Feeding my fish: How much is enough?

mel_20_20

mel_20_20

AC Members
Sep 1, 2008
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Deep in the heart of texas
After having water quality issues, my tank is cycled, but the lady at the lfs said to feed only every other day.

I'm worried about the Emerald cory and the 2 Otos.
I have a 10 gallon. 3 tetras, 2 guppies, 2 ADFs, 3 ghost shrimp, 1 very smart mystery snail and live plants.

I use some flakes, but also drop about 2 to 3 of those wafers for bottom feeders ( usually break each one in half and drop in different areas )

I'm worried I don't have enough algae for the otos, and the dang snail has a nose like a bloodhound. She (I call her a she but I don't know) will be traveling across the glass and do a 180 and make a bee line for a wafer after I drop one in there.

I don't know how much of that the cory gets, and I'm really unsure about the otos. My tank is so clean looking. How do I know if they are getting enough to eat.

Everybody in there looks hungry to me, but as the very strange lady at the lfs store said (with a straight face and without cracking a smile) when I told her this..... "What else are they gonna do?"

How much should I feed them? Would there be algae in there that I can't see? I don't want to starve anyone.
 
Kind of a tight squeeze given the tank size so I would be more cautious with how much you do feed. Generally I like to say feed as much as what is eaten (nothing falling to the bottom) in about 3 minutes. Maybe a little less in your case. It's hard to give any exact amount but I wouldn't worry about your fish starving unless you go weeks without feeding.

If you are worried about the otos, try feeding some fresh veggies as well.
 
I have read from many sources that you should feed only what the fish can eat in a couple of minutes. Also I feed my guys every day twice a day and skip a day every week. This will make the fish go around the tank looking for food eating any uneaten food.
 
I do english peas every couple of days. Blanched and peeled.
Do you think the tank is too crowded?
 
What would you do? What size tank do I need for these guys?
 
20 gallon? Twice the water capacity and fairly cheap still...
 
3 Neons: they really need more than 6 to be happy, they are a schooling fish that needs company of their own. Either get 3 more or take them out.
2 Guppies: Fine in a 10 gallon, just be careful for babies if they are male and female.
2 ADFs: Fine in a 10 gallon, just make sure that they are being fed enough food.
1 Cory: They need at least 6 to a group and if you have that in a 10 gallon, you would overstock it. Give them back to the LFS.
2 Otos: They prefer groups of at least 4 and unless if you are feeding them enough food, it would not work in a 10 gallon tank.
Shrimp: You can keep them in there, they clean up the extra food and have very little bioload.
Mystery snail: You can keep it in there.

So either get rid of the Neons and keep the Guppies, or get rid of the Guppies and get 3 more Neons. Fish you will need to take out for sure are the cory, and otos.
 
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