Fasting A Piggy.

[PrairieSunflower]

So... how do you manage to fast your honey gourami when it is needed?
 
My problem is... my female is quite a little piggy so she needs fasting from time to time.  My male is really small and nowhere near a piggy, he eats what he needs and no more.  So, yesterday I fed some special wafers for my snails and the female honey tucked right in along with them.  She ended the day looking noticeably fat.  I decided it would be best to fast them today.
 
Well, halfway through the day my male was sitting on the bottom of the tank more than usually... well, usually he doesn't at all.  Then 3/4 of the way through the day I thought to myself... maybe he is tired because he is hungry.... so... I decided to feed them since the female had slimmed in this time anyway.  And sure enough... after eating he has been his usual active self again.
 
SO.... how do I manage to fast them, the male seems to take it pretty hard.

 

[DreamertK]

When I want to feed particular fish (my gourami seriously hunts), I use a 1ml pipette and put it near the fish I want to feed and try to scare off the other fish by waving my hand around near them. Now my gudgeons think the transparent circular siphon will give them worms though...

 

[PrairieSunflower]

When I supplement my snails diet with purposeful feeding... they are not all together (I have lots of assassin snails) so it takes them a bit to notice the food.

Oh wait... do you mean maybe feeding just the one honey that way so the other doesn't get any?  That might work!

 

[NeonBlueLeon]

I am actually dealing with a similar situation with feeding.  To feed a fish singly, I tried putting them in a breeder net, then feeding into the net.  It works, but I don't like that method because the other fish smell the food, then tempers get high when they can't get to it.
 
The other method is to simply remove one fish into a separate container, then feed.  This may or may not work because it could stress out the fish you are trying to feed.  Obviously, use water from the original tank to put into the container.
 
I have never purposefully fed snails before, unless they were in a tank of their own, simply because other fauna would get to the food before them.  I haven't observed any problems with not feeding snails yet.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

It is the sheer number of snails I have, far too many to not feed on purpose.  I am planning to take some down to the LFS soon I hope!  I wanted to swap them for some more amano shrimp but was told at one LFS that there is an area wide shortage of them... so want to call ahead to the place I wanted to swap them to see if they have the shortage as well... once done I will have reduced my snail population by about 30!

 

[basboi85]

I personally would make my own little ( I say little but I have a 5ft tank) divider/ container that you could put in 1 corner ( top-bottom of the tank) that technically creates a tall box and place your honey in that so it has enough room to swim up and down ect and isn't confined to a small area like a breeding/fry net and then remove once eaten.

 

[DreamertK]

I've tried isolating certain fish, but they end up getting too stressed to eat. The divider would work, if you have the right tank dimensions.
 
I've solved my assassin's hunger by buying plants.

  Aka there were a ton of snails for the assassin to eat in the plants. And he littered the substrate in snail shells after about a week.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I might have to go with making a divider, I have some of that craft mesh anyway.... maybe if I made a corner and trapped him in it.
 
I can see this being an ongoing problem as the female really likes her food!