How to Not Overfeed With A Glutton in the Tank?

[Zim]

Hey everyone - I've only been back to having aquariums for a few months after a 30+ year absence from the hobby and I have a few questions about feeding.

Back in the 70s, "Tetra" products were a staple. With reading up to get back in the swing of things, however, I'm seeing people trash Tetra as an inferior food. Well, I'm horrified as that's what I bought first thing when I started up in the hobby again as we always thought it was a good name back in the day. Anyway, I have Tetra Goldfish Crisps and Topfin Floating Variety Pellets that I'm using for my goldfish. Any better products? There doesn't seem to be a lot to pick from for goldfish. I do feed freeze dried tubefix worms and frozen brine shrimp as treats as well, with cooked peas once a month or so.

Second, as with the Tetra products for the Goldfish, I dumped my Tetra flakes I was using for my tropical tank and bought Nutrafin Max Tropical Fish Flakes instead. I also bought Aqueon Bottom Feeder Tablets for my cory cats and I found Hikari Micropellets. Again, I use the freeze dried worms and frozen brine shrimp as treats for the tropicals as well, and I just bought Hikari freeze dried blood worms. Should the blood worms only be used now and then or could they be a staple? The fish go NUTS for them! Is Nutrafin a good product as far as flakes?

The problem with the tropical tank is I'm finding that in order to make sure everyone gets a share, I think I'm overfeeding. The gluttons of the tank are my platies. I try to feed flakes or the bloodworms first, then when the platies are gobbling those, I throw in some of the Hikari pellets near the filter outflow so they get forced below the surface so the neon tetras get something as well. Between the platies and zebra danios, the tetras don't get many of the flakes/worms on the surface. If I put in the micropellets first, they gobble those in seconds and none of them "sink" so the tetras can get to them. I'm not sure anything is getting to the bottom for the corys, so that's why I got the sinking bottom feeder tablets. After the last feed of the day, I shut off the lights, then a few minutes later, push in a bottom feeder tablet thru the opening where the heater is in back of the tank hoping the corys get to it before the platies find it because if they do, they hog that as well. I only use the bottom feeder tablets every other day or every third day. Is that enough? I've only fed them peas once sofar as I read the platies need some green veggies now and then. All the food seems to be gone in less than a minute and I switched from feeding once a day to 3-4 times a day (less food more often). Maybe go to twice a day instead?

Finally, I'm feeding some platy fry and since they are so large (for fry that is) I was simply feeding finely crushed/powdered Nutrafin flakes. They seemed to be getting bored with them (taking in a bit then spitting it right back out again) so I finely ground some of the freeze dried blood worms and they've been going crazy for it. Is that enough for them until they get bigger or will only feeding the pulverized blood worms hurt them somehow? I've been trying to find brine shrimp eggs to hatch some for them, but my lfs doesn't sell them - strange. I've been feeding the fry 5-6 times a day. I also only plug in the filter overnight as the little guys are blown all over the tank and there's no adjustment on the filter to slow it down.

I'm probably making too big a deal and they have more food than they need, but as I said, being "new" again, I don't want ignorance about what I'm doing to hurt my fish. Everyone seems fat and happy, active with great colors, etc., but maybe they're TOO fat & happy?!

Lisa

[Lady Hobbs]

Tetra has been around forever and fed many a fish. It rather annoys me that some will simply trash a long stranding company claiming they know more what fish need than anyone else.

There are several good fish foods out there and there is nothing wrong with giving them a variety. Tetra may be not Prime Rib and it may not be Sirloin but, in my opinion, there's nothing wrong with a T-Bone either.

I fed Ocean Nutrition, Tetra, Hikari and numerous kinds of food. But I doubt you have to worry about Tetra poisioning your fish.

PS.....Platies are hogs! They over eat, get fat, get constipated and swim around with a foot long of waste behind them. :( Let them fast a couple days a week and feed them nothing.

[Zim]

Thanks for the info. I did think it was strange as Tetra seems to have been around so long and I would think that wouldn't be the case if they didn't have decent products, but as I said I've been away from the hobby for a long time and things can change.

