Feeding....

[Jimmy Twotimes]

Hi everyone

Tank is starting to get set up and will be cycling shortly. I will be looking to get some loaches (kuhlis hopefully), zebra danios, platys and guppies.

When I feed these do I need to ensure I use a mixture of flake and pelletts so that the bottom feeders get something and the top and midwater feeders also get fed?

Or will the loaches come up for the flake? I dont want to overfeed by putting both flake and pellett only for one of the other to remain uneaten...

Cheers

Jimmy

 

[Alien Anna]

Fish don't need feeding every day anyway, so use a mixture of different foods so that different fish eat their favourites on different days.

 

[Jimmy Twotimes]

Cheers Anna

So i could do flake one day and pellett the next...?

Would a structured regime work? For example, Monday - Flake, Tuesday - Pellett, Wednesday - Freeze Dried Bloodworm, Thursday - Frozen Daphnia, Friday - Flake, Saturday - Pellett and Sunday - Nothing....

Would this be a balanced enough diet for a comunity tank?

Jimmy

 

[guppymonkey]

Fish don't need feeding every day anyway, so use a mixture of different foods so that different fish eat their favourites on different days.

Are you saying to feed fish every couple days? I know fish can fast for much longer than a warm blooded animal could. But I usually feed my fish twice a day and I haven't noticed any adverse effects of this multiple feeding.

 

[Alien Anna]

Are you saying to feed fish every couple days? I know fish can fast for much longer than a warm blooded animal could. But I usually feed my fish twice a day and I haven't noticed any adverse effects of this multiple feeding.

Well no, but I know people who do without problems. My regime is rather like that described by Jimmy i.e. FD bloodworms one day, flake the next, frozen peas the next, sinking pellets, cucumber, lettuce, live daphnia or brine shrimps, frozen community food...

I generally don't give them the same thing two days running but I have a real mixture of stuff I feed. Some days the vegetarians do better than the insect eaters but it all evens out in the end. I've had surprises - tetras that like zucchini/courgette for instance, a molly that would kill for live food and barbs that won't eat algae tabs, but as their diet is very varied they all get plenty to eat. I don't worry if one particular fish doesn't get much to eat for a couple of days - as cold blooded creatures they don't need the calories a mammal would require.

If you feed too much high protein food you find the vegetarians get constipated and the nitrates in your water shoot up, but vegetables aren't usually a problem.

 

[Aqua_Princess64]

I saw something on another website that said for bottom feeders, if you don't want other fish eating their food or the bottom feeders eating the top feeders food, put the food in a jar with a top big enough for the bottom feeders to get through. Hopefully they'll get the idea. If you take this advice, then put the jar in the same place every time and at the same time(s) every day.