“natural” acting foods…

[Magnum Man26 140]

so, in prepared foods, you kind of have a couple choices, sinking, floating, and slowly sinking… most foods will end up on the bottom… I just fed my tetra tank, and for a few seconds, everyone was swimming around mid level, eating… but after a minute or two, the tank looks empty, as all the foods I feed right now, end up on the bottom, after a couple minutes, and all those mid level feeders are working the gravel… I’m assuming most / all are mid level feeders, catching most of their foods not on the bottom, in the wild… I have some fish that will not feed off the bottom, so they only eat from the mid level… the hatchets only from the surface…

I’ve not found a good floating food for the hatchets ( size and composition ) that they will eat, so they grab the slowly sinking foods, while it’s in their area… for them I use crushed flake blends and Ultra Fresh slowly sinking micro pellets…

for the bulk of the tetras, it would be nice if there was a good food, that would more slowly sink, or stay in the mid level…

I would guess that it’s not normal for most tetras to bottom feed??? and it is an un natural learned trait needed to survive in an aquarium, with prepared foods… if I had more time I’d hatch out brine shrimp every day, if nothing else, because they stay mid level longer…

I have some “Vibrabites” which are supposed to mimic blood worms, but the composition, is not what I really like to feed, and they are also slowly sinking so they end up on the bottom sooner than the micro pellets

thoughts???

 

[bgarthe26 43]

Yes, with many tetra tanks, I see your point and agree. My tetras have learned to both grab/feed in the middle/upper region and forage on the bottom. What I do add to my regular mix of flakes and various micro pellets at feeding time that stays in the top to middle for a good while is Freeze Dried Blackworms that I used to feed my discus. Of course, I have since then had to order fresher FDBWs, but the tetras go crazy for them. In fact, my corycats no longer wait for scraps/leftovers and shoot to the surface and nab a few FDBWs right there with the tetras. With the smaller tetras, I do lightly grind these up with my hands while the larger tetras don’t need it. But…….beware, the goofy tets will over indulge and swim around with a cigar-like FDBW sticking out of their mouth. Don’t over do it…..go easy.

 

[Magnum Man26 140]

I had a jumbo cardinal swimming around with an algae cookie in it’s mouth this morning, big enough it could barely carry it, that it had to go to the bottom to retrieve…

 

[Back in the fold]

Yes, with many tetra tanks, I see your point and agree. My tetras have learned to both grab/feed in the middle/upper region and forage on the bottom. What I do add to my regular mix of flakes and various micro pellets at feeding time that stays in the top to middle for a good while is Freeze Dried Blackworms that I used to feed my discus. Of course, I have since then had to order fresher FDBWs, but the tetras go crazy for them. In fact, my corycats no longer wait for scraps/leftovers and shoot to the surface and nab a few FDBWs right there with the tetras. With the smaller tetras, I do lightly grind these up with my hands while the larger tetras don’t need it. But…….beware, the goofy tets will over indulge and swim around with a cigar-like FDBW sticking out of their mouth. Don’t over do it…..go easy.

Fish figure it out . If there’s food they’ll find it . I’ve seen that cigar bit before with frozen bloodworms . What’s comical to watch is the fish trying to steal it out of the mouth of another fish . Greedy little sods .

 

[GaryE25 140]

They learn in tanks, but for a lot of them, camouflage fails in the wrong part of the stream. So they're reticent to take risks, though hunger overcomes that.

There was a food called golden pearls available in many sizes a few years ago in the US. It was more expensive and never really grabbed any mass market appeal, but it was engineered to sink slowly and wobble all the way down. I used it for fry, but the larger sizes would do for many adult fish. You might want to explore that.

Killies that only want live food would often be fooled by the wobbling and discover it was like doritos falling from heaven.

 

[bgarthe26 43]

“……..doritos falling from heaven.” Sounds yummy except for my A1C, sodium, cholesterol

 

[GaryE25 140]

“……..doritos falling from heaven.” Sounds yummy except for my A1C, sodium, cholesterol

I know it would be bad for me, but its one consequence of climate change I'm holding out for.

 

[FattyFish1]

I tend to feed flake and live brine shrimp. I feed the flakes at different degrees of crumbling in my fingers. The larger bits tend to stay higher longer, but the very tiny bits, "almost dust", makes its way to the middle for my Ember Tetras. My Cardinals, Rummies and guppies will take food from all levels. I also use Betta Pro Shrimp Patties as a treat to target-feed my Guramis; they come to a small surface ring feeder and take the food from there, but will also eat the flakes from anywhere and love hunting the tiny brine shrimp in the plants and wood.

 

[MuddyWaters3 3]

I feed my hatchets flightless fruit flies. Other fish end up eating them too, but I get them (and raise them) for the hatchets. It's fun to watch them hunt and I would imagine that the fruit flies are good for them. I also use tiny pellets that will float a lot longer too.

The only fish I have that absolutely won't eat off the bottom (other than the hatchets) are clown fish, but that's for another forum

 

[GaryE25 140]

I use sinking pellets (Tropical, and Bug Bites)for corys and some bottom dwelling dwarf Cichlids. Otherwise, I dislike the format. I have some old fashioned bug bites flakes that fish learn to eat. I don't use a lot of manufactured foods except for my livebearers.
For my Ancistrus, I add pieces of dulse, a red seaweed used as a snack food here. It's easy to have natural acting food for a herbivore.
I culture fruit flies, and they are excellent for surface hunters - hatchets and Epiplatys killies. It has taken me a while to get culturing them down. They work nutritionally, and those fish MUST feed at the surface. I also add sinking, wiggling grindal worms regularly, as a lot of fish feed on worms and insect larvae. They are much easier to culture than fruit flies.

For the first time in at least ten years, my outdoor Daphnia cultures failed this summer. I got about 3 feedings out of one, and that was it. They usually gave me mosquito larvae (a wonder food that had better get eaten fast), Daphnia pulex, and the odd bloodworm. This summer, I think they were too warm. Normally, from May to October, I give about 5 feedings of daphnia a week - free food.

In the cold months, mostly, the fish have to adapt to the food, and it isn't going to act naturally. It gets wet and sinks, or it thaws and sinks. The aquarium is an unnatural environment, and a lot of fish will learn to change their feeding patterns. I don't think that bothers many aquarists - look at the passion they argue against fine grained substrates for sand sifting cory group fish. A lot of my micropredators hunt naturally (with little luck), but they'll feed on manufactured cafeteria food.

It's not the worst thing. I've largely cut processed foods and fast foods out of my diet, and it's been very good for me. I'm not going to the ancestral ancient human foods and joining a band of scavengers on a savannah to eat leftover lion kills, or chasing inaccurate fad diets. We need our nutrition and fish need theirs. Nothing fattens up young fish faster than commercial prepared foods, and I'm not sure fattening up should be the goal.

With the foods in stores, I don't see us finding food that moves like natural prey for our larvae, bug and invert eaters. I think we have to focus on quality nutrition and give up on that aspect. I will never purchase a fish that will only eat moving food if it can't be satisfied with freshly hatched brine shrimp. Over the years, I've been won over by live foods, after many failures at cultivating them, but not everyone has a warm but beat up old garage for their fish. Escaped fruit flies would make the people I live with unhappy, as would the occasional smell of an old white worm culture.
They strive to prepare fish for breeding, because that was what engaged aquarists liked to do, and talked about. Casual hobbyists don't set up fish food companies. If you don't breed fish, and most hobbyists are now consumers first, you might not need the kind of dietary requirements designed for the old mainstream hobby.