Hello Fish Peeps

[Austinhorseguy]

I'm happy I found you folks! While I have had both freshwater and saltwater habitats in my life I still consider myself a newby. I never really found the time to read and study this hobby. I'm happy to say I'm all in now and looking forward to hearing your advise. I recently acquired a 40 gallon freshwater aquarium with all the bells and whistles including two preditor fish and two plekos. One of the predators, an african knife fish I donated to my favorite fish View attachment 141190store as it had grown too large for my tank. I kept my two plekos and this wonderful african leaf fish that has won my heart. The prior owner had him for over 2 years and he was only fed frozen or freeze dried bloodworms and tropical flakes.
He's extremely docile so I went against ALL the rules and added 5 yellow cichlids and two kori angelfish. Before you judge me, let me say they all get along (over a month) and he has shown no agressive behavior towards the others. He actually has become much more social instead of hiding most of the day. He allows the cichlids to join him in his favorite tunnel and they show no fear. Neither the cichlids or angelfish pester him and show him respect when he's out and about. I have a short video of them I'll post when I figure out how.
I want to give him more variety in his diet but am worried that if I add live food it might make his natural predatory instincts come back to life. Would love your advise or responses.

 

[Guyb93]

I would use live foods but I wouldn’t use live feeder fish as I’m with you and maybe could trigger that predatory instinct, I’m feeling your tank is a little small and maybe keep an eye out for a larger option in the future, I find good live foods are worms , earth worms are great as they are free and easy to purge
Also a bit controversial small frogs , my Severum has ate a few frogs that are larger than the tetra it lives with tbh ... upload a video took me a while also I believe the only way still is to upload to YouTube then add the link

 

[Corypower]

I would use live foods but I wouldn’t use live feeder fish as I’m with you and maybe could trigger that predatory instinct, I’m feeling your tank is a little small and maybe keep an eye out for a larger option in the future, I find good live foods are worms , earth worms are great as they are free and easy to purge
Also a bit controversial small frogs , my Severum has ate a few frogs that are larger than the tetra it lives with tbh ... upload a video took me a while also I believe the only way still is to upload to YouTube then add the link

Brine shrimp is a good option for you perhaps?

 

[Austinhorseguy]

I would use live foods but I wouldn’t use live feeder fish as I’m with you and maybe could trigger that predatory instinct, I’m feeling your tank is a little small and maybe keep an eye out for a larger option in the future, I find good live foods are worms , earth worms are great as they are free and easy to purge
Also a bit controversial small frogs , my Severum has ate a few frogs that are larger than the tetra it lives with tbh ... upload a video took me a while also I believe the only way still is to upload to YouTube then add the link

 

[Austinhorseguy]

Thanks much for your advice I will definitely look into the Utube thing, I've never posted on it before. Also the worms sound like a good first step on adding variety to Leaf's diet.

 

[Guyb93]

Thanks much for your advice I will definitely look into the Utube thing, I've never posted on it before. Also the worms sound like a good first step on adding variety to Leaf's diet.

Earth worms are good to be fair id with Start my own colony of them or keep a few constantly purging in water also maggots can never easily got from fish tackle shops I here they contain a lot ov protein and cholesterol though