Food - Exactly How Much?

[csjasona]

I know this question has been 'done to death', but I am still at a loss as to exactly how much food my tropical fish should be fed. I get different answers from everyone I speak to!

I have a 60litre BiOrb and I have the following fish within it:

2 gouramis (dwarf, male and female)
10 small neons
2 clown loaches
2 guppies
4 glass fish
4 zebra danios
2 deep orange things with black tails - no idea what they are! Anyone suggest what they could be? They are about 4cm long in total, deep orange body and a black tail.

So, how much is the right amount of food for these? I tend to use the TetraPro range of food, so if anyone else uses this and would be able to say "use enough food to cover half the top of the Treta food top", for example, that'd be helpful!

thanks
jason

 

[dwarfgourami]

What are the glass fish:
glass catfish or
Indian glassfish (hope not, as they are brackish)

If glass catfish they probably need a certain amount of live food in their diet (though this can take the form of frozen or jellied bloodworms etc)

The orange ones might be platies? They and the guppies benefit from an occasional treat of "live food", too and also from vegetables (like boiled peas) in their diet once a week or so. And the other fish in your tank would also benefit from the addition of live food.

Very hard to give an exact amount of how much food to feed these. The guppies and platies I would say not more than 3 tropical flakes each per day, perhaps about the same for the danios, the neons slightly less, gouramis a little more.

More importantly, do you realise that there is no way all those fish can live in such a small tank for any length of time? The clown loaches can grow to at least 10 inches and need LOTS of space (210 ltrs usually considered a minimum). The guppies, platies and neons would be enough to fully stock your tank; maybe after the tank had been up and running for 6 months you could just squeeze in a gourami as well.

 

[csjasona]

Yes, they are platies I've just looked for pictures and they are the same...

The glass fish look like the first pcture here (without the colours):

http/images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt...6lr%3D%26sa%3DN

Would I be better off removing the 10 neons and giving those to a friend, to reduce the stock in the tank? He is looking for about 10 neons right now and his tannk can hold them, so that may be a good step in the right direction for both of us?

I'm aware that the loaches grow; I was told at the LFS that I could keep two of them in the tank for at least a year (they are currently very small at about 5 - 6 cm long). By the end of that time, I hope to have a larger (rectangular) tank within which to move the existing fish to.

With regards to the live food (which I have tried and the fish go ape for it!) -- how shoudl this be stored? Does it have to be kept in the fridge or is anywhere relatively cool OK? I see that in my LFS they are in their water abgs on the cashdesk; only special types are kept in the fridge. Is this OK?

Thanks
Jason

 

[WILDER]

You are well and truly overstocked, take the clown loaches back to the lfs, as they need to be in very large tanks like a 125gal, plus all you should have in there is the neons and maybe the two guppys and that it.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=34953

 

[tttnjfttt]

Also, what type of gourami do you have in there? Some can grow up to 6" (15 cm)

How long have you had this tank set up for? I feeling that you haven't cycled the tank yet, which means you are going to be having major ammonia build up problems. Ammonia is very toxic and will honestly kill most of your fish. The only one's i'd say have a chance of surviving are the zebra danios. Please consider taking some of your fish back to the LPS and cycle the tank frist so it will be able to handle the fish's waste. Then research how many fish you can put into a tank, along with their needs, and then begin to stock the tank

 

[csjasona]

The tank has been up and running for 6 months with no fish loss and no visible fish health issues. The water is tested every week and the Ph, Kh, Gh, No2 and Co2 are all within the acceptable limits (actually, the No2 is <0.3mg/l).

The 2 gouramis are, as stated, dwarf gouramis. The male is about 4.5cm long and the female about 3.5cm long.

The 10 neons will be moving out to a different tank very soon, anyway.

And if the manufacturer's helpline (BiOrb/ReefOne) say that a 60litre tank can hold around 28-30 fish the size of guppies and then other people say that is too much, who is actually to be believed? I have posted this question on 4 different forums and have had about 12 answers, all saying very different things. Wonderful...

 

[dwarfgourami]

And if the manufacturer's helpline (BiOrb/ReefOne) say that a 60litre tank can hold around 28-30 fish the size of guppies and then other people say that is too much, who is actually to be believed?

Probably the people who aren't trying to sell you something... The Biorb people aren't going to point out that their tank has less capacity(due to smaller surface area) than the ordinary rectangular 60 ltr tanks sold by rival manufacturers, or that a 60 ltrs actually allows for a fairly small community of fairly small fish.

Pet shops also do not always make it their first priority to teach how to keep your fish alive and in no need of replacement for the next 10 years. They make more money if they can encourage you to buy fish that will force you to buy a bigger tank off them (apparently breeds such as bala sharks and clown loaches are known as tank shifters in the trade), or at the very least will need to be replaced and/or medicated at regular intervals. To be fair, a lot of people in the trade are more ignorant than deliberately dishonest; they are in the business of manufacturing tanks or selling fish and may no have personal experience of keeping fish over a long period of time.

A rough general rule of thumb is the inch/gallon rule: i.e. you can allow 1 inch of small slimbodied fish (like guppies), of species that stay under 3 inches, per US gallon of water. Large-growing fish like clown loaches, heavy waste producers like plecos, territorial fish (like bettas) need different rules- generally allowing less fish/gallon.

A 60 ltr tank is c. 15 US gallons, so this would allow you about 15 inches: 4 danios (4x 2")+2 platies (2x2")+2 guppies (males count as 1 ", females as 2").
I have a rectangular 60 ltrs in which I keep guppies and platies; by the time they are grown up, I shall keep 1 guppy and 7 platies in there; this I count as fully stocked.

The risk if you overstock, particularly if you don't do a lot of water changes, is that you will eventually develop old tank syndrome, a sudden crash of the water quality, with resulting fish deaths. I notice that you test ph and water hardness and nitrates, but not the much more significant ammonia (NH3/NH4) and nitrites (NO3); if I were you, I would test regularly for those.

 

[csjasona]

Cool. I do want a larger tank, relatively soon anyway, as cleaning the BiOrb is a pain in the ***!

Can you reccommend any testing kits that do the Nh3/Nh4/No3?


j

 

[WILDER]

Tetra test kits.
What about the clown loaches as they are going to be stressed in such a small enviroment.

 

[csjasona]

Tetra test kits.
What about the clown loaches as they are going to be stressed in such a small enviroment.

That's the reason for the move to a 215l tank - this weekend.