It sounds like as long as I give them a variety, they should be fine. I do count on the flakes being the main part of their diet with everything else being a now and then thing, so I wanted to make sure about the quality of the flakes I'm buying.

I know everything in the tank is getting plenty, except for the cory cats. Are the sinking pellets the best way to make sure they get their share? I know they love worms, but I can't figure how to get them any without the other fish gobbling them all first. I used to feed live tubefix worms back in the 70s, but I don't know if you can even get them anymore.

Lisa

[Lady Hobbs]

Yes, they should do great with pellets. I give all my fish pellets mostly....but sometimes flakes and even Tetra Crisps. Flakes are said to cause constipation because flakes can swell up in their bellies but if they aren't given flakes constantly and pellets as well, I see no reason flakes can't also be fed. New Life Spectrum and Hikari both have good pellets.

[Tiari]

Tetra gets a bad rap, because its sort of like the "fast food" of fish nutrition. Back in the day, say, thirty years ago, they were about all you could get. If you went to buy fish food from a fish store or pet store, there it was lining the shelves. We all used it, because, frankly, that is all that there was.

All it takes to figure out why Tetra gets slammed, is to just read the ingredient list on the label. While it is not exactly terrible, there are many many better products out there on the market, and the price, obviously reflects this.

Tetra get slammed in the same way that Walmart dog food gets slammed, or grocery store generic cat food gets slammed. Its full of fillers, which do not nourish the one being fed. Cheap ingredients, with artificial colors.

That said, Tetra will not kill your fish, in fact, many fish do well on it, however, the problem is when it is the primary source of nutrition. If fed in a rotation it is a fine inclusion, but I would not count on it giving your fish the best source of nutrients on the scene. Fish are not designed to eat wheat fillers, so there is no way to know how well a particular fish will do on that food.

Goldfish, have the most varied diet, so feeding some tetra mixed in with other foods should be no problem at all. They can eat anything from vegetable matter to live and frozen and freeze dried foods, so nutrition should not be a problem, as long as it is varied.

To get food to the neons before the greedy platy's, you might try putting in the tiniest pinch of the most attractive food to get the smell in the water, like freeze dried brine shrimps. Crush them down to a fine powder, and only a pinch, which should get the neon's into "feed action" and prime them ready to go at food put in. Not sure if it will work, but its worth a shot.

[hardlytangerine]

Hehe I have the same issue with my penguin tetras. they live at the upper area of the tank so they get everything first, or so they think..

I sometimes crush flakes into very small bits, and i wet a finger and roll it in the flake-crusts... i sink my hand slowly in and some of the food will cling to you until you wiggle it off at the lower areas. My cardinals aren't too used to me yet but they are getting the idea, lol. Though I dont always use this technique.. sometimes I just feed like normal, but I will gently "splash" a finger about to drown the flakes a bit so they sink faster. that way the cardinals have a better chance.

When feeding bloodworms, I let them thaw in a plastic cup and I use this pipette (is that even a word in english?) it's a veryy small "one time use" eye-drop thing (rinsed though it only contains salt water anyway) and i use this to suck up some of the bloodworms. I will start by squirting it out to the penguin tetras first, and I do it again but I lower my hand in the tank a bit so I can squirt the worms out at a lower level, and sometimes I make sure some of it goes into the plants... cause my penguins arent too bothered with looking for it while my cardinals dont mind a good search.

This eye-drop thing was actually something I started with when I had a betta I could "handfeed" with this thing lol but I realized it was quite handy.

[Zim]

Putting a tiny bit in to get the "smell" in the water makes sense. It does seem like the tetras are a day late and a dollar short when it comes to "waking up" to the fact that the food is actually in the water and those platies don't waste a second! Once the tetras realize the pellets are there, they get most of them so I just have to get them going for them sooner.

The bloodworms I have are freeze dried so I just shake them in - the fish seem to love them. And yes - pipette is a word lol! You'd probably find an eye dropper easier than you would a pipette these days tho!

Lisa

[zaneypop]

All the advice above is great. I have a couple and the only thing that I found to work is fasting them a couple days a week.