How Not To Overfeed?

[justinhill]

The general word I read is that the trick is to only feed as much as the fish eat in a few minutes but that doesn't seem easy to determine with my cardinals. I crush the flakes as much as I can but still nearly all the food floats on the water surface. The gourami goes up to the surface to eat but the cardinals don't. They wait until the food sinks down to their level and then chase after it there. They've always done this (in the short time I've had this tank).

But it can take all day for the food I put in to sink into the water, so I don't know if I'm putting too much in...

 

[Sgooosh]

so, first just feed the floating guys, and then grab some food and put your fingers in the water until the stuff sinks, that is my reccomendation , use it for guppies and in the middle are guppies and swordtails, the bottom is for cories and sometimes the other guys. i use sinking wafers, as all fish including the middle and top dwellers can eat stuff * i crrush the wafers with a hammer as sometimes it gets stuck and chokes fish, sometimes they cannot get it out

 

[Circus]

I put flake in the water flow of my filter, which will push it under the surface.

 

[justinhill]

I put flake in the water flow of my filter, which will push it under the surface.

Thanks - I'll try that...

 

[Sgooosh]

Thanks - I'll try that...

if your flakes are really airry, they MIGHT still float up too fast...

 

[Essjay]

You could try soaking some of the flakes in a bit of tank water then add those and some unsoaked flakes at the same time. The soaked ones should sink immediately for the cardinals while the unsoaked ones will float for the gourami.

 

[Retired Viking]

I have a tank of tetras and like @Essjay said I mix the dry fish food in tank water. I use a samll cup and pour it into the tank after I soak the food. I grind it into small bite size pieces.

 

[itiwhetu]

Always crush flake food between your fingers remember fish have tiny mouths ( unless it's an Oscar ). And as above, sink it in front of the filter discharge pipe, then the food will travel to all corners of the tank.

 

[itiwhetu]

I even crush algae discs, unless I'm feeding Silver dollars.

 

[justinhill]

All good thoughts everyone, thanks. I must say I do wish there was a way to quantify this. Being an engineer by nature I'm used to precision so I wish I could somehow know the specific quantity of food x amount fish require and be able to provide exactly that. But I can see that's not really how it works...

By the way, I have two shrimp and the previous owner of the tank provided a pot of shrimp food. I did put that in once, but it lay untouched on the bottom of the tank so I've never used it again.

 

[Essjay]

Shrimps will eat fish food, so it doesn't matter if they don't eat the shrimp food, just a bit of a waste. I feed my shrimps on shrimp food which they do eat, but they are in a tank on their own and they don't get fish food, just the shrimp food.

 

[Sgooosh]

All good thoughts everyone, thanks. I must say I do wish there was a way to quantify this. Being an engineer by nature I'm used to precision so I wish I could somehow know the specific quantity of food x amount fish require and be able to provide exactly that. But I can see that's not really how it works...

By the way, I have two shrimp and the previous owner of the tank provided a pot of shrimp food. I did put that in once, but it lay untouched on the bottom of the tank so I've never used it again.

im sure in nature, all fish get different amounts of food. some fish and shrimp and inverts and stuff are very picky... some of my fish dont eat veggies while some do