Feeding Time

[fish-r-fancy]

Hi, I have 2 catfish, a marble goby, a jewel chichlid and a pink convict. I've bee feeding the catfish and marble goby 3 turtle pellets each (because they sink and they seem to like those) and some large goldfish flake food. The convict and jewel get whatever flake food is on the top and the bottom feeders get whatevere sinks. The other day my marble goby ate a whole jewel chichlid and a small oscar. Now I think I haven't been feeding them enough and my other fish don't eat the flake foods. Would it be better off if I feed them all feeder goldfish and if so how many should I get for a month? Thank you

 

[fish-r-fancy]

I just bought some feeder guppies about 30 of them. I'm now down to 11 and we witnessed my marble goby eat about 10 of them. Any suggestions? Thank you

 

[DarkEntity]

So rather than use tropical fish foods, u are using turtle pellets and goldfish food?

have you tried actually giving your fish a good balanced diet of good food, bloodworm, shrimp, vegetable matter etc. Id say they are either hungry or your big fish are doing what comes naturally.

 

[dwarfgourami]

What species are your catfish? They all have different dietary needs- but I have never heard that they include turtle pellets or goldfish foods. There are special catfish tablets that sink, and depending on the species, these can be supplemented by either vegetables (cucumber, courgette etc) or bloodworms. Some catfish also need to eat wood. It is important to get this right as your fish's health could suffer if fed the
wrong food.

I would have thought the convict and the jewel would be better off with tropical flakes, supplemented occasional live food.

As for the marbled goby, all the information I can find states that it is a fish predator. So why are you keeping it in a community tank? It may still be possible to train it to take other foods, but it will probably take some time. Ask for suggestions in the oddballs forum. Goldfish feeders are a bit risky as they are known to often carry disease. The safest way would probably be to breed your own feeder guppies- if you really cannot get it to take other food.

edit: rereading your post, I see that the goby is actually taking dry food. So all you need to do is to take it out of the community tank. You can't really expect it to go against its hunting instincts, or to understand that only certain fish in the tank are "feeders" and others are your prized pets.

 

[fish-r-fancy]

Well to clarrify everything I have 2 catfish a channel catfish and a bullseye catfish and of course the marble goby. The only reason I am feeding them turtle pellets is because they like those better then anything else that I've offered them. I also feed them some samples that I got at the lfs that are called Hikara tropical for bottom feeders. As for the other fish they are being feed goldfish flake food because they liked it better then Tetramin tropical flake foods. I also put a bloodworm in there about a week ago. So that answeres your question Darkentity yes, I have tried to feed my fish a good balanced diet. We just found out that the fish ate a total of 15 of the feeder fish. They were actually minnows or guppies not goldfish. Looks like I'm going to have to get rid of my marble goby.

 

[dwarfgourami]

You could of course set it up in a species tank, if you have the room. But they are known fish predators so that's probably never going to change.

 

[fish-r-fancy]

You right, dwarfgourami there behaviors are never going to change, today I have somebody buying the marble goby and I want to get rid of the other cats to. I want them to all have a better home.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

You right, dwarfgourami there behaviors are never going to change, today I have somebody buying the marble goby and I want to get rid of the other cats to. I want them to all have a better home.

glad to hear it, if you can't give them what you need then it's the only sensible thing to do.