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Edible and nutritious Eggs?!!?

Ibn

Ibn

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Exactly how nutritious are both fish and prawn eggs?

I'm currently feeding a couple of purple anthias, P. tuka, a mess of Nutramar Ova, which they go nuts for. I know how hard they are to keep and have read up on them previous to the purchase. In addition to the prawn eggs, they also will eat anything that's really small (frozen rotifers and some of the scraps from Rod's food). No interest in NLS pellets as expected. Tank is fed 8x a day by 2 Eheim autofeeders (4x NLS small pellets, 4x otohime S1/S2 mix). I'm planning on implementing a feeder to dose a mixture of eggs and frozen rotifers 8x a day, but that's another subject.

I want to augment the prawn eggs with some Icelandic capelin eggs. Why Icelandic? It's supposed to be more environmentally conscious with less bycatch and is sustainable. Actually stumbled onto a site that does sell a whole mess of eggs here:

http://www.gourmetfoodstore.com/caviar/icelandic-caviar.asp?mscssid=NNJ9SMN66RSS8J49KWQ3A4P13GSC5MNE

Now the question is, can anthias get by with just eating eggs?
 
Yes, capelin eggs are a PERFECT food for P. tuka and they will fatten them up right quick. They should readily accept them after a while, just be persistent. You can find female capelin at a 99 Ranch Market near you.
http://www.reefs.org/forums/topic133817.html

More info here on other stuff I feed our P. tuka:
http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/reefs-magazine/71849-boldly-colored-beauties-tuka-anthias.html
 
Ibn said:
Now the question is, can anthias get by with just eating eggs?
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Long term? Probably "get by", but not really thrive. Check out the article for some other possible foods, in particular the trick with clam meat. They should also take enriched live brine, cyclops, and even Hikari mysis eventually. PE mysis is generally too big for them, even for the big males.
 
Frozen rotifers are all pretty much sourced from China - a fw variety - fed with chicken poo amongst other poor nutrition sources - have very few eggs and are likely to be pretty much burst. They also are not gut packed. This leaves you with an empty shell and very few eggs. Result is a product pretty devoid of any real nutritional value to marine animals.
 
Thanks for chiming in, Matt. I actually started with that article of your's before I even considered them and hoping that you'd chime in on this thread. I'm gonna hit up Ranch after work to see if I can find some of those capelin.

Gresh, this is gonna seem like a silly question, but I take it that roti-feast would be a better alternative to frozen cubes of rotifers (using H20 Life brand)? I'm highly interested in seeing what's in the works in regards to whatever might come out from RN.
 
to be honest I have not looked @ Chris's frozen rots. I'll pick up a flat on my way home.

The amount of fully intact gut packed rotifers as well as amount of eggs in RF surpasses any other roti product by miles so id expect it to be the same with his frozen. they just do not take to freezing in water.
 
Ibn said:
Thanks for chiming in, Matt. I actually started with that article of your's before I even considered them and hoping that you'd chime in on this thread. I'm gonna hit up Ranch after work to see if I can find some of those capelin.
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I found that pack in one of the waist high open top freezers.

You can also buy masago, but it's dyed and seasoned. However, I've heard from a few people that I trust that they can be thoroughly rinsed in freshwater and fed to fish. YMMV.

When I first got these babies I grabbed one of those very fine cheese graters/zesters and basically grated every piece of frozen seafood I could get my hands on. Rinse it and strain it with a baby brine net, and then feed out. They seem to really like the smell of clam. Good luck and ask away!
 
Great info. I'm gonna try the grated seafood buffet once I get situated and moved by the end of this month. Gonna hit up Ranch 99 to see if I can find some capelin roe as the package that you found. Good to know that they're placed in the waist high freezers.

I've got some fat fish right now from all the food that goes in, just not the tukas. Their stomachs aren't pinched in, but rather filled out. I want to make sure they get fat like the others in the tank, like the fat dispar that I'm using to 'show' the tukas that tiny stuff in the water column is consumable.
 
I think I am going to 'lose' my wife's fine cheese grater and follow in your footsteps. Let me know which Ranch 99 you hit up. I am going to hit up Seafood City on McKee and White Rd. in San Jose.
 
