Obsessed with aquaria, glass jars and 9 gallon fishbowls (and other stuff)

[elephantnose3334]

Lately, I have been obsessed with glass stuff that can be turned into planted aquaria, such as 16L glass jars and 9.24 gallon (35L) fishbowls. I am also obsessed with aquariums too. I love buying glass stuff as it gives me ideas. I am currently caring for my tetras at the moment and I need to feed them more fish-safe veggies such as peas with the skin removed, cooked and mashed. I just fed them a single mashed pea to try to prevent bloating in one of my cardinals. Will they be okay? I used to feed them peas occasionally months ago until I stopped after that until now.

I found these recipes from Hepper, are they good fish food recipes for my tetras? They have fish vitamins on them, but are they good for aquarium fishes?

5 Homemade Fish Foods You Can Make Today (Vet Approved Recipes) | Hepper

Keeping your fish happy and healthy should be your main priority if you have your own aquarium, which is why we are here to talk about homemade fish food

www.hepper.com

 

[Colin_T]

Most vitamins are water soluble and break down under warm conditions. If you want to add vitamins to fish food, get a powder vitamin and mix it with frozen (but defrosted) fish food just before you feed the fish. However, vitamins are not normally necessary unless the fish aren't being fed properly to begin with.

Vitamins need to be kept cool, dark and dry otherwise they break down really quickly.

You can make fish food if you like but I just kept the raw ingredients in the freezer and used them as is (eg: raw prawn. Remove the head, shell and gut of the prawn and throw those bits in the bin. Use a pr of scissors to cut the remaining prawn tail into little pieces and offer a few bits at a time.)

Most tetras don't eat a lot of plant matter but you can add mushed peas to their diet a few times a week if you like. It won't hurt them.

 

[elephantnose3334]

Most vitamins are water soluble and break down under warm conditions. If you want to add vitamins to fish food, get a powder vitamin and mix it with frozen (but defrosted) fish food just before you feed the fish. However, vitamins are not normally necessary unless the fish aren't being fed properly to begin with.

Vitamins need to be kept cool, dark and dry otherwise they break down really quickly.

You can make fish food if you like but I just kept the raw ingredients in the freezer and used them as is (eg: raw prawn. Remove the head, shell and gut of the prawn and throw those bits in the bin. Use a pr of scissors to cut the remaining prawn tail into little pieces and offer a few bits at a time.)

Most tetras don't eat a lot of plant matter but you can add mushed peas to their diet a few times a week if you like. It won't hurt them.

Great idea. I'm planning to make fish food out of fish-safe plant matter (peas, carrots, bananas, spinach, mango). I did research on what fruit and veg to use for homemade fish food, but one of the Hepper recipes had watermelon on them, which is not fish-safe. I will then try to feed my remaining tetras the homemade food occasionally. But they're scared of me, so I need to be slow, steady and cautious when feeding them.

 

[Aqua67]

Are you sure your “bloated” cardinal isn’t just filled with old eggs? I know that when breeding tetras, often the first batch of eggs are no good as they are old and have been in the fish for a long time. Often it takes 2 or 3 spawns before you get fertilized eggs because they have to get rid of the old ones first. I don’t know if that is your specific situation, but that is my first thought when you say your tetra is “bloated”.

 

[Colin_T]

One of the cardinal tetras died a little while ago and it was bloated in the whole body and its eyes stuck out a bit more than they should have.

 

[elephantnose3334]

Are you sure your “bloated” cardinal isn’t just filled with old eggs? I know that when breeding tetras, often the first batch of eggs are no good as they are old and have been in the fish for a long time. Often it takes 2 or 3 spawns before you get fertilized eggs because they have to get rid of the old ones first. I don’t know if that is your specific situation, but that is my first thought when you say your tetra is “bloated”.

No, they were fat and their eyes stuck out a bit more. Bloating means a fish being overweight, not holding eggs.

 

[Essjay]

Bloating can also mean swelling up due to an internal problem such as an infection or parasites. When the eyes bulge out it's usually an illness not being overweight.
An extreme of bloating is dropsy where not only is the fish "fat" but the scales stick out away from the body. This is a symptom of an underlying disease which has progressed far enough to cause kidney failure which causes fluid to build up inside the body, the outward signs of which are the swelling and the scales not lying flat.