Food for Ember tetras?

[Glenn407]

Picked up a batch of embers the other day and quarantined them about two weeks. They did end up making a nice group of their own hanging mostly around the lower third of the tank (50gal). They have been with the others about a week now and seem content. My only concern is that I am seeing them go after and spit out more flake food than they seem to eat. I'm using Tetramin flakes and being sure to crush a portion down to very small bits solely for them. I'm not certain at this point if the flakes are still too big or that Embers just don't care for flake food as much as other fish. If I had to describe the size of the flakes that float their way I'd say not much larger than a grain of sand. They are swarming to eat but it's just that I don't actually see them gulp anything down.

The other thing I have always noted about Tetramin flakes is that the white ones must be the equivalent of kids broccoli probably resulting in most of the flakes that go untouched.

 

[Naughts]

Try Bug Bites by Fluval, they're granules. My embers don't have any problems with them.

 

[Byron]

Shoaling upper fish like the small characin species feed by biting off bits of the food item they pick up or catch. This usually involves a lot of taking it in, chewing it, spitting out some--but swallowing what they chew off. If they really do not like the food as food, they will usually not do this, but spit it out and move on.

Looking at quality... @Naughts is spot on, Bug Bites is about the best food for most of the fish we keep, including substrate fish like loaches and cories. Rason is, it is dried Black Soldier Fly Larvae. "Bugs" and bug larvae is the primary natural food of all these fish (the carnivores anyway). Flake food is OK but by comparison it falls short.

 

[Glenn407]

Try Bug Bites by Fluval, they're granules. My embers don't have any problems with them.

Thanks! I saw those mentioned somewhere in my previous research.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Try Bug Bites by Fluval, they're granules. My embers don't have any problems with them.

Bug Bites also makes a flake food, as well....just as good, and another way to feed

 

[Glenn407]

I ordered both and will update once the stuff arrives. Was just thinking, the first forum question I ever asked on the internet was on a fish forum. Apple iiC on Compuserve. Was amazed to see answers the very next day. No graphics, just green text on a black screen from what I recall and still so amazing.

 

[outofwater]

I find that all critters in my tanks (snails, a dwarf gourami, neon tetras, cories, a guppy and even ottos) will go for bug bites, BUT the neons seem to not like them that much. Not sure if it's due to the irregular size, some pieces are so big that they won't even try to bite smaller chunks. The ottos have learned to clamp on the small pieces that fall to the bottom, and the gouramj does the same as your fish: bite, spit, repeat until done. I try to crush them a bit more and that seems to help the neons, however that also means that the pieces fall to the bottom faster.

Overall, Hikari micropellets are much more well received and consumed by my fish although when the neons were little they still struggled with the size of them.

For the bottom feeders I always throw in a couple of algae wafers, also by Hikari and bug bites, I can't seem any particular preference, they get consumed quickly and if the fish don't finish them, the snails certainly enjoy them.

 

[Glenn407]

Update. The whole tank freaks out over the bug bites! Especially the granules. They love the flakes too but the little granules is a feeding frenzy similar to frozen blood worms. Thanks.