Overfed... now what?

[Phreaxer]

Ok, Here is the deal. I know I am stupid, but I didnt think I was this stupid... I have 2 dwarf puffers in my tank at work, and I was out of the office last friday. So, on thursday I fed them a good amount of frozen brine shrimp. They loved it, but there was way too much... I figured that it would last them til Sunday or so (I was stopping by the office) and it would be fine. Luckily they were smart enough to stop eating when they werent hungry anymore, so they survived. Anyways, it is now Tuesday afternoon, and I am looking in the bottom of the tank and there is still a small pile of brine shrimp. The puffer pick at them every once in a while, but there are too many... Is there another fish I can add to the tank, even just as a temporary thing to clean it up? Or should I find a way to get the shrimp out... (Not an easy task in my office....) Will snails eat them? I was going to be giving the fish a couple snails to "play" with in the next couple days... possibly even tomorrow morning... ? Help please!

 

[semper fi]

you cannot dump a bunch of food in the tank and let the fish eat for the next few days. they will not overfeed themselves. the leftover shrimp should be taken out of the tank immediately. this can cause your toxin levels to increase since it will just sit in the tank and decompose.

take a small peice of syphon hose. put an old clean nylon over the end of it. secure it with a rubberband. suck up the food with the syphon and let the water return to the tank or remove it and do a water change.

fish can go without food for more than a few days. cichlids that are holding can go up to three weeks without eating. fasting is good for the fish. when you leave on fridays, feed them and on mondays feed them the brine shrimp. sort of an i'm sorry treat.

semper fi

 

[Phreaxer]

Ok, thank you Semper Fi.

I will do that.


Are you a Marine? Or family?

 

[semper fi]

my dear sweet hubby is the marine. i am just the marine wife. sometimes i think that is harder! atleast more stressful!

semper fi

 

[Phreaxer]

my dear sweet hubby is the marine. i am just the marine wife. sometimes i think that is harder! atleast more stressful!

semper fi

Cool, my best friend is a marine, and another really close friend just graduated boot camp last friday... They keep telling me to go... I am not cut out to be a Marine, I am going to join the AirForce.

 

[impur]

I am typically gone every weekend. I leave friday and return sunday night. I usually feed friday morning and then when i return sunday night. Doesn't affect my fish except they are much more happy to see me than normal

 

[sandyd]

Sorry i may be a little late with help, but if i accidently give my fish too much food, i have found that a turkey baster ( i know crazy) works pretty well for me in getting the extra food out of the tank. It is also really helpful in catching those little fry which are usually very hard to catch. I think it is a good thing to keep on hand just in case you dont have any other option at the time. Just dont forget that you used on on your fish come Thanksgiving, you need to buy a new one. Sandy

 

[Mollymomma]

The turkey Baster isn't so crazy lol I have 2 that I use for my tanks only.. They work great, are cheap and very easy to keep germ free!...I mainly use it for cleaning the betta tanks' between water changes, if the kids get a little heavy with the food or in my 55 it works great to suck up dead leaves before they clog up the intake tube...

 

[Pufferpack]

Yep, the turkey baster would be your best bet. Just suck the shrimp pile out and squirt it inti the sink in the coffee room (or someone else's garbage can if you aren't too fond of them ). A word of caution about the Dwarf Puffers. You are better off making them skip a couple of meals than over feeding. Dwarf Puffers will eat themselves to death . They will eat so much that they become constipated which is usually fatal as they don't eat any veggies.
If their bellies are fat when you leave Friday (or in this case Thursday) they will last till Monday...they will be really hungry, but they will be fine.

 

[cutechic]

wow it never even occured to me to use a turkey baster, but its a great idea!

 

[bsemantic]

I also use a turkey baster. I use to feed worms to my dwarf frogs in my tank. The fish eat them before the frogs even get a chance to see them. I just squirt a few near the frogs so they can get some too.

 

[gadazobe]

Yep - turkey basters are great for feeding bottom dwellers. I use one to feed my gobi dragons, elephant nose and clowns. These won't eat flakes but by the time the frozen food reaches the bottom - well, it never gets to reach the bottom, the rest of the tank have already eaten it

 

[Jamnog]

im a show off ive got a battery powered gravel hoover my kind brother got me for my birthday it does a perfect job of getting light food of the bottom of the tank and i can stir up the sand with it as well.

 

[Mogo]

Show off

Where did your brother pick up this fancy apparatus? Never seen them at the LFS. Would like to see a pic of it, if you could post it up?

Mogo

 

[Jamnog]

i will try and find one now it looks quite groovy.

well i found a more expencive on here

i havent seen mine yet
double edit : im haviong no luck today all the shops i look at dont have a picture but i think its the 7.95 one on this page