Fish Food

[keeleyb]

Hi to all you oh so knowledgable folk out there, hope these are not daft questions, not very trusting of LFS as advice goes against everything I have been told or read on this site!

I have but three platys in my first (my kids actually) tropical tank and have been feeding them the flaked food which came with the rena kids kit. I have had the fish now for about 10 days and I fed them some live food on the first day (water fleas I think) as advised by the LFS to help settle them in. They woofed them down immediately and have since been dining on the flaked stuff. The male is not particularly keen on it and appears to eat it simply because there is nothing else.
Today I have noticed that all three are working their way up and down the tank glass (kissing it) they look like they are eating something. Do platys eat algae? The glass is very clean but I suppose that algae is starting to form. What is the best diet? The rena guide just says 'varied diet' and ask you LFS. I would much rather hear your ideas. I am currently feeding them three times a day, roughly about 2 flakes each, each feed. There is never any left!
All wonderful advice will be greatly recieved as I am really getting into this!

many thanks
kind regards
keeleyx

 

[John59]

Mine go crazy on dried tubifex worms and yes they like algae a lot

 

[Breeze7050]

You may also want to try freeze dried bloodworms/krill/brine shrimp or even the frozen variety - available in the freezer at your LFS. As they say though, a varied diet is important. A high quality flake food is also important. It is also good to fast your fish once a week. HTH.

You may also want to try freeze dried bloodworms/krill/brine shrimp or even the frozen variety - available in the freezer at your LFS. As they say though, a varied diet is important. A high quality flake food is also important. It is also good to fast your fish once a week. HTH.

 

[fishboy619]

i use a few different brands of flakes to give them varied flavour, the most common i feed is tetra tropical flakes, tetra proveg flakes, tetra varitity flakes,sera flakes, hikari flakes.also live/frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp.my platies will eat anything that hits the water.they have been seem to peck at algea too,i just sprinkle a few flakes into the water 3 times a day.that does them fine.

 

[Davey Jones]

My daughters platys go made for courgette, they act like a pack of piranas when i drop it in.

 

[Davey Jones]

My daughters platys go made for courgette, they act like a pack of piranas when i drop it in.

 

[Davey Jones]

My daughters platys go made for courgette, they act like a pack of piranas when i drop it in.




I have no idea why that apeared three times,,sorry

 

[keeleyb]

My daughters platys go made for courgette, they act like a pack of piranas when i drop it in.




I have no idea why that apeared three times,,sorry

so do you just cut a pice and drop it in or do you weigh it down with something?
regards
keeleyx

 

[dwarfgourami]

Platies are omnivores but eat quite a lot of herbivourous material in the wild, so an occasional treat of live bloodworm or daphnia, or frozen bloodworm (or there is jellied stuff), but rather more frequent helpings of vegetables, like peas (ordinary frozen, boiled, deshelled and lightly crushed), sprouts (d), broccoli, spinach etc should make them happy- I give them this instead of one of their flake feeds three times a week. Peas are the favourite IME.

 

[Breeze7050]

You will need to weigh the couragette down. They have "screwcumbers" you can buy online - generally ebay.
But, I just use the plant weight sold to you with live plants. Works just as effectively.
You can do a search on the forum on vegetables or cucumber or couragette and come up with lots of ideas on how to sink it!