiggling'. Frozen works most of the time. Your freeze dried and flake foods probably won't.Thanks for your response. I was looking up what to feed them online and it said they need mainly live food. I've got frozen or freeze dried tubifex worms, bloodowrms, gammarus, and flake foods.
#6
Michael Wolfe
-
- Board of Directors
-
- North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage
Posted 10 November 2012 - 10:00 PM
Whoever said live food probably meant 'still in insect form' food, which is different than 'still wiggling'. Frozen works most of the time. Your freeze dried and flake foods probably won't.
Frozen food will work almost every time if you put it in the outflow of your pump, filter or powerhead... stuff dancing in the current is nearly irresistible to many darters, including orangethroats.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin
#7
Guest_Usil_*
Guest_Usil_*
-
- Guests
Posted 11 November 2012 - 01:04 AM
I put a small cube of freezedried tubifex worms impaled on the end of a long stick (softened in water for 1 minutes) and place it down to the bottom of the aquarium for my orange throated darters. They love this and attack the cube as soon as they see it. Other prepared foods are ignored. Bits of shredded shrimp and earth worms are also loved.
Usil
Usil
#8
Guest_Fenway_*
Guest_Fenway_*
-
- Guests
Posted 11 November 2012 - 08:41 AM
Later today I'm going to a fish store to buy some frozen foods for them. I guess after that I'll play around with other foods that I have and see if they'll take any.
0 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users
NANFA Youtube Channel 
