hi, i recently bought 6 glass bloodfin tetra how much should these guys be fed? as ive no idea how much is to much, and obviously would not like to over feed them

(ps i have tropical aquarium flake food)

cheers
greg

This post has been edited by Greg Night: Aug 30 2006, 01:15 PM

Bloodfin tetras are omnivores so they like a bit of everything in their diets, so a good mix of veg and high protein based foods is good . Foods that they should take other than standard fish flakes are;
Bloodworms
Krill
daphinia
TetraPro vegetable flakes
Frozen vegetable mix cubes

I don't really advise feeding tubifex, as although they will take it, live tubifex can pass on parasites to fish and has also been known to come from areas with raw sewage in it, so isn't really the healthiest or safest of fish foods.
Live mosquito larvae also make a healthy addition to any tetras diet as well (you can generally fine them in any pond or deep puddle of water etc) .
Frozen or live foods are more nutritional than dried, although there is an obvious slight advantage to having dried foods as they tend to come in bulk and last longer more often and are generally easier to find. Try to feed fresh or frozen foods as often as you can though .

Generally speaking on how much you should feed them, you should feed them as much as they'll happily consume in around 2 minutes. If there are any leftovers after 10-15mins in the tank, you should cut down on feeding as this is a sign you are over-feeding.
Small but regular meals (like 3-4times a day) are more bennificial than large but not so regular meals for smaller fish, as because these fish are small so are their guts which indicates in the wild they would live off a small but relatively constant supply of food rather than huge occasional bulks of food.

Bloodfin tetras are technically sub-tropical fish, meaning they prefer temps between 19 and 23 degree's best. Some people keep them in tropical tanks, as they are admittedly hardier enough to live in some of the more warmer tropical temps, but they do best in cooler tropical temps none the less as this is what they are best suited for .

This post has been edited by Tokis-Phoenix: Aug 30 2006, 02:28 PM