Water fleas

[pondmanuk]

My local pet store owner suggested that I should not feed my loaches with water fleas.

Is he correct and why?

Many thanks

pondmanuk

[starsplitter7]

Do you mean daphnia?

I feed all my fish frozen daphnia.

I don't feed wild, because I worry that the water is contaminated. I do give my carnivorous plants pond water with daphnia.

[Noto]

Did he offer any reasons? I have heard some fishkeepers say that a diet heavy in daphnia can cause bloating and other digestive system problems; however, I don't know anyone who has experienced this firsthand and it may just be one of those things repeated so often it becomes fact.

Daphnia and other microcrustaceans are an important part of the diet of most small fishes in the wild. They are easy to culture and easy to gutload, which allows you to offer uncontaminated, highly nutritious items to your fish. I don't currently keep loaches but I use daphnia as part of the diet of many of my fish and amphibians. Of course, no single live food is a balanced diet and daphnia should be offered as part of a range of foods.