This is the cheese grater I use at work for the tukas:
704539_m.jpg

It makes the pieces just the right size. You can find one at Bed Bath and Beyond and probably any good supermarket. Don't forget to rinse and strain the food or you'll have a lot of cloudy gross stuff get in the tank.

Keeping the tukas with other peaceful anthias to teach them to eat is a great idea. When ours were kept with P. dispar and P. ignitus they got along just fine. The more peaceful open water fish you have swimming around the better--it makes them feel more comfortable when they have numbers.
 
Found this at Lion Market on Saratoga.

capelin.jpg


$2 for the packet. Sitting in the freezer at work now and can't wait to see how the tukas respond.

I'll pick up the grater for the other seafood in the next couple of weeks. Thanks for the pics. I couldn't envision using the square cheese grater at home for seafood. One of those spice graters (e.g. nutmeg) would work great.
 
Ibn said:
Tank is fed 8x a day by 2 Eheim autofeeders (4x NLS small pellets, 4x otohime S1/S2 mix).
Click to expand...

Eric, how do your fish respond to otohime? My royal gama LOVES it and as does my clown (but it is a bit too big for him, so he eats mainly AP). My foxface sometimes loves it, but normally ignores it...I don't understand him. My other fish (tailspot blenny, Rainford goby and shark nose gobys) totally ignore it.
 
Depends on the fish.

Dispar anthias: like chum in the water, they hit it (even the first time I fed it)
Red spot cardinals: s2 is too big, s1 they eat if it gets past the dispars; NLS works better in most cases due to their smaller size
Perculas: loves the oto, but I don't think they really care; they eat just about everything (s1 and s2)
Green banded gobies: doesn't stay on the bottom long enough for them to get to it (2 vortechs keeps the pellets swirled in the tank); NLS sinks better
Purple anthias (P. tuka): too big for them; only consuming minute particles at the moment

Nutramar ova on the other hand, just about everything eats it, other than a 3-4 red spot cards, which is still sticking to cyclopeeze.
 
Ibn said:
Red spot cardinals: s2 is too big, s1 they eat if it gets past the dispars; NLS works better in most cases due to their smaller size
Click to expand...
:O

I've been eye'ing these for such a long time. You got them eating prepared foods?!

Do you have a log of your experience for me to read up on?

Aquatic Collections had about 12, 1.5 weeks ago but I couldn't pick them up.
 
Not really. I didn't log them, but the source is the same, Aquatic Collection.

Here's what I put into the tank to get them going: Rod's food, H20 frozen rotifers, frozen cyclopeeze, Ocean Nutrition gel food, NLS small pellets, RN artipods, otohime s1/s2 size, frozen baby brine shrimp, Nutramar prawn eggs. They're currently getting fat off the Nutramar, but also eat mostly NLS small pellets.
 
It does if it's seasoned. In this case, it's okay. The only ingredients listed are salt and capelin. The seasoning is the salt, which is I'm sure is only on the outside.

Here's the roe extracted from the 5 capelin in a small sauce dixie cup. Just removed from the fish.
capelin%20roe.jpg


After rinsing.
capelin%20roe2.jpg


Tukas aren't recognizing them or something. All the other fish are going nuts. The tukas are just letting it drift by them.

Should I put anything to make it more attractive? :/
 
Just keep trying. It might take a few days or even weeks.

FYI the eggs will glue themselves together if you let them sit dry or in freshwater. Add a little bit of seawater to the container to keep them separated, cover it and keep in the fridge. They will keep for many days, perhaps a week, without spoiling.

I rinse mine through window screen first to break apart the clumps. You may find this easier than pulling them apart by hand. Hope this helps.
 
Yes that does help. I've got them soaking in sw right now, covered and in the fridge. Most of the clumps are broken apart, but I need to go back in and break them into individual eggs. I'll see if I have some screen around here for that.

The capelin eggs are noticeable larger than the prawn eggs that the tukas are eating, so I'm gonna introduce both food at the same time to see if that helps.
 
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