Food for wild rams

[Cumb Dunt]

I just got eight wild rams from the LFS. The guy who sold them to me said they were eating black worms and brine shrimp and "occasionally flake".

They do not eat flake or BBS.

How do I get them to take these foods?

I have access to black worms but feeding them only that could grow to be expensive.

What do they eat in the wild anyway? Insect larvae/aquatic crustaceans I would guess.

I am afraid to try adult brine shrimp because of what it does to rift lake cichlids.

Anyone have any ideas? I am a complete newbie with these fish

 

[David]

How about frozen food such as red and black mosquito larve? maybe mix it with some live food, to get them accustommed to frozen food, then mix frozen food with flake to get them used to that.

 

[Mike Wise]

A diet of only worms of any kind will shorten their lives. They eat mostly things taken from the substrate in the wild - insect larvae & detritus. I would use live & frozen foods at first. They can be weaned off of live foods simply by mixing flakes & pellets with the live/frozen food. Simply reduce the amount of live/frozen foods while increasing the amount of flakes/pellets. They will learn flakes & pellets are food.

 

[Cumb Dunt]

Cool, thanks.

What about crustaceans (brine/mysis shrimp)?

I am planning on cultivating daphnia this summer. Would that be a suitable food?

 

[Cumb Dunt]

Mike, I was wondering if you could elaborate on your apprehension toward feeding them worms. (Not that I'm planning to feed them live black worms forever, but I'm curious...)

Is there a danger of pathogens? Indigestibility?

I get the worms from the store where I work, where they are kept in a basin into which the waste water from our large RO system is drained. Any excess flows out via a tube to a drain. Anyway, my point is that the worms are getting a "constant water change" of clean, nutrient-rich water 24 hours a day.

I don't know if this method of husbandry would contribute at all to the worms' usefulness as food, but that's why I'm asking

 

[Mike Wise]

Worms are a high fat food. If fed exclusively, they produce obese fish and, like obese people, do not live as long. I personally avoid aquatic worms that are collected outside. These worm by their nature live in very to slightly septic conditions and will carry pathogens. Germans believe that they also carry heavy metal. If you need to fatten up fish for breeding white worm & Grindal worms that are produced at home are much safer.