Make Your Tank Thrive with Nutramar Live Foods

If you're anything like us, you've been trusting and using the Nutramar dry foods for a while now. The sinking pellet formula (Complete) offer balanced nutrition and easy feeding for nearly any fish you can think of. Then there are two formulas that are available in shots (Complete & Color Boost) that can be stuck to the rocks or the glass for fish that prefer to graze their dinner. This being said, there are a few things we can keep in aquariums that need live foods, or at least need live foods initially, and Nutramar has your back there too. Not only can you buy Artemia (Brine) and Artemia Nauplii (baby Brine), but Copepods and a full line of live algae products are also available!

Artemia are great foods for small fish, or very picky fish both in saltwater and freshwater. They are not nutrient rich enough for many saltwater fish and should be part of a diet that includes other items. They are great to use in conjunction with some thawed foods from Gamma, enticing your shyest fish to start eating. The live foods will act like a trigger for the fish to start feeding, and some of the thawed foods will get eaten as the frenzy happens. Over time, you won't need the live food, but it is always fun to feed it anyway. Artemia nauplii are usually used to feed juvenile fish or your tiniest tank inhabitants, especially on the freshwater side of the hobby.

The Copepods (Nutramar Tigrio) can be fed to just about anything, they are rich in protein, HUFA or “highly unsaturated fatty acids” and other nutrients making them perfect food for any fish that is picky and yet has high nutritional needs. They are ideal for rearing many types of fries as well. They can be used to seed tanks and refugiums, where they will help consume detritus, but the copepods will absolutely disappear in any display that has fish in it, they are just too tasty!

There is a range of Nutramar Live Algae products, and they are all suitable for multiple things. Each of these products contains one or more of a few different algae strains. All of these can be added directly into the aquarium or refugium to seed the entire system, which will help control dissolved nutrients, and supply food for the littlest critters in the tank like the Tigro Copepods. These blends and monocultures all consist of the following alga.

Chaetoceros is a vitally important to micro-crustaceans such as your copepods and amphipods. It's also excellent for general aquarium health by helping to create an oxygen rich ecosystem. In your aquarium, this translates to giving your pod population a boost while simultaneously controlling dissolved nutrient levels.

Rhodomonas is a red alga that contains high concentrations of the light harvesting protein, phycoerythrin, which gives it its unique red coloration. Rhodomonas is rich in the omega-3 fatty acid, EPA, as well as nutritious proteins, vitamins, and other phytonutrients.

Isochysis has a wide use and is ideal for filter-feeding bivalves like clams and scallops, in particular. It’s also consumed by micro-fauna and zooplankton which will boost the population and enhance their nutritional content.

Tetraselmis is a genus of phytoplankton with a bright green coloration that is high in lipids making it an ideal nutrition source for all your aquarium's filter feeders.

For each of these micro algae products, we recommend a starting dosage between15 and 30 milliliters for every 50 gallons of system volume once per day. Very densely stocked systems could be dosed as high as 50ml day, or could be dosed at lower doses, multiple times per day. When dosing the entire system, simply add the measured amount to your tank and turn off the protein skimmers for 30 minutes to an hour after feeding, as the influx of fats and nutrients will make the skimmer too effective, and it may produce too much (and too watery) skimmate. These blends and monocultures can also be directly (though gently) fed via a baster to filter feeding organisms like clams, corals and feather dusters, which should always be done with the flow of the system turned way down, or even off.

Among all the Nutramar Live Algae products, the Phyto CRIT is probably the most diverse and as such is the most appropriate for feeding the widest range of filter feeders in your tank as well as kick starting the microfauna of your system. CRIT is an acronym that stands for each of the algae strains contained within. Each pouch contains Chaetoceros, Rhodmonas, Isochysis, and Tetraselmis. It is ideal for seeding your aquarium, feeding your Tigrio Copepods and natural amphipods, but it's also perfect food for clams, sponges, feather dusters and corals.

Phyto TC is another blend of algae, but this one contains only the Tetraselmis and Chaetoceros microalgae. These two together provide the ideal proteins, fatty acids, and other phytonutrients to boost populations of our Nutramar Tigrio copepods and can also be fed to your filter feeding inhabitants such as sponges, and many SPS corals.

Phyto IC is the last blended product and by now you've probably figured out what two strains are going to be in this, as it's made up of Isochysis and Chaetoceros. This was formulated to combine the omega-3 fatty acid DHA of Isochysis with the omega-3 fatty acid EPA of Chaetoceros for a balanced diet, this is an ideal blend for polyps, corals and other filter feeding organisms.

Nutramar also offers some unblended cultures, the first of which is ISO and is all Isochysis. Isochysis is a golden alga that has been used for decades in aquaculture because of its excellent nutritional value, and high concentration of omega-3 fatty acid. It is commonly used to feed rotifers and artemia nauplii to increase their nutritional value before feeding them, but also makes excellent food for bivalves like Tridacna, Squamosa and Flame Scallops.

Another one of Nutramar's unblended cultures is the Rhodo, made up of all Rhodomonas, which is a red alga that contains high concentrations of a light harvesting protein called phycoerythrin. Seeding tanks with it can help prevent and control undesirable algae break outs, and it is also rich in an omega-3 called EPA. This will be consumed in your system naturally by plankton but is also ideal for direct feeding to sponges and small polyp stony corals.

The last of the unblended products in Nanno, which we use in house for culturing nutrient rich rotifers for our larval fish program. It can also be used a stable food source for copepods and amphipods. It enriches the general home reef aquarium by providing a solid nutritional base for filter feeders that require a small micron size, excellent for non-photosynthetic coral too. If you've got a reef system, it should be getting some Nanno.

As you can see, there is a Nutramar live food for pretty much every little fish, filter feeder and common aquarium micro fauna out there. All of these blends will make your system healthier and aid in boosting populations and nutritional value of pods. If you're raising your own food, these blends are going to be a critical element of success for you and your program! Head to your LFS and ask them about all of the live foods available from Nutramar today!