I Guess It's Time To End The Hobby.

[Alm0stAwesome]

Interesting! It did cross my mind that maybe she was lacking something and that's why she was doing it like the way horses lick certain types of dirt when they need salt....

 

[FishBlast]

Interesting! It did cross my mind that maybe she was lacking something and that's why she was doing it like the way horses lick certain types of dirt when they need salt....

Yeah or when my first cat used to lick the walls.
I guess she either needs calcium, or needs to expel gas or maintain balance... or she's just always hungry. She can't be hungry though as she already ate enough for today. She even ate most of my Hoplo's serving. -.-

 

[Man of fish]

Fish are little piggys. They are always hungry and will always eat, even if it could be fatal. This is because they don't have a mechanism like us that tells them when they're full; so they'll always eat whenever we feed them.

Interesting! It did cross my mind that maybe she was lacking something and that's why she was doing it like the way horses lick certain types of dirt when they need salt....

Yeah or when my first cat used to lick the walls.
I guess she either needs calcium, or needs to expel gas or maintain balance... or she's just always hungry. She can't be hungry though as she already ate enough for today. She even ate most of my Hoplo's serving. -.-

 

[FishBlast]

Fish are little piggys. They are always hungry and will always eat, even if it could be fatal. This is because they don't have a mechanism like us that tells them when they're full; so they'll always eat whenever we feed them.

Interesting! It did cross my mind that maybe she was lacking something and that's why she was doing it like the way horses lick certain types of dirt when they need salt....

Yeah or when my first cat used to lick the walls.
I guess she either needs calcium, or needs to expel gas or maintain balance... or she's just always hungry. She can't be hungry though as she already ate enough for today. She even ate most of my Hoplo's serving. -.-

So far Bee has no problem. Tzuppy got the hang of the sand but after his meal today he started floating off the sand for a bit so, smart as he is, he went under the heater's cord and used it to keep him on the ground.
Now he's fine though.
This is a pic of him at feeding time.

He is quite active now, but he tends to stick to the mid-level of the tank more and only dip his nose into the sand.

 

[FishBlast]

Tzuppy keeps scaring me sometimes.
He sits in some places as if he's dead and when I get near he just starts moving again.
This morning he was sitting under the filter, extremely still. Not even moving his gills. Then he just started moving again, roaming through the sand in search for food.

What concerns me is that I haven't seen any dung balls in the tank. Could he be constipated? I have peas but I don't know if he would eat veggies.

My swordtail keeps eating the sand too, but she has no problem passing out poop.

 

[FishBlast]

I wanted dung and I got dung Tzuppy made a big one in the middle of the tank LOL.

 

[Tizer]

Thanks for the update, i can sleep easy now

 

[Ruskull]

I wanted dung and I got dung Tzuppy made a big one in the middle of the tank LOL.

 

[FishBlast]

I wanted dung and I got dung Tzuppy made a big one in the middle of the tank LOL.

Well, it sounded funny that day, but now it's weird that he and my swordtail are passing a few bloodworms completely undigested.

Should I reduce feeding even more? I usually feed them half a frozen bloodworm cube and even that I split into 2 meals.

 

[CezzaXV]

You sure they're undigested? Most fish poop looks similar to a worm.

 

[FishBlast]

You sure they're undigested? Most fish poop looks similar to a worm.

I am 100% sure they are whole, undigested, looking good-as-new bloodworms. You can see the details on them, they still have those two tiny hooks on their back and black head. Both Tzuppy and Bee passed them, he passed about 4 of them (tiny ones) and she passed only one... which the male quickly ate.

I think this points to overfeeding, but the amount I feed them is quite small already, Tzup barely gets a mouth full and the other 2 fish just grab what they can before he vacuums the floor. The temp is at 22C so it can't be slow metabolism either.

And Tzuppy still doesn't cease to roam the top of the tank after he eats. Constantly making bubbles there, then landing to rest for half an hour before starting over 30 minutes of surface dwelling. Oddly, during the morning he just roams the bottom until the point of feeding.

 

[CezzaXV]

Might be worth feeding a bit less then. Fish don't have a concept of being full, so they will eat themselves to death if you let them. If they're passing food undigested it may mean they're eating too much.

 

[FishBlast]

Might be worth feeding a bit less then. Fish don't have a concept of being full, so they will eat themselves to death if you let them. If they're passing food undigested it may mean they're eating too much.

Well, how much to feed 3 fish though? I barely even feed that half of the cube anyway. Though sometimes i give them one pinch during the morning and 1 during the evening.

Tzuppy is 13 cm, Bee and Cracker are around 5cm (maybe less, around 4). I give them defrosted bloodworms from this 2 cm cube. (that's like 1 cm cube a day, split into two for morning and evening).

 

[CezzaXV]

Fish really don't need much food. Humans are warm blooded and a large amount of energy is spent keeping out bodies warm. Fish are cold blooded and rely on their environment to keep them warm so their bodies don't need that much energy.

Frozen foods are normally fed as a treat by most fish keepers and fed on flake most of the time. Frozen food is yummy for the fish but not particularly nutritious. It's also more expensive. If you can get yourself a small tub of flake it should last ages, be cheaper for you and better for your fish too.

 

[FishBlast]

Fish really don't need much food. Humans are warm blooded and a large amount of energy is spent keeping out bodies warm. Fish are cold blooded and rely on their environment to keep them warm so their bodies don't need that much energy.

Frozen foods are normally fed as a treat by most fish keepers and fed on flake most of the time. Frozen food is yummy for the fish but not particularly nutritious. It's also more expensive. If you can get yourself a small tub of flake it should last ages, be cheaper for you and better for your fish too.

I've had flakes but there is a problem with feeding them to the fish (if you mean daphnia flakes / dried daphnia).
Tzuppy will come to the surface and vacuum all of them within seconds. The other 2 fish won't be able to reach it in time.
It also used to foul the water faster than bloodworms (although the filter seemed to fix that problem last time I fed them the daphnia).