Feeding a Varied Community

[bostonbass]

Looking for feeding guidelines for my tank. I have some that eagerly eat food off the surface (platy), some that wait for it to start to sink (tetras) and others that prefer eating off the bottom (loaches.) Then there are some that only come out at night to eat (pleco.) Plus the inverts.

It's hard for me to know how much to feed them since they all eat different things at different times. For example, I may drop an algae wafer for the pleco but the inverts might get to it first.

What are some guidelines for feeding fish that eat different things at different times in different amounts?

I usually feed algae wafers, flake, sinking food, and fresh veggies.

 

[Byron]

With fish that feed at different levels, it is advisable to use both floating (or very slowly sinking) food like flake or small pellet, and rapidly sinking food like tabs, disks, or pellets. When you add flake, if you gently stir a small area of it, it usually starts sinking; or place some directly in front of the filter return. The mid-water feeders will easily feed from this.

I have both types of feeders, and nocturnal too, and I first add the surface food, then immediately the sinking food. When I feed I also lightly tap the tank frame with the spoon I use, to signal (like a dinner gong, lol). It is amazing how the fish quickly learn to identify this with food, and it is how I can see all the "hiding" fish like loaches and cories and other catfish that might otherwise remain out of sight for periods.

If nocturnal fish are missing out, adding some sinking foods well after total darkness can work. Darkness means not only the tank light is out, but has been for an hour or longer, and the room is totally black with no ambient light. Fish do not need much light, so when the tank light goes off, and if the room is still lit with daylight or lamps, the fish will still be highly active. It takes complete and total darkness to get them "asleep." And that is when you can feed the nocturnal fish, if necessary.

Byron.

 

[bostonbass]

Great response. Lots of good info. Thanks.