No not a question but hopefully this will help someone.
When I first started keeping CPD I saw several threads about unhealthy CPD that were skinny and looked bent. Thought I just got lucky and found a healthy bunch. My feeding routine was NLS micro pellets or Dennerle neon & co (they prefer this to bug bites). I also have cherry shrimp and MTS so these got algae wafers or shrimp pellets as well.
Fast forward around 18 months and I have quite a lot of juveniles in the tank and these were looking a lot like those descriptions. My first thought was worms but where would they have come from. So I thought about what else may have changed. In summer the tank got very hot which caused the MTS to multiply. So I stopped the algae wafers as the shrimp always eat the regular food.
Now the CPD will not ever eat from the surface. They are also reasonably slow feeders and once the small food hits the substrate they lose interest as they will not forage. I started feeding more often, no harm because the shrimps and MTS took care of any excess. It made no difference to the CPD and I remembered that they do enjoy picking at algae wafers (and shrimp pellets).
So I started dropping 1/4 of a veggie round or a single shrimp pellet into the tank at feeding time - while the lights are still on, the fussy little beggars don't eat in the dark either. That's for 30(ish) CPD. Watching them in the evenings they would happily pick away for a couple of hours. Its been two weeks and their little bellies are filling out and none of them look bent anymore.
Lesson learnt for me - but if you think you have unhealthy CPD they could just be starving.
When I first started keeping CPD I saw several threads about unhealthy CPD that were skinny and looked bent. Thought I just got lucky and found a healthy bunch. My feeding routine was NLS micro pellets or Dennerle neon & co (they prefer this to bug bites). I also have cherry shrimp and MTS so these got algae wafers or shrimp pellets as well.
Fast forward around 18 months and I have quite a lot of juveniles in the tank and these were looking a lot like those descriptions. My first thought was worms but where would they have come from. So I thought about what else may have changed. In summer the tank got very hot which caused the MTS to multiply. So I stopped the algae wafers as the shrimp always eat the regular food.
Now the CPD will not ever eat from the surface. They are also reasonably slow feeders and once the small food hits the substrate they lose interest as they will not forage. I started feeding more often, no harm because the shrimps and MTS took care of any excess. It made no difference to the CPD and I remembered that they do enjoy picking at algae wafers (and shrimp pellets).
So I started dropping 1/4 of a veggie round or a single shrimp pellet into the tank at feeding time - while the lights are still on, the fussy little beggars don't eat in the dark either. That's for 30(ish) CPD. Watching them in the evenings they would happily pick away for a couple of hours. Its been two weeks and their little bellies are filling out and none of them look bent anymore.
Lesson learnt for me - but if you think you have unhealthy CPD they could just be starving.
