Mono Food

[justinp]

What would you recommend I add to my Monos diet...I have two Argenteus, who will eat anything and two Sebae who are very picky... Right now I am feeding them Frozen Bloodworms, Mysis Shrimp, Live earthworms, crickets(usually only the argenteus eat this), beef heart (only the argenteus will eat this), lettuce (only the argenteus) and prawn... I think their favorite is prawn! They go crazy.

I was also reading one of the other posts about the different types of Monos fighting and killing each other! I have had three of these Monos for two and a half years and added one more about a month ago and they definetly get aggressive with each other at times but usually are fine. The Sebeas are much more aggressive but never really bite hard, just nip fins a bit. And they all grew up for a year in a small 40g tank in the beginning, with no problems. So my experience with keeping them together has been great!

Thanks

 

[nmonks]

You're feeding them a fine diet. See if you can get them to take flake/pellets; mind did. I know it is boring (to us) but flake food is the single best way to ensure a fish gets 100% of the nutrients it needs. With some foods, like prawns, there are high levels of thiaminase, so as a staple they aren't ideal for fishes unable to compensate. So you need to make the diet varied (which you're doing). But adding flake to the diet brings in trace minerals and vitamins.

My monos enjoyed "cichlid gold" pellets, from Hikari if I recall correctly. They also enjoyed trout pellets (the ones used on fish farms).

Schaefer (Aqualog book) suggests that the aggression in monos is down to pre-breeding behaviour, his observation being that groups of monos eventually split up into pairs, the dominant pair driving off (i.e., attacking) all the others. Furthermore, he says that these dominant pairs hold a territory, usually a rock, which suggests that they spawn on the rock and guard the eggs. Such behaviour is certainly seen with, for example, discus and angels, which are schooling fish when young (or not breeding) but territorial pairs when breeding.

As I have said elsewhere, I have _never_ noticed this behaviour. I looked after these 4 monos for about 5 years and they all got along famously. Possibly the large size of the tank (~200 gallons) mitigated such behaviour. On the other hand CFC has written eloquently on his observations more along the lines of what Schaefer reports.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[justinp]

Actually they do all take flake and pellet foods, I forgot about that...

 

[AMS]

What would you recommend I add to my Monos diet...I have two Argenteus, who will eat anything and two Sebae who are very picky... Right now I am feeding them Frozen Bloodworms, Mysis Shrimp, Live earthworms, crickets(usually only the argenteus eat this), beef heart (only the argenteus will eat this), lettuce (only the argenteus) and prawn... I think their favorite is prawn! They go crazy.

Cut out the beef heart all together, it does more harm than good, even when fed sparingly. It is good that you are feeding a varied a diet, but Monos do not need that much meaty foods. I would replace some of the meaty foods with some vegetable matter. Monos are omnivorous, and do consume a large amount of vegetation, though the need for it is not nearly as compared to scats. Vegetable based foods such as blanched spinach or lettuce, Spirulina flakes or pellets, African cichlid pellets, algae wafers, dried seaweed/kelp and frozen marine herbivore foods should be fed as well as meaty foods.