Hi guys!
I found out today that Seamonkeys are brine shrimp or something...I was wondering, since I don't know where to buy other types of live food, would it be OK to feed my fish seamonkeys? At the moment his only diet is Hikari pellets and some flake food, although I plan to make gel this weekend.

The problem with live foods (sold as fishing bait etc.) is that you do not know what they may be carrying. There is always a possibiity of introducing parasites to your tank this way. Commercially prepared brine and other kinds of shrimp for fish are sterilised carefully before packaging and are usually quite safe. Personally I think your fish can wait for gel food - which is one of the best foods you can give them- or look out for some frozen brine shrimp

That was one of the reasons I was unsure about it. Thank you.

I agree with Trinket - best keep to other forms of "live" foods such as freeze dried, frozen or gelled Brine Shrimp. I note you're in the UK - you may have seen these, as they are readily available in the UK? I recommend them.

http://uk.tetra.de/tetra/go/A2A6EEB8D8E8E1...st=1&lang_id=20

They also do a Bloodworms and Daphnia version too, which goldies love as well. They are a convenient and safe way of including "live" foods as part of a well-balanced goldfish diet. Use a good quality staple pellet like the Hikari and supplement it with these a couple of times a week, maybe also some spirulina algae flakes or algae wafers, peas or other fresh veg and your fish will love you!

BTW Welcome to Koko's from me too!

Well, I had to go out and get a new plant for my oranda today (seeing as he's nibble it all into shreds) and picked and my mom picked me up a packet of blood worms in that same packaging. I like the conveniance of the small packets they're kept in, and my oranda seemed to love them too!

Thank you! It's nice to find so many goldfish lovers in one place.

No problem

The Bloodworms are great too (thats the one I use most, although I use the other ones occasionally too) Bloodworms are very high in protein and reputedly especially good for promoting wen growth, soo great for your Oranda

i don't like to feed my fish live foods as they may have something that my fish could get, that is why i stay away from live bloodworms, worms, shrimp and go with the frozen variety of foods, it is safer and they are usually prepared alot better.

If you raise the shrimp yourself, how much do you really have to worry about parasites and foreign bacteria?
surely they would be safer than an unknown source?

That's the problem with live food. We have no idea what it's carrying around.

I used to feed them live brine shrimp all the time. They absolutely loved it. Probably more than any other food by a huge margin. They absolutely went nutso over it. Plus I think they really enjoyed "hunting" for their food.

About a year and a half ago, my Oranda Sash got dropsy(which he recovered 100% from). I don't know if it was the brine shrimp that caused it but it was enough of a scare for me to stop buying brine all together. I have no idea if it was the brine but I figure I rather be safe than sorry.

Good call mrbumblebee, my fish love that tetra food, daphnia is their favourite

I've never fed my fish bloodworms. I'm sure my fish would go crazy for them though. I once fed them tubifex cubes and Auron took off with the whole cube and ate it all by himself!

That's funny! Those dried tubifex worm cubes are an excellent vitamin supplement too.

They kind of make a mess but it was amusing to watch! Glad to know it's good for him as well.