Feeding My Fish, Help Needed,

[sut]

HI GUYS.

I am new to all this tropical fish keeping as im sure you can tell. i have brought a large tank and set it up now.
i have about 30 fish in the tank about 2 inch is size and smaller. i also have a large plek i think its called thats about 10 inch and i also have a large dollar fish. i also have 2 shrimp about 1 inch

now i am really unsure how much food i should put in the tank to feed all the fish i am concerned i am adding to much and making my tank water dirty as a result,

currently i am adding 1 cube of blood worm a day 1 pellet of pleco wulti wafers a day. and a large amount of fish flakes. the fish flakes are the hardest as i am really unsure how many to give i have done the as much as they can eat in 2 minutes but find the fish just go hunting the flakes at the bottom of the tank. does this show they are still hungry greedy or what lol.

could really do with some CLEAR HELP on feeding as i dont want to kil them with to little now i have the bigger fish but nor do i want to make my water dirty.

thanks for any help.

 

[Gilli]

What is the size of your tank? It sounds as though you have a lot of fish there and if you have a plec thats going to grow to 10 inches you may be way overstocked. Have you cycled your tank before adding the fish - or if not are you cycling the tank properly? With all those fish if you are not doing massive daily water changes and the tanks not cycled you will kill the lot!

In nature fish eat whenever they are hungry and food is available. If food sources are plentiful, they will eat several times a day. On the other hand, if food sources are scarce, they might go for days between meals. For this reason, fish are very opportunistic and will eat whenever they have a chance. That means that if you offer them food, they will usually gobble it up even if they aren't starving. Keep that in mind the next time your fish 'beg' for food. Fish quickly learn who brings the food to the tank and will jump at the chance to be fed, even if they are not in dire need of food. As for how much food to feed, a good rule of thumb is to feed no more than the fish will consume completely in less than five minutes, or stop sooner if you see them losing interest. Bear in mind their tummy s around the size of their eye so feed sparingly - its better to underfeed than overfeed. Feed once a day and have 1 days where you dont feed at all.

When you feed flake food put it in an egg cup with a little of the tank water and swish it round before dropping it into the tank. this way it will sink rather than float on the top and this will give the bottom feeders and the less quick fish a chance to get some. Your plec will also need courgette and other veg and also bogwood for its diet.You dont need to feed bloodworm every day - just a couple of times a week.

If you tank is already cycled then make sure you give it a good gravel vac on your weekly water changes to get rid of any uneaten food and poo or your water stats wont be good if you are overfeeding.

 

[Plecc]

Do you have any other algae eaters in the tank besides the pleco?
Personally for a 10" plec i would feed more than one wafer a day, or one wafer and some veggies.(are they the big Hikari ones?)
Dependant on the type of pleco you have, most benefit from having bog wood in the tank to rasp on. (think this helps with digestion)
Wafers are best fed just before lights out and as long as they have all gone within a few hours you wont have Any issues with polluting the water.

Frozen meat cubes like the bloodworm's are very rich and high in protein, which are quite hard work for some fish to digest,
these should be fed more as a treat every now and then.

Do you have a mixture of bottom and top feeders in the tank?
For the bottom feeders i feed them a pinch or two of JMC catfish pellets.
And the top feeders get Nutrafin max flakes.

You also mentioned some shrimp, do you know if they are filter feeders or bottom scavengers?

Don't worry so much about them looking hungry, lots of fish will happily eat themselves to death if given enough food to do so.
as long as 95% of the flake and pellet food is consumed within five min's you wont have any problems.

 

[sut]

hi

Gilli my tank is 5 foot 2 foot 1 foot. any thank for the rst of the info.


Plecc i think i have to small ones that i brought at the same time as the large 1. the water i am dropping into the tank are a little smaller than a penny although the plec hasnt seemed to eat these at all it is just stuck to the side of my tank and hasnt seemed to eat at all.

the shrimp i thought they was bottom feeders when i brought them as they was running across the tanks bottom but in my tank they dont seem to move off my filter lol.

thank you very much for the infomation guys its really helped

 

[Plecc]

How long has it been since the pleco was introduced to the tank?

More mature ones can get quite cranky when moved or messed around, they often wont eat much for a week.
Or possibly there is enough algae on the sides of the tank to keep him happy at the moment.
Watch that his belly doesn't start to become recessed.
Plecs can become very fussy eaters, especially as they get older.
Mine were brought up on the Hikari algae wafers, (a bit expensive but very good quality) I have since tried to get them to accept cheaper wafers and spirulina tablets,
but they wont even touch them
I recommend going for the largest wafers you can get to suit the size of a 10" plecos mouth.

Sry i think i may have been a bit misleading when asking about filter or bottom feeders,
If you look closely at the shrimp when there feeding, do they have two small pincers for scavaging food from the floor and other surfaces.(this is a bottom feeder)
Or do they have a pair of very fine fans that they wave in the current to collect passing food particles? (this is a filter feeder)

If they are picking small bits of food from the side of the tanks filter, they are most likely bottom feeders

otherwise if they do have the fans, they need special extra fine food. if there just bottom feeders they will be more than happy on the regular stuff.

 

[Plecc]

Stupid question, but the tank has been cycled or started with mature filter media hasn't it?

 

[sut]

hi

plecc the tank has now been cycled didnt know it needed to be before i brought the fish, had a bit of a crash course of late in doing the cycle lol.
the shrimp are bottome feeders.
the plec was only added 2 days ago along with the dolloar.

thanks for you help.

 

[Plecc]

Ah then your plec will most likely just be a bit grumpy at the moment.
Does he have his own cave or hiding hole?
If he doesn't then there is all sorts of things u can use as one!

Bit of PVC pipe hidden under the decor, or you can coat it in aquarium silicone and stick your gravel all over it as camo.
Slate caves look cool, you can cut the slate easily with a hack saw, and again glue together with the silicone.
1/2 a flower pot turned on its side or a whole one upside down with a door cut out.
Seashells.
Or just made from a pile of rocks. (make sure they cant be knocked over)
You can even buy pleco caves, the triangular terracotta ones look nice.

With the DIY ones make sure you remove any sharp edges that may harm the fish

How long has your thank been running for now?

 

[The Taffy Apple]

There maybe an easier solution here.

slu- do you have the means of testing your water for Ammonia, NitrIte, NitrAte and PH ? If you don't have your own test kit, ask the shop who sold you the fish to do it.Once you have them, right them down into this thread.

Terry.