Krill, a small-sized invertebrate crustacean is considered one of the best foods to feed your aquarium pet fish. Almost all fish whether marine or freshwater types are bound to love chasing after them especially carnivorous species like oscars. Feeding krill should be done in moderation in order to avoid excess uneaten food to remain in the tank and fouling the water quality. Since krill is a marine species, putting them in the freshwater aquarium means that the crustacean will not survive longer than an hour and the remaining uneaten food should be quickly scooped up.Krill should not be mistaken as either prawn or shrimp whereby both are totally different entity. Krill is a separate organism and is often identified as zooplankton, which is the animal component of the plankton group. In terms of size, they are the smallest among all as an adult krill only measures total up to 4 – 5 cm in length. Krill is often found at open seas and they are regarded as the main food source that sustain the ocean community. Currently there are known species numbering about 86 as mentioned in wikipedia sources.
Live krill can be obtained only from certain aquarium outlets while most pet stores, which you go to sell them as frozen or freeze-dried feed. In fact, most high quality fish food also contains these crustaceans as one of the blend meals combined with other protein ingredients. One word of caution however, just make sure that the supply of krill from the stores, which you’ve bought from, were housed in clean water or else, you risk introducing aquarium disease to your pets. A healthy krill stock should be slightly reddish or bright orange in color, meaning that those are freshly captured from the sea. Be prepared to fork out a huge sum of money to pay for those.
In terms of nutritional value, feeding the live feed should be the best and constant feeding can dramatically improve the bright color of aquarium fish especially those with red pigment like blood parrot cichlids. However, one thing to take note is that krill feed should not be used as regular diet but should only be taken as mixed supplement. For best results to improve the color and health of your pet, you should go for variety of diets combining bloodworms, daphnia and brine shrimp. More about aquarium live foods.
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