I want to grow a live food for my percula clowns when I decide the time is right to buy them. What would be a healthy live food I could raise?

i guess my first question is why?
clown fish do extremely well on dried and frozen foods
there is no nutritional reason you will need live foods.

that said, if you want to, your best bet is to give them baby brine shrimp, its easy and nutritious

I agree with Rob... stick with commercial foods. For a couple reasons...

If you start going with more live foods, they may become food snobs and will shun the frozen or dried foods.. remember, I said MAY. It depends on how much live food you feed and how often. I feed live foods just once every couple weeks to my seahorses. Any more and they will forever want live food. And then you are stuck....buying, culturing or whatnot.

Second, most live foods, like brine shrimp, are absolutely useless in nutritional value. Brine shrimp are great when first hatched (no older than like 18 hours..and even that is pushing it), and still posessing the yolk sac. Thereafter, you HAVE to gut pack them to get any nutrition in to a fish. I do the same with the grass shrimp I use. Also, just as with ANY diet, variety is needed. One can not possibly get all that is needed from a single food source.

Now, with all that said, I know that if you are trying to breed some fish, they are triggered by live food (just as some are triggered by salinity swings etc.) and it would be okay to use this process in your program. HOWEVER, Rob will attest to the fact that there are specific nutritional needs to ensure viability of eggs, or in the case of live bearers, the fry, that can typically ONLY be met by using enriched, formulated, commercial foods.

Okay...I'm rambling.. over and out.

D

lol.. yes, lots of info, and all accurate..
the basic point is if you want to do live foods start with bbs.
clown fish usually take to dry foods well, adn aren't as snobby as ponies.
i have my fry on dried foods within 2-3 weeks of hatching

the main point is other than bbs, live foods are a lot of work and a lot of money, and the return on that investment is null

at this point i will too shut up until we get more feedback from duke1231 :D

culture oysters instead, at least that way your money will be better spent cause you & your fish can eat them!:huh:

LOL! Ok thanks guys. I thought live foods was better for them. That is good less work for me lol.