Feeding Bebe Fish

[Hobbit]

Two questions about feeding baby fish.

First, is it possible to over feed them? I’m not talking about risks to water quality—I’m more asking if it’s possible for them to eat too much. Will they stuff themselves to the point of getting dropsy or constipation or any of the other things we worry about with adult fish?

Second, how do you all handle weaning fry onto prepared foods? Just stop feeding them live foods and keep feeding them prepared food until they get hungry enough to eat it? I assume that’s the basic strategy, but if anyone has any tips or success stories I’d love to hear them!

[Cory]

Technically you can feed baby fish too much. Mostly it's too much for too long that's a problem. Guppies can be fed so much that at the 2 month mark their chest cracks open for instance. But this is overfeeding for the first 2 months of their life and takes a lot to do it. 

 

As for weaning, you've got it right, most fish aren't hard to transition. 

[Tom__in_Maryland]

try fluval bug bites, put some in a baggie and pound the heck out of it with a hammer then sift the (talc consistency) powder into a testtube with a little water shake and pour in a cloud of fry food.  baby brine alone does not have the vitamins that the fluval bug bites tropical blend has.

Edited November 7, 2020 by Tom__in_Maryland

[Hobbit]

5 hours ago, Cory said:

Guppies can be fed so much that at the 2 month mark their chest cracks open for instance.

Oh yikes!! Okay well that’s bad. Now I know!

@Tom__in_Maryland I have hikari first bites and I’ve been trying to get them to eat that. I assume it’s similar to fluval in terms of nutrition but maybe fluval bug bites are tastier.

[Raeburn]

Hi.

Over feeding can create a situation where the gut is too full and extends into the swim bladder cavity preventing the swim bladder from developing properly. I have had this experience with Bettas.

 

As for weaning, I start by feeding 80% live food, 20% prepared and increase the percentage of prepared food daily. I still feed live foods from time to time as part of a balanced diet.

Edited November 8, 2020 by Raeburn

[gardenman]

I feed my baby fish homemade fish food that I grind up in a spice/coffee grinder.  I can alter the makeup of the food that way for whichever baby fish I'm feeding. I start with a basic Tetramin flake food for vitamins and overall nutrition. If I'm feeding baby mollies or other herbivores, a few algae wafers will go in. If I'm feeding more carnivorous fish freeze-dried brine shrimp, tubifex worms, krill, etc. gets added. The spice grinder lets me get it to a very fine powder that all but the smallest fish can eat. As they grow I just grind it a bit less to get more bigger pieces until they're eventually able to handle it unground.

Can you overfeed them? It's possible, but underfeeding is more likely going to be an issue for you. Some fry will just be better at getting food and will snatch it up before others if you don't feed enough and those that don't get enough food will suffer. I've never had a problem overfeeding. My baby Super Red Bristlenose Plecos have food available nonstop (canned green beans, algae wafers, freeze-dried tubifex worms, etc.) and do fine. My baby Neon Swordtails have never had an issue with overfeeding. If I was going to err on one side or the other, I'd err on overfeeding rather than underfeeding. 

[Hobbit]

Thanks for the help everyone! As of today, two out of my three baby gourami have eaten and swallowed some hikari micro pellets. 😊