My fish have no manners!

S

sculpin

AC Members
Feb 24, 2006
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I have a new tank with 2 mollies and a platy right now. Apparently their mother didn't teach them how to eat because they're little pigs. I put flake food in and crumbs fall all through the water to the bottom. Its not extra food, its just they seem to spit some out, or only take a bite of a flake, or miss a piece or something. They're eating, just very sloppily. They try to go scrounge around on the bottom after I'm done, but they can't get it all. Anyway, that can't be good for my water.

I saw pellets for Goldfish at the fish store but nothing similar for tropical fish. Does anybody have any recommendations on pellet type food or something that will help keep my tank a little cleaner?

Thanks!
 
u can also make get some flake varieties that have the "clear wtaer" formula.dont know if it works though.i think tetra makes it.
 
I had that problem. My fish are slobs LOL. One of the reasons the flakes might be sinking so quickly is because the force of ur filter takes the under, try using some feeding rings, I have 3 and my fish know when its feeding time, they stick their little heads in the rings and no mess at all :)
 
I feed my fish bloodworms occasionally, and my Gourami, well he grabs a worm, sucks a bit, spits it out. Then he grabs another, sucks, and spits. Occasionally he'll keep sptting one out and sucking a bit more each time till it's empty.

What a grot.

:rolleyes:
 
You're right, excess food is not good for the water.

Instead of buying a bottom feeder or feeding rings or anything like that, just stop feeding so much.

If food is getting by the mollies and you are not placing it right into the outflow of your filter, then you are either:

a) giving them too much food
b) giving them flakes too big for them to eat

Crumble it and just give them enough that it's consumed before it hits the bottom. Don't put any flakes bigger than one of their eyes in the tank.

Whatever you do, don't use pelleted food. It just sinks faster than flakes.

I'd say 95% of people who keep fish overfeed them. In the wild, when fish they are not propagating, they spend all their time looking for food. Not eating, looking. Since mollies are veggie and algae eaters, they have to work at getting their meal and most likely graze almost all day. That means very small quantities over a long period of time. In home aquaria, we dump well over a day's worth of food in the tank at one time and a lot goes uneaten.

The best way to fix a problem is to find the cause of the problem and fix that :)

Roan
 
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