New and question about feeding Apistogramma

[aquaeric13]

Hello,

my name is Eric and I´m new here.
I have a question about feeding Apistogramma:
I feed my Apistos with living black and white mosqito larvae,daphnia and cyclops.
Sometimes also frozen artemia.
Some breeders feed their Apistos with Enchytraeus and other worms.
I think the worms are very fat because in my view they live longer if you feed them sparing or is it necessary to feed them with fat food (especially worms) before spawning?

 

[Mike Wise]

Welcome to the forum Eric. I for one agree. Live foods, particularly aquatic insect larvae and crustaceans, are as close as we can get to apisto diets in the wild. Worms are fine is used sparingly, particularly for inducing spawning. Not all of us are willing or able to feed this way, so variety is a good practice. I also agree that most hobbyist over-feed their fish, causing obesity and obesity-related problems that shorten the life of apistos.

 

[aquaeric13]

So ok Mike,you also said live foods is very good for Apistos.
Now I have another question: I often collect the insect larvae and daphnia in a small lake near my house.
Before I feed the larvae I clean them under running water to flush out germs and parasite.
Is that necessary and useful to keep down the germ-proof or is that pointless?
I didn´t have any problems with diseases trough the live foods so far but anyway I want to ask that.

 

[Mike Wise]

Collecting live foods from any location that could have live fish can introduce pathogens. Any true cleaning would probably kill the live food, too. It is better if one cultures such live foods instead.