Community tanks and greedy fish
Posted: 03 Aug 2009, 13:53
I thought about putting this in the tank talk section but it seems a bit trivial to put it there.
Most of my tanks are community tanks (unless I'm trying to spawn a type of fish that's small enough to go into a 10 gallon or 20 gallon tank). In most of the tanks the fish are of similar temperament in terms of shyness (any dither fish notwithstanding) and willingness to feed (in some tanks all the fish disappear behind decor as soon as they see me, sneaking out again after a decent interval, and in some tanks they're all there begging to be fed).
However, in my 5' 150 gallon aquarium, some fish are more successful at wolfing down vast quantities of food in very short order, whilst others chew desperately at food just hoping there's something left for them after they've finished the piece they're on. Because of the size of most of the fish, I feed more pellets than other foods, with some flake to make sure the smaller fish get something, and occasional frozen foods. The pellets are either small sinking hard pellets e.g. JMC catfish pellets, or pre-soaked floating koi pellets (the reasoning being that the tilapia, barbs, Distichodus and even Geophagus require a more vegetable-based diet than typical tropical fish. I also try to feed small amounts separated by 30 minutes or so rather than just feed the whole lot in one go. Despite this, the Synodontis euptera spends most days looking like a football, as she upends on the water surface and literally just swallows everything that goes into her mouth (the barbs and Tilapia tend to as well), whereas the poor hoplos and Callichthys struggle to chew even very soft, small food. As such, some of my fish eat a hugely disproportionate amount of the food offered. My P. gibbiceps also struggles to juggle pellets, but at least he/she gets fed courgette/cucumber several times a week.
If necessary I can target feed the hoplos/Callichthys as they will hand-feed for bloodworm, but short of trying to shoo away the syno (not easily done as she shows zero fear of me, and not something I want to do either) every times she comes out to feed, how do I stop her overfeeding?
Most of my tanks are community tanks (unless I'm trying to spawn a type of fish that's small enough to go into a 10 gallon or 20 gallon tank). In most of the tanks the fish are of similar temperament in terms of shyness (any dither fish notwithstanding) and willingness to feed (in some tanks all the fish disappear behind decor as soon as they see me, sneaking out again after a decent interval, and in some tanks they're all there begging to be fed).
However, in my 5' 150 gallon aquarium, some fish are more successful at wolfing down vast quantities of food in very short order, whilst others chew desperately at food just hoping there's something left for them after they've finished the piece they're on. Because of the size of most of the fish, I feed more pellets than other foods, with some flake to make sure the smaller fish get something, and occasional frozen foods. The pellets are either small sinking hard pellets e.g. JMC catfish pellets, or pre-soaked floating koi pellets (the reasoning being that the tilapia, barbs, Distichodus and even Geophagus require a more vegetable-based diet than typical tropical fish. I also try to feed small amounts separated by 30 minutes or so rather than just feed the whole lot in one go. Despite this, the Synodontis euptera spends most days looking like a football, as she upends on the water surface and literally just swallows everything that goes into her mouth (the barbs and Tilapia tend to as well), whereas the poor hoplos and Callichthys struggle to chew even very soft, small food. As such, some of my fish eat a hugely disproportionate amount of the food offered. My P. gibbiceps also struggles to juggle pellets, but at least he/she gets fed courgette/cucumber several times a week.
If necessary I can target feed the hoplos/Callichthys as they will hand-feed for bloodworm, but short of trying to shoo away the syno (not easily done as she shows zero fear of me, and not something I want to do either) every times she comes out to feed, how do I stop her overfeeding?