How often to feed and how many hours of light?

[Salukie]

I have a ten gallon that's almost done fishless cycling. I'm gettin excited to add some fish soon, finally!

I have an old aquarium how-to book that got me interested in the hobby. I'm now starting to realize the info in that book is seriously outdated. They barely mention cycling the tank, for example.

Anyway, the book says to keep the aquarium light on for 14 hours every day and to feed the fish three times daily.

My tank is planted with water wisteria, java fern, Anubias, java moss, and marimo. I'm using the LED lights that came with the hood. I'm not really interested in switching to more powerful lighting, for now.

How long should the lights be on? They're on a timer.

When I get fish, what are some general feeding directions? I'm thinking otocinclus, ember tetras, and cherry shrimp.

Thanks, everyone!

 

[Salukie]

I forgot to mention my plants came with an abundance of pond snails. Lol. Some say that if I don't over feed, the snails will stay under control. What is everyone's opinion on this?

I've been leaving my aquarium lights on for fourteen hours daily so far. There's a bit of brown algae on my driftwood. The snails don't seem to be eating it. I've heard otos love the stuff.

Here's my dilemma: I probably have brown algae because my lights are on too long. If I shorten the light period, will my otos get enough food?

Will otocinclus eat algae tablets once they've polished off the brown algae?

 

[Rivercats]

14 hours is way too long. Planted tanks usually need 6-8 hours. If you want the brown algae, ie: diatoms to lessen set you lights to run 6 hours only. Diatoms are self limiting and will die out once they use all the excess silicates in the water. I don't suggest adding Oto's to a new set up as they are hard to acclimate and can often stave if adequate food (diatoms, bio-film, and green dust algae) isn't present in the tank. A mature tank is much better. Nerite snails are great for diatom clean up. One or two is all you need in a small tank and they can't reproduce like pond snails can.

As for feeding, fish don't need much food daily. I feed once a day in the morning. Many people feed every other day. The trick is not to overfeed. Overfeeding will actually help the pond snails reproduce even faster. A little food, especially in a 10g goes a long way.

 

[henningc]

The previous post is correct about the lighting and the octo. To start, add your tetras of about ten to fourteen days then the shrimp. That gives the tank time to restablize. Keep in mind, the shrimp eat biofilm, so an octo is likely going to starve.

I differ on feeding. First, don't follow the package directions too closely. If you put in al they can eat in five min, you will way, way over feed. I feed three times daily. Each tank gets a very micro pinch of flake food, I'll say enough to feed two neons for every two fish you have that are less than 3". I then feed live baby brine shrimp. I don't think you're at that level. I would go with micro pinches twice daily. You shrimp should not be the clean up crew. If more than 5% of the food hits the substrate it is too much. With the tetras you want that should not be a problem. When you add new foods do so with caution. Make sure they are eating it all.

 

[Mebbid]

The previous post is correct about the lighting and the octo. To start, add your tetras of about ten to fourteen days then the shrimp. That gives the tank time to restablize. Keep in mind, the shrimp eat biofilm, so an octo is likely going to starve.

I differ on feeding. First, don't follow the package directions too closely. If you put in al they can eat in five min, you will way, way over feed. I feed three times daily. Each tank gets a very micro pinch of flake food, I'll say enough to feed two neons for every two fish you have that are less than 3". I then feed live baby brine shrimp. I don't think you're at that level. I would go with micro pinches twice daily. You shrimp should not be the clean up crew. If more than 5% of the food hits the substrate it is too much. With the tetras you want that should not be a problem. When you add new foods do so with caution. Make sure they are eating it all.

The biggest problem I see with feeding absolutely tiny amounts of food is that the slower more shy fish won't ever get any food while the extremely quick excitable fish will eat everything.

I purposely feed one larger feed daily with algae wafers every other day. I expect a fair amount of food to hit the substrate to support all of my bottom feeders including my shrimp. One larger feeding per day ensures that there is enough food in the tank that everyone gets some every day.

 

[Cactuspixie]

The biggest problem I see with feeding absolutely tiny amounts of food is that the slower more shy fish won't ever get any food while the extremely quick excitable fish will eat everything.

I purposely feed one larger feed daily with algae wafers every other day. I expect a fair amount of food to hit the substrate to support all of my bottom feeders including my shrimp. One larger feeding per day ensures that there is enough food in the tank that everyone gets some every day.

I've changed from feeding twice daily to once daily for precisely that reason. My synos are absolute gluttons.

 

[Lynx99]

Yeah I agree. Too much food just collects on the substrate which is not only unsightly but rots and decays adding to the ammonia etc. plus overfeeding the fish puts stress on their digestive systems.

I agree with feeding once with enough for all to get their share. You get use to how much is "enough" and how much is too much after a while.

 

[Rivercats]

How much you feed depends on the stock you keep. In my 220g I have to feed heavy as I have 25 cory cats and 6 good sized loaches. So in this instance I have to feed so a lot of food falls to the bottom. That tank also has a naturally low nitrate level so the excess food isn't polluting the tank. Now in my other tanks I feed lightly as there are very few bottom feeders. So it boils down to feeding what is needed for all fish and other inhabitants in the tank to get enough food. Each tank is different and has different needs.

 

[Salukie]

Thanks for the replies, everyone!

I've decided to hold off on the otos for now. I'll just stick with cherry shrimp and ember tetras.