Feeding

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KTpoopenstein

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jul 2, 2013
Messages
224
This may be a dumb question, but how do you determine how much food is too much? Enough?
 
Feed what they can eat in 2 mins and time a day or every other day

My dilemma is this: 90% of the time, my fish go bananas when food food hits the water. They dart around gobbling up every bite they can as quickly as they can but they still miss some of the granules. But then periodically (and more recently) they just completely ignore the food. One or two might come out and eat a granule of two but most of it will go uneaten. When I've tried flakes/crisps, they almost completely ignore them and it ends up on the bottom. If they do bite at a crisp, half of it gets spit back out and dissolves into dust.

Suggestions?

Fwiw I have 1 platy, 6 serpae tetras and 1 peppered cory (who is always a good eater) and have been feeding TetraMin granules, and occasionally TetraMin tropical crisps, and API bottom feeder pellets
 
My dilemma is this: 90% of the time, my fish go bananas when food food hits the water. They dart around gobbling up every bite they can as quickly as they can but they still miss some of the granules. But then periodically (and more recently) they just completely ignore the food. One or two might come out and eat a granule of two but most of it will go uneaten. When I've tried flakes/crisps, they almost completely ignore them and it ends up on the bottom. If they do bite at a crisp, half of it gets spit back out and dissolves into dust.

Suggestions?

Fwiw I have 1 platy, 6 serpae tetras and 1 peppered cory (who is always a good eater) and have been feeding TetraMin granules, and occasionally TetraMin tropical crisps, and API bottom feeder pellets

Then id feed every other day 1 time a day. Then they will eat it all no problem. Rotate what you feed so every other day switch the food
 
The first thing is to figure out why they've stopped going "bananas" over their food. Second, switch to a good quality flake food.

David
 
Whoops. Sorry about the double post there...it said it didn't post the first time! My bad.
 
I'd vouch for Omega One brand as well. I actually like the pellets for the cories.. they also make a few flake types.

If you can, try some live or frozen foods now and then. Most fish really appreciate them and they provide nutrients they may not get from prepared foods. Microworms are very easy to culture and feed. Frozen is so easy, just pop out a cube and drop in the water. Thaws very fast and drops bits off as it goes. Bloodworm, daphnia, brine shrimp, all very tasty to fish.

But for sure, find out why they stopped eating. It's not normal for healthy fish to more or less ignore food unless they are stuffed full. I hope you siphon out any uneaten food, as it can ruin the water quality.
 
Yeah I'm thinking about mostly going off of flakes/crisps because it can get all over they tank and in every little nook and cranny. I think the sinking granules are more efficient especially if you have a bottom feeder. I can pretty much pick which area of the tank you want them to fall and anything that is left on the bottom my father fin catfish eats...and i feed 30 min to a hour before lights out since catfish or mostly nocturnal. They way you won't have food on the bottom for hours breaking down in case the catfish doesn't want to eat in the light....but yeah just try feeding once a day, once every other day or twice every other day
 
One thing you can try is turning the filter off, or reducing the flow rate if the filter has this feature, just before you feed and for about ten or fifteen minutes after you feed. Gives the fish a chance to get at it, stops it from being blown around the tank so much.

I keep filter feeders and must turn the filter off to allow them time to filter feed special foods, like cultured green water. If I don't the filter takes too much of the food out before they get to it, though in their case I also have to leave the pump running, so the food keeps coming around to where they are sitting. They don't go after it, they wait for it to come to them. But it still helps to turn off or slow down the filter if you can.
 
Yeah I'm thinking about mostly going off of flakes/crisps because it can get all over they tank and in every little nook and cranny. I think the sinking granules are more efficient especially if you have a bottom feeder. I can pretty much pick which area of the tank you want them to fall and anything that is left on the bottom my father fin catfish eats...and i feed 30 min to a hour before lights out since catfish or mostly nocturnal. They way you won't have food on the bottom for hours breaking down in case the catfish doesn't want to eat in the light....but yeah just try feeding once a day, once every other day or twice every other day

That's a big part of why I got the tetra crisps over flakes, they're somewhat less messy. But my fish don't seem to be big fans of flakes or crisps. I picked up some omega flakes this afternoon while I was out shopping, but the only pellets/granules they had were for cichlids and I wasn't sure if they'd be appropriate for my guys.

My cory is the only one who doesn't seem to have changed his feeding habits. I constantly see him rooting around for food in the gravel and when he finds a pellet he goes to town on it.

The only thing I can think of that might be affecting their appetite recently is that the tank is cycling (long story) and I've finally been getting son nitrite spikes...but I've been doing water changes to get things back into tolerable ranges so I don't know.
 
That's a big part of why I got the tetra crisps over flakes, they're somewhat less messy. But my fish don't seem to be big fans of flakes or crisps. I picked up some omega flakes this afternoon while I was out shopping, but the only pellets/granules they had were for cichlids and I wasn't sure if they'd be appropriate for my guys.

My cory is the only one who doesn't seem to have changed his feeding habits. I constantly see him rooting around for food in the gravel and when he finds a pellet he goes to town on it.

The only thing I can think of that might be affecting their appetite recently is that the tank is cycling (long story) and I've finally been getting son nitrite spikes...but I've been doing water changes to get things back into tolerable ranges so I don't know.

There was an article that proved that cichlid pellets are the best for most tropical fish.
 
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