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thefishycouple

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Right now I have a 30G tank with 2 Clown Loaches, 6 Neons, 1 Pleco and 1 Dwarf Puffer.
I'm currently feeding them frozen shrimp.. As soon as I put some in, the Neons will eat it like there's no tomorrow. Some falls to the ground for the Loaches, but I also throw in some of those "little balls" (New Life Spectrum, All Purpose Formula) for them. Problem is that I wish the Loaches would get more frozen food (since it's better for them) and my Puffer rarely gets to eat (every 2 days or so) since he's way too scared to get in the middle of the starving Neons.
Everyone seems to be extremely happy and healthy tho.
I was thinking of those blood worm feeders??? I know Loaches love bloodworms and the same for the Puffer, but will he actually swim up to get a bite? Will the Neons eat bloodworm??
Sorry for the ton of questions and thanks in advance.
 
thefishycouple said:
Right now I have a 30G tank with 2 Clown Loaches, 6 Neons, 1 Pleco and 1 Dwarf Puffer.
I'm currently feeding them frozen shrimp.. As soon as I put some in, the Neons will eat it like there's no tomorrow. Some falls to the ground for the Loaches, but I also throw in some of those "little balls" (New Life Spectrum, All Purpose Formula) for them. Problem is that I wish the Loaches would get more frozen food (since it's better for them) and my Puffer rarely gets to eat (every 2 days or so) since he's way too scared to get in the middle of the starving Neons.
Everyone seems to be extremely happy and healthy tho.
I was thinking of those blood worm feeders??? I know Loaches love bloodworms and the same for the Puffer, but will he actually swim up to get a bite? Will the Neons eat bloodworm??
Sorry for the ton of questions and thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
try potatoes
 
Loaches supposedly love potatoes, I haven't tried yet with mine. Plecos adore zuchinni, you can also get sinking spiriulina wafers for them. A good pellet or flake really should be your staple, I keep some sinking pellets as well as some flake around, everything else is a treat or supplement. Your puffer is going to need something to trim down his beak, small snails are best, freeze dried krill can also work.

You have an odd mix of fish in that tank, puffers are notorious for turning evil overnight and biting fish in half so they are best kept in species only tanks. If that pleco is a common or sailfin it will get over a foot, much too big for a 30 gallon. Clown loaches get big as well and really should be kept in groups of five or more, you may want to find a smaller variety like the zebra loach for your tank. (Currently working on getting a bigger tank for my clowns as well.)
 
Tessla said:
Loaches supposedly love potatoes, I haven't tried yet with mine. Plecos adore zuchinni, you can also get sinking spiriulina wafers for them. A good pellet or flake really should be your staple, I keep some sinking pellets as well as some flake around, everything else is a treat or supplement. Your puffer is going to need something to trim down his beak, small snails are best, freeze dried krill can also work.

You have an odd mix of fish in that tank, puffers are notorious for turning evil overnight and biting fish in half so they are best kept in species only tanks. If that pleco is a common or sailfin it will get over a foot, much too big for a 30 gallon. Clown loaches get big as well and really should be kept in groups of five or more, you may want to find a smaller variety like the zebra loach for your tank. (Currently working on getting a bigger tank for my clowns as well.)
Click to expand...

The problem with feeding the Loach is not that he won't eat the baby shrimp, it's that he's way too lasy to go for it. So that makes me wonder if he's not hungry most of the times.
I read that Dwarf Puffers don't need snails to trim down its beak, since it doesn't grow as much as a regular puffer. Also it's not "evil" at all. It's the quieter, slowest fish ever, at least mine is. Mine is a common Pleco but I have a 55G which will be soon set-up for the Pleco and the Loaches (I'll also get an extra 2-3 Loaches then)
 
I just came back from my lfs and got a couple things...
More plants (Swords, Corkscrews...), and 2 more Neons.
Also, I got a Bloodworm feeder and bloodworms. I hope it works.
 
