Food Choices

[DavidK]

I'm not done cycling yet so I haven't even selected the fish that will populate my tank but I've read about different types of food (flakes, pellets, brine, etc.). Can someone give me a quick tutorial about the pros and cons of each type of food and when you should use them?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

It all depends on the fish that you stock.

 

[KhanJee]

Except starting a new thread, I put my question here. Its also related to food.

I have 4 Cories and 4 ottos. 2 Cories are dead. Reason I know very well. In the beginning, in my 26g planted tank there was a lot for them to eat because of algae but now after 1.5 months they don't have anything left to eat. I have only flakes at the moment and feed my fish twice a day. Neon tetras and guppies eat them all less than a minute. So there is no chance for cories and ottos to eat something. 2 cories which are dead now were becoming very weak day by day.

I need advice what kind of food is good for cories & ottos Flakes are failed because Neon tetras & guppies don't let them reach the bottom.

 

[7Enigma]

DavidK,

I'll give my personal experience. I have 6 tiger barbs, 6 cherry barbs, 2 Oto's, and 2 cory's in a 20gallon tank. I have a big bag of staple tropical fish flake food that I mash up into very small pieces with my finger. Since my tiger's are very aggresive feeders, they will eat almost everything that floats before the less aggressive fish get to it. I use a small plastic cup and dump half of the crushed flake food into it, then add some tank water. I'll then swish the cup around so that the flake food is wetted, and then when I add the dry flake food to the top (for the tigers), I quickly pour the wetted flake food into the tank away from the filter. What this does is gives multiple levels of flake food so everyone gets some to eat. This is the staple food I feed 2-3 times a day.

I also recently bought 3 more types of food and use them normally once a day or once every other day. The algae wafers I talk about later. I bought these sinking shrimp pellets, that look like rabbit food. The fish really don't like these and I'm forced to watch them rot at the bottom, or vac them out. I would probably not recommend getting these..

I bought a container of freeze dried bloodworms. These are without a doubt the most desirable food I feed the fish. They should not be used exclusively as the only food, but they are very high in protein and all the fish love them (except the tigers get most of them). I do the same technique with the bloodworms as I do with the flake food to try to get some to sink for the other fish.


KhanJee,

For cory's (I have 2), they absolutely LOVE algae wafers. These are sinking green wafers that will give them a great balanced diet. Since they are most likely malnourished, I would feed the algae wafer at the SAME TIME that you feed the flakes. This will hopefully keep the other fish at bay (they will also snack on the wafers) long enough for the cory's to get a bite or two. These also degrade slowly and I find that after a couple of hours, small pieces can be found on the bottom that the fish don't eat, but that the cory's when rummaging for food, will eat.

Another thing you can do is put fresh slices of cucumber or a small stalk of partially boiled broccoli. I use a mag float (or if you have a vegiclip) and place the food near the bottom and both the fish and the bottom feeders will eat from it.

Last thing I think is very important. Like food for us, quality matters. I personally recommend Hakari based products, as they seem to be of very high quality, and if you compare their stats (all bags will have minimum %'s for protein, fat, etc) they seem to be superior. The shrimp pellets I got were by TopFin, and I wonder if they are less desirable to the fish because of some poor ingredient added, moreso than the actual product.

Bottom line, just like us, your fish want and NEED a varied diet. A good mixed suppliment of high protein, low fat, with vegetable matter will keep them all thriving and showing their best colors.

HTH

justin

 

[rich311k]

Try putting in a slice of cucumber for the ottos. Just weigh it down with a rock or something. I have food granules the sink and float at the sametime. They work well to feed the whole tank at once. My tetras love them.

 

[KhanJee]

Thankx Justin

Its time to go LFS, obviously to buy Hikari Algae Wafers

 

[KhanJee]

Try putting in a slice of cucumber for the ottos. Just weigh it down with a rock or something. I have food granules the sink and float at the sametime. They work well to feed the whole tank at once. My tetras love them.

I try cucumber, lets see how my fish react.

 

[7Enigma]

1 of my Oto's ignores the cucumber, within 5minutes of putting it in the tank (and after the other fish come over to inspect), the other one can be found stuck to the cucumber slice near the middle chowing down...

 

[KhanJee]

Yesterday on my way back home I bought algae wafers but are not from Hikari. My LFS has no Hikari products.

My one is from JBL. As you suggested I put together flakes and algae wafers. Algae Wafer tablet I borke it into 2 and placed 1 on the right side and other on the left side of the tank.

As usual Guppies and Neon Tetras started eating like crazy. Cories were also able to reach the tablet pieces and trying to get familiar what thay have found out. But but... within 1 min. neon tetras and guppies were finished with flakes and what they did is gathering around the tablets and started eathing :? cories ran away from the tablets because of their attack while 1 otto seems to be little bit aggressive and started to hit neon tetras to keep them away from the tablet, but all in vain, tetras didn't mind at all and continue eating with guppies.

Finally after 15 minutes tablet pieces were finished and I can see soooo big stomachs of all fish except cories.

I tried to provide food to cories but overfeeded my neons and guppies. :?

 

[7Enigma]

While your cory's won't get as much food as you would have hoped, they will get a good bit from all the little pieces that the feeding frenzy caused. Remember they are bottom feeders and will find and eat all of the little pieces that don't get eaten.

If you still can't find a way to get them a steady diet, you could buy a small breeder cage (this floats at the top of the tank but allows water to come in and go out) and put the cory's in it once a week or so and let them have their fill of algae wafers and flake food. I would only do this if the cory's begin to really look weak, as you will stress them somewhat trying to get them in the cage. Goodluck.

 

[tarajo]

This is a problem i am havng as well, my new black tetras don't seem to be getting any food, they hang out at one end of the tank in the middle range but when i put in flakes, the danios attack like pirhana and finish off all the food before the tetras even notice they are there, i will try wetting some of the flakes like was mentioned to see if that will get some down to the tetras while the danios frenzy on the surface. does anyone know if the Black Tetras will eat from the bottom when things fall through or are they only going to eat the food that sinks to their level. ?

 

[KhanJee]

Tetras eat well algae wafers thats my most recent experience. They will gather around it at the bottom and will go up only an only when they are sure that nothing is left behind

But try first with wet flakes.

 

[tarajo]

i do feed algae wafers as I have an Oto, so that is good news.. also with the wet flakes, they got some of the flakes before the danios cleaned it all up.