How Often To Feed And How Often To Clean Tank?

[wilchil64]

Once the tank is up and running, how often should I feed my fish? I was told by the LFS to feed them once a morning a small pinch and to add a little more each time we added new fish. Is this enough? I read they should eat all the food within two to three minutes ... is that right?

Also my gold ancistris is still fairly small and up to now I haven't fed him anything else, other than what he forages from the bottom of the tank (which can't be much food, as the danios, barbs and guppys make short work of the flake food!). I've been told they like cucumber and other veg. What veg. can they eat and how do I get it to the bottom of the tank? If I drop in a slice of cucumber, will it start to decompose and spoil the water?

Also, how often should I be cleaning the tank? The ammonia and nitrite levels are zero, nitrates were slightly raised before last 20% water change, (3 days ago) but are fine now. Should I just do a partial water change when the nitrate levels start to rise slightly or on a regular basis, say every week or every 2 weeks. In the instructions for my Fluval tank it says every week, but I don't trust that information anymore, as everything else they say seems to be contradicted here or elsewhere on the web!

Also, can anyone recommend a good beginner's book to looking after an aquarium and fish in the UK? There are so many out there, I had a look on Amazon and other sites.

One more question (for now!), if I add a piece of wood from the LFS, how long do I need to soak it for, presuming they say it's been thoroughly cleaned? And likewise for rocks purchased from the LFS?

Sorry for all the questions! Thanks for your help in advance.

 

[waterdrop]

couple of short comments - You can actually feed them lightly every other day or every third day, but if its nice and light it won't hurt to go for stretches of feeding them every day. They will almost always look/act starved to a human's eye, but food is usually not easy to find in their natural habitats and its better for them not to be overfed. I tend to feed them once a day for stretchs, the sort of randomly throw in one or two-day skips.

Doing gravel clean water changes sessions once a week is a very good habit for beginners. As you get more experienced and read more here you may modify that but that's a good habit to start with I'd say, without going and finding one of our longer write-ups about it.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[raptorrex]

couple of short comments - You can actually feed them lightly every other day or every third day, but if its nice and light it won't hurt to go for stretches of feeding them every day. They will almost always look/act starved to a human's eye, but food is usually not easy to find in their natural habitats and its better for them not to be overfed. I tend to feed them once a day for stretchs, the sort of randomly throw in one or two-day skips.

Doing gravel clean water changes sessions once a week is a very good habit for beginners. As you get more experienced and read more here you may modify that but that's a good habit to start with I'd say, without going and finding one of our longer write-ups about it.

~~waterdrop~~

sounds much like my regime only my gravel treatment is different. good for a newbie, as waterdrop says, learn good habits early.

 

[wilchil64]

couple of short comments - You can actually feed them lightly every other day or every third day, but if its nice and light it won't hurt to go for stretches of feeding them every day. They will almost always look/act starved to a human's eye, but food is usually not easy to find in their natural habitats and its better for them not to be overfed. I tend to feed them once a day for stretchs, the sort of randomly throw in one or two-day skips.

Doing gravel clean water changes sessions once a week is a very good habit for beginners. As you get more experienced and read more here you may modify that but that's a good habit to start with I'd say, without going and finding one of our longer write-ups about it.

~~waterdrop~~

Thanks for that, I'll continue to feed them once a day for now but miss a day every two weeks and see how they go. Yes, they are always telling me how hungry they are!

Should I be adding extra food for my golden ancistris? She seems quite happy munching her way around the tank, and I haven't put any extra food in for her yet.

Also at what point should I think about adding live food? The LFS said flake food is sufficient for my fish (leopard danios, guppys, rosy barbs, two shrimps and an angel fish plus the ancistris), is this true?

Thanks.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yes for the ancisturas start off with some cucmber, cut a wedge of it, you'll need something to weigh it down in the tank, just stick a teaspoon through it and plop it in, take it out after 24hrs or it will start to go manky. You may find they ignore it the first few times, stick with it and they'll start to find it. You should also put some sinking meaty foods in as ancisturas are not vegetarian so get some sinking shrimp/catfish pellets and get some wafers (both algae and meaty varieties) and then mix up the feeding between these three things.

 

[wilchil64]

yes for the ancisturas start off with some cucmber, cut a wedge of it, you'll need something to weigh it down in the tank, just stick a teaspoon through it and plop it in, take it out after 24hrs or it will start to go manky. You may find they ignore it the first few times, stick with it and they'll start to find it. You should also put some sinking meaty foods in as ancisturas are not vegetarian so get some sinking shrimp/catfish pellets and get some wafers (both algae and meaty varieties) and then mix up the feeding between these three things.

Thanks, Miss Wiggle, I've put some in and will wait and see if Mrs Bristles (sad I know!) finds it! I'll get some wavers and pellets tonight for her, should she have one a day when I feed the other fish with the odd day without food?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yup, feed her some whenever you feed the other fish

remember just like any other food have alook round the tank an hour or so after feeding and remove anything that's not been eaten.