[Fishman]

I was at one of my local grocery store today and picked up a bag of frozen cleaned smelt. cheap only 3.00$ for #.

I got home and fed them to my p's and they went crazy!!

Usuallly when I feed them they leave some scraps in the bottom that I have to fish out but with the smelt they even were checking the gravel to see they got it all !!

I would strongly suggest feeding this to your p's it is so easy!!

 

[RhomZilla]

Smelt is a good treat for your Ps. Its long been unmentioned in the threads, but one of the best varieties to feed.

 

[Sir Nathan XXI]

smelt makes up the majority of my fish's diets, its great, even better is silversides from Hikari, it has all the guts in it still and is soaked in a vitamin solution =

 

[pcrose]

yeah and hollywood is having problems with the smelt he caught they have parasites on them so as long as i buy it from the market it sounds like I am fine.

 

[Bcollins111900]

yeah my piranhas diet consists of 95% of smelt and they love the stuff and never let any go to waste. great stuff and liek he metnioned super super cheap at that.

 

[Young Gotti]

Use smelt a lot for my p's. Very cheap got a bag 4.5 kg for $4.

 

[kenshi4lyfe]

do you guys just toss in broken chunks of the frozen smelt.. or do you thaw it first.. and if you do thaw it.. when it is appropriate to feed it to the p's? thanks.. and this might be a stupid question.. haha.. sorry.. i'm a newbie to all this..

 

[Judazzz]

Just let it thaw in a bowl of hot water until it's fully thawed.
It's no big deal when it's still a little frozen in the 'core' when you toss it in, though: it defrosts soon enough in the warm tank water.

 

[kenshi4lyfe]

kewl thanks man..

 

[ReDmAn]

do u guys cut it up or just put it in whole? also do u take out the bones?

 

[SnowCichlid]

I would take out the bones if you have the time if its gonna save you from some mess :

:
...speaking of smelt i remeber when i cought around 150 in less thn 3 days a long time back LOL

 

[tyourkie66]

is smelt a type of fish?

 

[Judazzz]

is smelt a type of fish?

Yup!

Smelt:

 

[Sir Nathan XXI]

those arent the type of smelt I use

Hollywoods problem is that he caught the fish live and I dont think he froze them 1st, store bought ones are gutted as well as frozen

 

[Judazzz]

Those do look pretty similar to the ones I used to buy, only difference is that they were silvery colored.
The ones I bought weren't gutted or anything: just entire fish, straight from the sea into the freezer.
And I guess feeding the guts and heads as well is no problem, only extra nutrients...

 

[Croz]

don't buy the stuff unless its frozen. i bought fresh stuff once well though it was but it had little worms in it but at least i got some free stuff for complaining.

 

[Grosse Gurke]

I dont cut them up or debone, just thaw them and toss them in. Everyonce in a while when doing a water change I will see a little spine but not often, they pretty much eat the whole thing.

 

[ReDmAn]

i went to the fish market and they sold me a silver fish and they said it was smelt. it's about 4-5" long. did i get ripped off? is this smelt? my p's will hardly touch it.

 

[luva40]

My Reds will only eat smelt if it sinks to the bottom. I bought a different brand once and for some reason it floated. They just let it float at the top and I have to remove it. I primarily feed Talapia filets to my fish.

 

[Sir Nathan XXI]

the spine and stuff on the kind I get made by Omstead is so small they usually eat it and once in a great while they will leave it somehow and its barely noticable.

the best stuff would be from Hikari, called silver sides, they leave the guts in and soak them in vitamins, I will be upgrading to these soon