Feeding Time

[cinnastix911]

Currently, My fish are fed on flake food (AQUADINE) Which is acutallly a comapny that has flake foods in varieteies. My batch is special blend for the majority of my fish, but all in all is just flake food. I have 1 gourami, 1 paroon shark, lots o' guppies, two kuhli loaches, 1 priscilla, and 1 something that has yellow tipped in its name i think(it has yellow on it's fin, is bigger then my full grown priscilla and has red in it's eyes; idea?) those two school together.

I would like to get some variety in their diets but I am not sure what to give them. I am thinking about peas maybe or lettuce, but am not sure if they will eat it or it is good for them. If anyone has any recommendations that would be greatly appreciated. And if you do recommend something please also suggest method and how often to feed them.

 

[talloulou]

definitely give them some frozen stuff, brineshrimp or blood worms. My fish also like zuchinni & peas are good. Sometimes I throw chopped up earthworms or pinhead crickets in the tank and the fish love these as well. I have also thrown salad shrimp in there before and they like that. You can try the freeze dried stuff as well, though my fish prefer the frozen stuff. Freeze dried krill is well liked.

 

[greenmaji]

freeze dried foods, frozen foods and live foods are options..

 

[talloulou]

ohh I forgot to add algae wafers and shrimp pellets are good also.

Oh and how to feed....

Peas should be deshelled

I slice the zuchinni and take the seeds out. Then place it in the tank with a veggie holder and fish and snails pick at it. I take it out after a few hours.

 

[Fluff]

I agree that variety is good. There are lots of frozen foods to choose from, there is also things like live blackworms that they would love. Also, try adding some squash on a veggie clip for them to graze on.

Also, as an FYI, in case you didn't know, that paroon shark can get up to 8' in length.

 

[cinnastix911]

I know, now. the lfs (the one i hardly ever goto) Said he would get a but larger, jsut enough to eat my guppies. After buying him, I decided to look him up to see how much bigger, when I saw.... If he survives the severe case of ich that has rampaged my tank (through him or the gourami i got at the place) i am going to try and sell him back after a while. The lfs that I trust might take him, but they typically stick with good community tank fish instead of... oh lets say paroon sharks.

 

[Fluff]

Thats a shame that lfs sell them at all, much less selling something they either don't know how large it gets or don't care. Good luck.

 

[Guest]

Thats a shame that lfs sell them at all, much less selling something they either don't know how large it gets or don't care. Good luck.

Thats crazy, and I thought them selling Pacus was bad. I would guess that about .00001% of fish keepers have a tank big enough to keep one of those full grown.

 

[cinnastix911]

At that same LFS, they are mostly saltwater but have a backroom for fw, they have a 3 foot allifgator in a 5 foot tank. My paroon was a roomie to a pacu. Their largest tank was a 250+ salt water tank... The pacu and my paroon were in an 45 gallon tank I think...

 

[cinnastix911]

Would feeding them lettuce (we grow several types at my house) or fresh spinach work too? Or should I stick with squash and that type of thing?

 

[rubysoho]

I'd say experiment to see what your fish like. Sometimes they don't like a certain veggie so you can try others. Brocoli (don't know if that is spelled right) is good too. Just heat it in the microwave for 20 seconds and let it cool before you put it in there.

 

[cinnastix911]

I jsut want to make sure I am not putting something highly unhealthy or the like in... Plus I want to wait for their ich treatment to be done so that they don't.... I am jus scared to change their feeding schedule right now, or do you(all) think it would be safe and okay to give them sometihng like that?

 

[rubysoho]

I think the veggies would be safe. I can't think of any regular veggies that you or I would eat which would be toxic to fish (if I'm wrong, someone please correct me). Also, the veggies would be giving the fish different nutrients which I imagine would only mae them stronger and healthier and would help them fight off any diseases. Kinda like when you force yourself to eat more while you are sick so your body has energy to fight off whatever it is. Just make sure you don't leave the veggies in for long periods of time (I've heard over 8 hours) because then it will taint the water and that can't help your already sick fish. Good luck and I hope they get better soon!!

 

[greenmaji]

Are you using meds for ich? If your using the heat treatment then there realy isnt anything to worry about with new foods.. I am assuming that you might be worried that meds might soak into the food?

 

[rubysoho]

yeh, but that'd happen with any food put into the tank I would think. Plus, they are swimming in the meds so wouldn't the body will soak it up regaurdless if it is injested or not?

 

[cJw]

Somewhat related:

How often do you feed your fish?


I noticed last night after they got their pinch of flakes that they were looking around for leftovers for almost a half hour - more intently than the normal scavenging. . . should I give 'em 2 small pinches, maybe?

 

[cinnastix911]

I have quite a few guppies (they are breeding endlessly and i have nothing to do with them except sell them to a store, which i can't right now because they have ich, and I can only get into town about every other week) and So I have to feed enough for 16 adult, so i feed everday, but it's hard because the paroon comes out and eats nearly everything... he is pig... except catfish style.

So I feed everyday about two non-ground pinches.

I am not using meds but was just worried about a sudden change in their feeding that might effect them negativley right now.

 

[cinnastix911]

They are using the lettuce as a cave in which to hide. A horde of guppies is surrounding it but just... playing kind of. Playing inspector. At least they have a toy... Perhaps they will look at it as food soon...

 

[Jchillin]

leafy ie: Romaine, kale, spinach are great. Stay away from iceberg...they won't like it at all.

 

[cinnastix911]

We have no iceberg. It tastes bad to me. We have enough 'fancy lettuce' and romaine to last my house a lifetime at the moment. And everytime we cut some down it jsut grows again. Similar to "The Blob"