Voracious Fish

[rw_hyde]

In a cycled 10 gallon tank, I have three zebra danios, a female guppy, three neon tetras, an angelfish, an otto, and a dwarf gourami. I'm a little overstocked, but they're all very young fish, and I don't think I'm far over. Chemical statsare all well within the recommended ranges for all the fish (although nitrate is toward the upper end).

The danios, and more especially the guppy voracious eaters--the food packet recommends "no more than they will eat in a few minutes," but I swear I think between the four of them they could swallow the entire packet in one gulp. They often eat so agressively the other fish don't get any. After I've fed them, they're constantly taking bites out of the plants--I think the guppy singlehandedly ate an entire stand of annacharis.

I read somewhere that I should feed about as much food as their eyeballs... but I'm afraid they'd start eating each other or something! I've been gradually ramping up they're food levels (while carefully metering the ammonia, of course) and they seem insatiable. I'm afraid to keep feeding them more, since consequent to all this eating they seem a bit fat. However, they still eat anything even marginally edible that I put in the tank--including algae wafers, and now somebody's eating the java fern.

All this to ask, briefly, how much food should they be getting? and, Should I be concerned?

Thanks in advance.

 

[mommyof2bettas]

feed about a pinch per fish, twice a day.
I'm not that good with food, and I'm not sure about this, but someone more helpful might answer this better. I believe you are overstocked, infact, the angelfish, and gourami should go. Also the tetras should be in groups of at least 6.
And as for the fish being fat, guppies can store sperm so they can become pregnant up to 8 times in a row with no male around! Maybe that's why the female's fat.

 

[n3ont3tra]

Maybe trying a more varied diet would help, because I've noticed when I do this that each fish picks their favorite kind of food and eats more of it than other kinds. Then other fish could get to the food more.

 

[rw_hyde]

Thank you for your quick responses.

That could explain why the guppy's so fat. Have you ever heard of them eating the algae wafers? I'm a little concerned about that-- it seems like that would be sort of a last-recourse food. Does anyone else have experience with fish that just wouldn't quit eating? Or how to save the plants!

Anyway I'll try feeding "a pinch per fish" and see how that goes. while varying the diet a bit.

I'm not too concerned about the overstocking (gasp!) because the tank is heavily planted, I'm not far over (if over at all), and I have the chemical readings on meter, so I'll know if I get a spike. Also, the tank is plugged into my computer's battery backup. The angelfish and danios will be moving into the bigger tank when they get bigger (the neons make the angelfish look like a midget, right now). At this point I'll be adding more neons, as well.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Guppies and danios are voracious eaters, not a lot you can do about that. My gups go for the plecs wafers and the corys' tablets and anything else they can get at. Guppies and platies are munchers in nature, with quite a lot of herbivorous matter in their diet, so their instinct is to keep on eating, like cows. In fact, they don't need more than 2-3 flakes/day. But what you can do is to give them a more varied diet- instead of flakes, give them frozen bloodworm or daphnia once or twice a week, and maybe substitute vegetables for 2 or 3 of the week's flake feeds. Vegetables are good for their health, and also adds a bit of interest, as they can spend more time chewing at a piece of pea or sprout, gives them more to do than flakes. I feed mine peas, sprouts, broad beans, spinach, lettuce etc.
As for danios, I seem to remember they live in fast-flowing streams where they snap at insects, so they're not going to pass up on an opportunity. Again, a few flakes/fish/day should do the job, but substituting "live foods" now and then will make their lives more interesting.

Guppies and danios are voracious eaters, not a lot you can do about that. My gups go for the plecs wafers and the corys' tablets and anything else they can get at. Guppies and platies are munchers in nature, with quite a lot of herbivorous matter in their diet, so their instinct is to keep on eating, like cows. In fact, they don't need more than 2-3 flakes/day. But what you can do is to give them a more varied diet- instead of flakes, give them frozen bloodworm or daphnia once or twice a week, and maybe substitute vegetables for 2 or 3 of the week's flake feeds. Vegetables are good for their health, and also adds a bit of interest, as they can spend more time chewing at a piece of pea or sprout, gives them more to do than flakes. I feed mine peas, sprouts, broad beans, spinach, lettuce etc.
As for danios, I seem to remember they live in fast-flowing streams where they snap at insects, so they're not going to pass up on an opportunity. Again, a few flakes/fish/day should do the job, but substituting "live foods" now and then will make their lives more interesting.

 

[rw_hyde]

Thank you so much for your help. I will follow your suggestions, and add vegetable matter to their diets, and cut back on flake food to a more moderate amount.