Assuming the frozen food is brine shrimp? I'm suprised that the loaches won't go for it, mine are all over frozen brine shrimp or blood worms (or tubifex worms or flake food...) The brine shrimp isn't really that nutritious, it falls under the category of treat food so I wouldn't be too worried if your fish aren't eating a lot of it. The pellets will be much more balanced, just usually not a first choice of most fish. You can usually see a rounded belly on a loach that's just stuffed himself, and they will stop going after more food once they get full. If your fish don't care for frozen and live foods but gobble up flakes and pellets, lucky you!
thefishycouple said:
I read that Dwarf Puffers don't need snails to trim down its beak, since it doesn't grow as much as a regular puffer. Also it's not "evil" at all. It's the quieter, slowest fish ever, at least mine is.
Click to expand...
Your dwarf puffer will need snails or other crunchy foods at least once a week, just like other puffers if their beak doesn't get trimmed down it will grow too long and they will starve to death. The beak grows constantly just like rabbits' teeth. Beaks can be trimmed manually (had to do this the other week with my green spotted puffer, the lazy bugger won't chew his food) but it would be very difficult with a puffer that small. It's not so much that puffers will be evil all the time, but they are very territorial and do have a tendency to go Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde in the middle of the night out of nowhere so you could end up with some dead neons. Just make sure you keep an eye on him, hopefully you have a spare tank handy that you could set up for him if he goes violent.

55 gallons is actually a bit small for a common plec and a bunch of clown loaches fully grown, absolute minimum for clown loaches is 75 gallons. I used to have a common plec in an 80 gallon tank but it really was much too small for him and we ended up finding him a warm pond. Clown loaches and common plecs get really large, you're looking at 5-6 fish that will get to be a foot long or close to it, hopefully you have some plans to upgrade after they outgrow the 55 gallon.
 
Not to sure abouthe dwarf pffer in that setup tbh, and you wil need to move the clowns and the plec eventually. If the loaches are hungry they will get as muh food as they want in that setup i think.
How big are all of ur fsh?
Greg
 
Bad news... the fish won't even go for the worms in the feeder, the lfs dude tells me to keep trying since that's not their natural way of eating. Also the fish seem to rather eat the shrimp than blood worm.
IDK where I read that but that's what I saw about puffers. If I do end up having to feed them snails, how do I do it then? Do I just buy tiny snails and throw a couple of them in the tank?

Now currently, I am feeding the fish shrimp in the afternoon (I guess a ball, thumb nail size maybe), and the same at night, plus some pallets and flakes (not much).
The Neons I eat most of it, like starving sharks I swear, and after I'm done feeding, out comes the Loaches from this piece of Drift Wood I have (which they spend 75% of their day in) to eat what has fallen off plus pallets and flakes (Neons won't eat flakes).
The Puffer eats whenever I get lucky. Most of the times he's just wondering in the back of the tank, going up and down, or swimming against the current of the filter. I try hand feeding and everything but he'll only eat every two days or so. I'm really worried.
PLEASE GUYS HELP ME OUT!!! IF THE PUFFER DIES I'LL PROBABLY GIVE UP ON THE TANK...

Ps: The 55G will soon be ready in about a month or so (It's gonna be the best planted tank ever) and I can't wait to move all the fish there.
 
I wanted a dwarf puffer when I saw them at the LPS, but when I read up on them at a dwarf puffer website, it said that they're very territorial and will become aggressive. So just make sure to keep an eye on the little fella and have an extra tank for him if he does start. :)
 
If you're worried about the loaches not getting anough frozen food, you can to what i do and use a baster to squirt the frozen food down near where they usually hang out.

I'm not sure about speficic snail types, but I know you want small snails, if they're too big the'll just make a mess of the substrate. Also, it sounds like it's gonna be very hard to feed the DP if he/she's too shy to come out. One more reason why the majority of people don't keep them in community tanks like yours :) . Hopefully the DP doesn't give you problems though.
 
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