My tetras are crazy

[sciencegirl]

I've been worried about my oto catfish getting enough algae, so I put in a blanched snowpea today. One of them immediately went for it, so I'm confident that he'll teach his other oto buddies to eat it. The ?problem? is that my neons and glo-lite tetras are eating it too. They also ate algae wafers so I had to remove the wafer because the tetras are eating machines, and I don't want them to overeat. I just fed the tetras today, and their bellies are full, but they are still eating the snowpea. It doesn't look like they're bossing the otos around, but it's hard to tell.

Aren't tetras carnivores?
Is it ok for them to eat the plant stuff?
Are they going to bully the otos? Should I put 2 feeding stations (snow peas) into the tank to keep the tetras happy?
TIA

 

[BrianNY]

Try feeding the otos small amounts of both wafers and veggies right after you turn the lights in the tank out. Don't worry about the tetras eating veggies. My discus go crazy for frozen spinach.....go figure.

 

[BASSNMAN]

Most fish, domestic and wild are opportunistic feeders. I have a fairly wide selection of fish and all will eat blood worms, the turn around and scarf up zuchinni. A varied diet is good for them.

 

[QTOFFER]

Veggies are good for all fish - they help 'clean out their pipes', so to speak.
I throw some skinned , partially cooked peas into all my tanks at least once a week. I also try to mix in some extra spirulina flakes with the cichlid flakes.

Like BrianNY suggested, try feeding algae wafers at night - bottomdwellers feed by touch and smell, while tetras need to see their food to find it.

 

[sciencegirl]

Great! Thanks for the advice everyone! I feel better now - I'm also happy to hear that variety is good (I know that's intuitive, I just didn't realize that it was true for fish). I alternate between bloodworms once a week and flakes every other feeding. Since I've got the experts here...I know this is a dumb question, but I can't find any consistent info:
How often should I feed my fish? I've been feeding them once every 2 days.
Thanks!

 

[czcz]

FWIW (far from an expert), I've been feeding my ottos every other day. Usually the blanched veggies I told you about twice a week; algae wafer once a week. I feed the other fish on the other days with bloodworms, tubifex, flakes, etc. *Decided this from picking and choosing advice from the archives, and it seems there's lots of successfull methods. For the past week, nitrates in my smaller-than-yours tank max at 10ppm.

 

[sciencegirl]

Just an update
I've lost !3! tetras in the past 3 days. I'll post more on the sick aquarium forum. However, the otos ate all of the snowpea that I put in, and about 2 days ago I gave them an algae wafer. They really went for it, but I got home today and all of my tetras bellies are FAT. Those silly monkeys ate ALL of the rest of the wafer. I assume this is ok based on previous posts - if not, let me know. Thanks!