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How often do you feed your tropicals? The LPS told me to feed mine every other day. Right now I am feeding them once a day and they are inhaling what I give them in a minute or so. At night I put in one pellet for the guys on the bottom. I'm not sure that I am feeding everyone enough. I'm so afraid of polluting the tank with too much food waste. I have quite a few bottom dwellers right now. And I just got two bristlenose plecos today. How often should I put in real veggies? :confused:
Thanks,
Lisa
fishlore101
03-04-2006, 5:11 PM
I feed my tropicals twice a day sometimes even three times. I feed them once in the morning and once at night. Sometimes I will give them a "treat" in the afternoon. My tropicals are healthy and seem to be growing at a good rate. I don't feed real veggies at the moment because I don't have any in my house. (Need to go to the store.) I would say not too often, but I really don't know. I have two Pictus catfish, a pleco and a lace catfish and I like to put 4-6 algae waffers in that sink to the bottom and by the next morning they are all gone.
That sounds more like it to me. I wondered if I had been underfeeding...The LPS keeps insisting to feed every other day or every two days. That just seems cruel to me. I was thinking two somewhat small meals a day? And sinking pellets just once a day?
Lisa
Hurley
03-04-2006, 5:22 PM
One way to determin how much to feed them is to put some food in the water and wait until they eat all of it before adding any more. Another way its to, through trial and error , find out how much food they eat in 1-2 mins and only give them that much. You should be careful though, many fish dont get "full". In other words, as long as there is food they will eat it. So, dont give into thier begging and thier big puppy dog eyes.
Also, if you notice that your water is cloudy, your ammonia and nitrites spike agian after you have cycled and have not added anymore fish, or you are having an algea bloom, you could be feeding them to much.
I feed my fish just about everyother day. Sometimes multiple days in a row because I have one eel that only eats a certian times and is rather picky about food.
What kind of fish do you have in your tank and how big is it?
tinytnt
03-04-2006, 5:30 PM
He may have told you that because your tanks probably cycling still. Don't know though. If it is, you certainly don't want to overfeed them. How long have you had your tank up?
I have a 54 g corner tank. It has cycled. All of my fish are various tetras. None of them very big. I have some cory cats, 2 clown loaches and the two plecos. I have two other small cats, but I can't remember what kind they are...
Lisa
Tank has been up for a month...I cycled with fish. For some reason the only fish I lost were my emperor tetras. Wonder if they are very sensitive? 2 had a strange fungus, one got really pale and I found him floating the next morning, and one just vanished. Can't find any signs of him. Everyone else is doing really well.
Lisa
I feed 2x a day. Sometimes they get a treat of skinned frozen peas in the afternoon. All my fish go crazy for peas especially the Rosy Barbs.
Never heard of that. Do you have to skin them? Thawed frozen peas are pretty soft. Wonder if my plecos would like peas? :dive2:
Lisa
I thaw them with the warmth of my hand and then press on the peas with my thumb and forefinger to pop them out of their skin. This allows the peas to sink and become easy to work with for the fish.
fishyaddict
03-04-2006, 11:01 PM
A lot of our fish like a slice of zuchinni about once a week or so. You just slice it to about 1/2 inch size and put a plant weight(bought at an lfs) toward the bottom to help it stay at the bottom... it's neat to see how they go after it, by the second time we put them in most of it would be gone by the end of the day.
The regular flakes we feed morning then night. Clown loaches loooovve blood worms too.
*Most fish are always hungary too... they only have a memory span of 3 seconds. :p:
thesydmonster
03-04-2006, 11:52 PM
I feed once per day and skip 1 or 2 days per week. I drop in algae wafers or shrimp pellets every day. I only feed twice daily when I have lots of guppy fry and it's still a small amount. I feed fresh veggies once or twice per week for my pleco and snails and otos. I tried the pea thing but no one ate it :( They are all zucchini lovers. I do alternate flake food with frozen and freeze dried.
Do you all blanch the zuchini? Also, would a pleco eat blanched cabbage?
Thanx, :hi:
Lisa
carpguy
03-05-2006, 7:04 AM
I feed 4 or 5 times a week, maybe every other day, maybe a little bit more, and a fairly light feed. Veggies once a week seems like a nice idea.
Twice a day plus snacks, as much as they can eat in two minutes would be very heavy overfeeding in my book.
Roan Art
03-05-2006, 7:41 AM
Most of my fish are omnivores and are fed a "regular" meal once a day and a couple times a week they get a treat of a fruit (zucchini or other squash) or live blackworms or frozen bloodworms. I put lettuce in a veggie clip every few days as well.
The herbivore tank, however, always has lettuce or veggies in the veggie clips. IMO these types of fish "graze" all day and they should have a readily available source. In the wild -- in general -- I think it would be easier by far for herbivore fish to find veggie food than for omnivores to find meaty foods.
Roan
Roan Art
03-05-2006, 7:44 AM
Twice a day plus snacks, as much as they can eat in two minutes would be very heavy overfeeding in my book.I agree, even sans snacks.
Fish can get fatty deposits around their hearts when they are overfed. Just like with humans, this can shorten their lifespans.
Roan
What exactly would you consider snacks?
Lisa
carpguy
03-05-2006, 8:47 AM
What exactly would you consider snacks?
Random meals that aren't a part of the regular schedule.
Fish are cold-blooded and don't need to keep their body temps a few dozen degrees above ambient. They don't need a whole lot of food and, as a generalization, I think most folks overfeed. I think I overfeed, and I probably feed a good bit less than most.
Ok. I'll stick to my once a day and 1-2 pellets for the bottom crew at night then. Boy, ALL the algae on the front of my tank was gone overnight. Those plecos sure do mean business!
Lisa
OddFish
03-05-2006, 2:25 PM
From the point of view of a LFS I would think maybe the LFS guy recommended light feeding since MANY people that have a tank as a 'pet', vs as a hobby tend to overfeed. I have had folks bring in a fish for trade (gee, those guppys make lots of babies!) and have them just wallowing in flake food. I would say the average family with a tank tends to overfeed as well as offering boring stuff. Except Betta.....there is that silly myth that they eat off the plant roots or whatnot and they rarely seem to get as overfed as a tank.