Guides

Live Food

Baby Fish (Fry) First Foods: What to Feed Newborns

Fry mouths are tiny and metabolism is sky-high. Match food size to mouth size and feed often — here’s the progression that raises survivors.

Live foods trigger hunting behaviour and deliver excellent nutrition. Here’s what to feed, how to culture basics, and how to avoid parasites.

Fry die from starvation and dirty water more than predation — small frequent care beats elaborate gadgets.

Copepods are living reef plankton — mandarins, wrasses, and corals all benefit when populations persist in live rock and refugiums.

Both worms drive fish into a feeding frenzy — but sourcing, hygiene, and disease history differ sharply between cultured blackworms and wild tubi…

Vinegar eels survive days in freshwater without drowning fry tanks in acid — perfect for species too small for microworms at hatch.

Microworms wriggle indefinitely in water, triggering feeding responses in fry — one of the easiest live foods to maintain on a kitchen counter.

Infusoria are the invisible first meal for the tiniest fry — easy to culture at home with lettuce, hay, or commercial starters.