How many pellets to feed Apistogramma?

[kellyturner]

Hi All,

I'm not sure how many pellets I should be feeding my pair of Apistogramma viejita daily. I bought some Hikari Sinking Cichlid Gold mini pellets, but I can't seem to figure out how much to feed them. They also get some flake food that floats down past the glofish and rasboras, but the pellets will be the apisto's primary food. I'm currently feeding them once per day, and they've been getting 2-3 pellets each per day, but they seem very hungry at feeding time. It seems to take up to an hour for them to eat all the pellets, but it does seem to take a long time for them to soften up enough to be eaten. Any suggestions as to how many of these mini pellets I should give to them each day?

Thanks,

Kelly

[smaug]

It sounds like the pellets are too big for them. Try hikari sinking micro wafers,all your fish will like them and they are a great staple diet.Of course you can crumble the bigger pellets. Btw ,your fish should react hungrily when the food is presented,if you think you arent feeding enough then most likely you are doing it about right.

[kellyturner]

Thanks for the tip! I've ordered some Hikari micro wafers from Amazon. Since all my fish will eat these, how much should I give them (I have 10 glofish, 10 harlequin rasbora, plus the 2 apistos)? With this type of food, do the fish generally eat it all within a few minutes?

[Stlouisfish]

When I feed my fish, I put in a tiny, tiny amount and watch it get eaten, then I add more, watch it get eaten (you get the idea) - that way when you see the fish becoming disinterested or more of it falls to the bottom than gets eaten (usually after about 3 min) you can stop.