FEEDING IN THE AQUARIUM
In the aquarium, we feed animals with live or frozen feed. Some inhabitants, such as seahorses, pipefish and young cuttlefish, cannot survive without live food, so we provide them with crustaceans from the Mysidae and Palaemonidae families, and we feed octopuses, grey triggerfishes and rays with live decapod crustaceans. For special Adriatic fish like the striped red mullet, but also young (juvenile) specimens and tropical marine fish, we order high-quality frozen feed (small and large mysids, krill, artemia, worms, fish eggs) from Italy and the Netherlands. We catch crustaceans for our Adriatic fish ourselves: mysids and shrimp.
A large quantity of feed (anchovies, sardines, European sprats, European hakes) is ordered and then re-packaged and frozen at the temperature of -20°C to eliminate harmful bacteria and possible parasites. The fish is defrosted in a special defrosting machine which helps retain nutritional characteristics: taste, texture and colour of food.
The frequency of feeding is influenced by water temperatures; animals living at lower temperatures need a smaller quantity of food three times a week, while tropical animals feed two times a day.