Feeding Recommendations

[Benihana]

Hi all.

We have had an outbreak of what we believe to be dropsy brought on, quite possibly, by overfeeding. We have just added our second batch of Interpret internal bacteria treatment and have been feeding just pea with daphnia every 3 days (thanks to everyone who gave advice at the time). We are looking to go back to 'normal' feeding in the next couple of days and would really appreciate some opinions on how much and how often we should be feeding. We've seen conflicting evidence in books and it is always best to hear things 'from the horses mouth' as it were. We have a 96ltr tank with 2 BN Plecs, 9 Pygmy Cory's, 6 Neon Tetra's and 2 Kuhli Loaches. We currently stock algae wafers, nutrafin sinking tablets, frozen tubifex, frozen bloodworm and a flake food. If someone could provide a feeding diary I would be most extremely chuffed. (sorry for the length of post)

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Personally I would feed:

Flake food: twice a day, most days. Feed enough for the Tetras to eat it within about 1-2minutes. They should be coming to the surface to eat it not waiting for it to sink.

Pellets: Are these the really hard pellets? if so try cutting them into 2 or 4. Drop these for the khulie loaches and cory's. 1 pellet cut into 4 fed once a day will probably be enough for the cory's and loaches (plus and flake food that falls to the bottom). If they are not eaten within 20 minutes remove them. You might have to feed after lights out for the khulie loaches to come and eat.

I didnt get on very well with these pellets (if they are the same ones) and found that because they where so hard the only things that could eat them in a resonable time where big clown loaches. I recently got Tetra variety waffers which are a lot easier for corys and smaller bottom feeding fish to eat. Also they have a mix of different types of waffer so gives them a good varied diet.

Waffers: Not sure about feeding BN plecs to be honest.

Frozen food: I tend to feed frozen food once a day every 2 to 3 days. Feed enough for some to get to the bottom for the cory's. I find it best to defrost the cubes first and feed a little at a time so it doesnt all just drop to the bottom in a big cube. Make sure everything has been eaten within about 5 minutes max.

My personal feeding schedule for a tank with 29 tetra's, 6 cory's and shrimp is:
Day 1-3:
Morning: two pinches of flake food (crushed). 3-4 tetra waffers
Evening: two pinches of flake food (crushed). half a pinch of flake food (sunk for cory's).
Day 4:
Morning: two pinches of flake food (crushed). 3-4 tetra waffers
Evening: 1 Cube of frozen food fed gradually over 5 minutes
Day 5-6:
Same as Day 1-3
Day 7:
Same as Day 4 with different frozen food.

I dont follow that exactly but aim to feed frozen food ever few days. Occasionally I feed dried bloodworm instead of flake and sometimes I also dont feed them for a day.

 

[Musho3210]

barney got it covered, his way works great, but doesnt work in my tank...

I feed a pellet in the morning (either a shrimp pellet or half an algae wafer) and flakes or freeze dried or frozen during the day/afternoon.

THe reason for this is that my cherry barbs are crazy about food and will eat the flakes so fast that my shy gouramis wont come out and eat, sometimes they come out only to get a very small amount of scraps. But when i feed shrimp pellets, they dont go away as fast and my cories and gouramis all eat the pellets and since my gouramis become a bit violent once they start eating (but shy before they start, weird fish), the cherry barbs dont get much of a chance, but the cories are able to sneak under the gouramis and take a few bites before the gourami notices.

So this way all my fish get their food. My pleco eats only algae and i havent seen it join in on a shrimp pellet yet, maybe it does when im not looking.

 

[loachman]

Best bet would be feeding shortly before lights off. Kuhlis will more likely find the food before it falls apart then.

BNs will eat cucumber and zucchini slices. Just take out whatever isn't consumed after a day. You can feed them a piece every 2-3 days. They'll graze on algae around the tank unless it's spotless.

Pretty much all the food should be consumed in a couple minutes. A little bit left over isn't horrendous but you really don't want alot sitting around (a couple flakes for example should be found later by the kuhlies and not cause much trouble).

 

[stang1]

We've found that cutting the feeding down to once a day has helped a lot.

Day 1: Pellets/flakes - Wafers for the Plecos.
Day 2: Pellets/flakes - Wafers for the Plecos.
Day 3: Bloodworm/Daphnia/Mysis etc. - Cucumber/Courgette etc. For the Plecos
Day 4: Pellets/flakes - Wafers for the Plecos.
Day 5: Pellets/flakes - Wafers for the Plecos.
Day 6: Day 3: Bloodworm/Daphnia/Mysis etc. - Cucumber/Courgette etc. For the Plecos
Day 7: Don't feed at all.

 

[Benihana]

Thanks a lot guys, really appreciate it.

 

[Darkstar]

Small amounts and often is the best feeding regime.