A Well Balanced Diet?

Cooper2085 · Apr 10, 2008

Hi all im looking to get started on a regular well balanced diet for my fish. I have (Or will have on Saturday):

8 Panda Corys
3 Albino Corys
6 Guppys
5 Copper Harlequins
1 3" BN Plec
1 1" BN Plec
1 Amona Shrimp

I currently have, Bloodworm, Daphina (sp),Brine Shrimp, Mosquito larve, Mussel's, Cyclops, Good quality flake, Hikari catfish pellets and Veg (Cucumber, courgette etc etc).

Im looking at a 7 day plan with the 7th day being a starving day. So Mon-Sat whats the best way of giving my fish a well balanced diet. All the meaty foods are frozen.

LolaLouie · Apr 10, 2008

1stly cucumber corgette etc. aren't a meal on their own, I usually have a slice of cucumber or corgette in the tank at all times. Peas can be used as a meal however. 2ndly food such as bloodworm which has high protein should always be followed the next day by something like daphnia or brineshrimp to aid digestion.

Well this something like what I feed my fish and i think I give them a pretty good diet:

Monday- Bloodworm
Tuesday- Daphnia/Brineshrimp
Wednesday- Flake
Thursday- Peas
Friday- A choice of any frozen food except bloodworm
Saturday- Live brineshrimp or daphnia
Sunday- Nothing

They also get a corgette/cucumber everyday and the catfish get their wafers everyday except Sunday.

The main thing is don't over feed on meaty foods such as bloodworm.

EDIT: You might want to consider getting more than 1 amano shrimp, they like to be in groups and are far more active and fun to watch. I have 8 but i'm sure 4 or 6 would be enough.

Cooper2085 · Apr 10, 2008

Monday- Bloodworm
Tuesday- Daphnia/Brineshrimp
Wednesday- Flake
Thursday- Peas
Friday- A choice of any frozen food except bloodworm
Saturday- Live brineshrimp or daphnia
Sunday- Nothing

Ok i have no live food as of yet, would another frozen be ok? Am i right in saying Mussel and Bloodworm would both be high protein foods, along with prawns and things like that? How do you do the peas? Im interested as iv never thought of using them! Are they frozen peas? Do you mash them up?

Do you feed a whole pellet? Or half? Do you break it up into smaller pieces?

LolaLouie · Apr 10, 2008

Personally I wouldn't bother with the mussles or prawn, you don't have any fish that will particularly benefit from it. Bloodworm will be more than enough to provide a meaty treat for your fish. You don't need to feed live food but the fish really like it. Live food only lasts 3-5 days in the fridge so you just have to buy a packet as you need it.

The peas you cook for 2 minutes then take the shell off, normally the centre pops out if you squeeze 1 side of the pea, mush it well so there's no large pieces (I put it in a bit of cling film so you can mush it really well and not get it all over the place).

And the algae wafers, given that you have 11 corys I'd put 3 small cory wafers in each day (depending on how quickly they eat them... they shouldn't last more than an hour) and then 1 pleco wafer as well as courgette/cucumber.. I don't know what BNs eat but I think they eat veg, you can check in the catfish forum. Oh and you put the thing in whole, it softens over time so they can suck it up.

Cooper2085 · Apr 10, 2008

Ok well the cory wafers i have atm are about 6mm across. Im pretty sure these are the small ones.

What sort of peas are we talking about? Frozen i guess? Or could i try and get some shelled peas ready?

When i first started fish keeping i overfed alot, i just dont want to overdo it. Atm there are 6 corys and i feed 1/2 a pellet a day.

LolaLouie · Apr 10, 2008

I use frozen peas but i dont see why you couldn't use fresh. I'd say half a wafer for 6 corys isn't enough especially as i'm sure your other fish must eat them too?

Maybe put 2 in and see how long that takes to go. If you have good filtration that shouldn't hurt at all. If worse comes to sorse you can always fish it back out but I think there's something wrong with your fish if they don't finish 2 wafers between them all within an hour!

With overfeeding it's trial and error, you just find the right amount to feed your fish by experimenting and finding the amount that none gets wasted. Unfortunately there's no science to it. If you're really concerned don't add it all at once, put a little in see that they eat it then put a little more.

Cooper2085 · Apr 10, 2008

Thanks for the reply

3 last little things.

1) Do you break the wafers up or put them in whole?

2) How much of a frozen cube do you add?

3) Do you add the whole pack of live food?

LolaLouie · Apr 10, 2008

1) Yes wafers whole.
2) I think with your stocking I'd give a whole cube of frozen food, thaw it 1st in a tub of tank water otherwise the dominant topdwellers will end up getting all the food. If you find 1 cube is too much cut the cube in half using a sharp knife and just feed half and put the other half back in the pack.
3) And again with the live food you have to see how it goes, if using daphnia then i don't think it will hurt to add a whole packet but just bloodworm can be a bit dodgy, my fish really bloat up if they eat too much.