Feeding question

[beastie]

One more question:

feeding and how much.

I am struggling to not overfeed in almost all of my tanks:

all four of my small tanks(under 60 liters) have low number of inhabitants, so feeding is always a hassle.

both of my large tanks have bottom feeders that I aim to feed, but due t the ravenousness of the upper part inhabitants, I have to overfeed for the bottom dwellers to get any fill and the upper level fish are fat.

 

For example, this picture is a swab from one of my microworms culture next to it is the pipette I feed with. I will not even use full pipette for any of my small tanks, there will be a cloud of worms. Is that enough? too much? should I feed another dose in the evening? How do you do it in small tanks with low numbers

[nabokovfan87]

How much food is a topic all by itself.... I can link some videos from zenzo for that topic because he really has some good discussion on techniques for that.

That being said, I hope I can help when it comes to how and trying to really feed certain levels of the water.

Ultimately, it's down to feeding the right food to the right section.  I don't think it's ever as simple as buying a food that says "semi-floating" and then half of it is at the top and half sinks and you're done. 

I tend to get all my foods out, pull portions or set them out, then try to feed. Any time I feed fish on the top, I feed one section, then another side of the tank. Just trying to spread that floating style food out enough. Then I will take something that sinks and go to the open sections of the tank (sand areas for instance) and feed bottom dwellers. I want to feed it in an area where the filter won't suck up the food, or turn the filter off, but where when the filter is running it can push that food around.

Mid water feeders, you might have to feed the top, then stick something to the glass or feed a tab to the bottom where they can go and pick at it. There's all kinds of things to feed and having a mix of shapes and foods helps.

Drop in a pipette of live food in a few spots in the tank, then a wafer. Then feed a little bit more of the live food if they've gone to town on it. (don't feed too much that you crash the tank)

I use a feeding tube and feeding dishes for shrimp just to make sure they get that food.

On 11/27/2023 at 12:14 AM, beastie said:

should I feed another dose in the evening?

You definitely can and it's generally fine. I tend to feed every morning, once a day, and then whenever I feel like it feed in the afternoon and sit and watch the tank. Let's say you feed 10 or so times a week. Once every day, that's 7, with 3-4 days you feed at night. Should be plenty.

The smaller the fish, the better it is to feed smaller meals more often.

[beastie]

My biggest problem in my smallest tanks is to not feed all levels 🙂 I have a tank with 6+2 clown killifish and ideally I would love for the food to not reach the substrate. But I also need to feed the fry on the surface and that is hard to do if you do not want to point the parents to it.

The other tank is for now just pygmy corydoras, those do fine with stuff that falls on the ground. But yeah, as you mentioned, feeding community is the hardest. Ideally I would like to feed frozen to all of the fish, but that is problematic due to the fact the upper feeders will gorge and the bottom feeders go hungry. I also have bolivian rams that spawn regularly and I have to be careful not to drop the food to the area they are guarding.

Overall all of the sinking food is lower quality than what I feed the other fish, so the bottom dwellers are coming out of this way worse. I try to combine frozen - small and large sizes and dump into the flow over the tank, but still, before it reaches the bottom, the tetras are fit to burst. I even try feeding first just the tetra, confuse them with dried food, and then do the live/frozen, but still some fish will go for what sinks to the bottom anyway.

I think I need to take a look at the feeding tubes, I have heard people use them and maybe it would do what I need and bypass the tetras...for a little while 🙂 I feed daily, but if I see the tetras/white clouds are too fat, I will skip a day. I also try to feed when lights are out, but I dont think the fish mind and will eat stuff that I was not intending for them anyway. Like repashy. It is super green, just for herbivores, why is every fish eating it and wont let the otos near it.

I will also go with the hatched bbs/microworms, do a drop here a drop there and the leftovers somewhere. I would love to feed like the hatchetfish with that, but nope, not allowed 🙂 

 

The video was helpful, but small fish/large fish are also a massive difference. I am always confused when I see videos of people feeding fry with the bbs/microworms, they do this massive massive cloud, and I am thinking "hey, I dont feed a lot, I should bump it up" but then you see the dry food, and that is like 4-5 pellets and I am like "wow, I feed too much" 

 

[TOtrees]

My tip is to feed smaller than you think for mids and uppers, and larger than you think for bottoms. And do feel free to alternate days. 

Based on your above, a reasonable and difficult theoretical stocking would be clowns with fry up top, and cories down below. I would feed a fine powdered fry food daily (or multiple times per day) in very small amounts. A good fry food will stay up top, and will spread across the surface well for good coverage. Every other day also feed a crushed flake, and on the other alt days feed something chunky and heavy like bug bites or the large vibra bites (yes even for the smaller cories). For the bottom foods, I'll take a pinch in my fingers, hold it in the water for a couple seconds, then let it go. It will all fall to the bottom in sort of column. I place it where it will go into crevices or under plant leaves, where the cories will get it but the uppers are less inclined to forage. 

Another advantage of the chunkier foods is the bottom dwellers will break it up as they feed. Some of the particles will move around and the uppers and mids will get some of that. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/27/2023 at 3:26 AM, beastie said:

Ideally I would like to feed frozen to all of the fish, but that is problematic due to the fact the upper feeders will gorge and the bottom feeders go hungry. I also have bolivian rams that spawn regularly and I have to be careful not to drop the food to the area they are guarding.

Take one cube and thaw it in a little bit of water, it'll sink right away.  Then for the surface use a worm feeder?  You can also cut cubes and go that route if one cube is too big.
 

On 11/27/2023 at 3:26 AM, beastie said:

I think I need to take a look at the feeding tubes, I have heard people use them and maybe it would do what I need and bypass the tetras...for a little while 🙂 I feed daily, but if I see the tetras/white clouds are too fat, I will skip a day. I also try to feed when lights are out, but I dont think the fish mind and will eat stuff that I was not intending for them anyway.

Yeah, it just really depends how persistent the fish are. Some top dwellers will always go to the bottom to get food, while other may never leave the surface.  I just use a piece of tubing I cut off, you can get a piece of sprinkler riser and do the same thing. Just stick it in, feed, then pull it out and hang it on the wall.
 

On 11/27/2023 at 3:26 AM, beastie said:

Like repashy. It is super green, just for herbivores, why is every fish eating it and wont let the otos near it.

A lot of fish are omnivore.  They take a bite and go, "oh, this is delightful" and that's all it takes.  Opportunity based, food is there, so they feed.
 

On 11/27/2023 at 3:26 AM, beastie said:

The video was helpful, but small fish/large fish are also a massive difference. I am always confused when I see videos of people feeding fry with the bbs/microworms, they do this massive massive cloud, and I am thinking "hey, I dont feed a lot, I should bump it up" but then you see the dry food, and that is like 4-5 pellets and I am like "wow, I feed too much" 

Agreed... it's definitely a skill you learn to balance over time.  It's always a situation where you can feed less, feed more if you see it disappear.  I tend to go the route of feeding, wait ~5-10 minutes, if a ton of it is still there, then i fed way too much.  I always tend to feed a bit too much it seems! But, the nice thing is... come back in an hour and if the food is all gone, you're good.  If it looks like someone dumped an entire tin of fish flake, then you have to really cut back.