[zazz]

just something that has been bugging me ...the idea that this godlike figure dumps a load of food on the surface once or twice a day.....

im sure if the fish were having to find their food by siffting the substrate or taking tiny bits from the water ....it would be more meaningfull to their lives.... and would be more intersting from us the viewer.

also this ensures that all the fish get a chance of at least some food even if they are hanging out in caves when it comes.

i have been crushing up pellets in water into a kind of mush that when delivered will be impossible for the fish to devour at once ...some falls to the bottom and some hangs in the water.

now at the back of my mind i am wondering if this is bad idea.....like i am promoting an imbalence in the tank of rotting foodstuffs which may result in higher levels of toxicity for the fish.

or do some owners already do this.....

just wondering on what your thoughts might be on this matter??

 

[cichlidaholic]

I don't want to feed my fish anymore than they can consume in 1 minute, and if I feed them twice a day, no more than they can consume in 30 seconds.

I really don't think it's a good idea to promote waste in a tank to that extent, unless you're going really heavy and frequent on the water changes.

 

[Cich of it all]

Crushing pellets into mush IMO is, like you say, a sure fire way to keep nitrate levels higher that they need to be. I think the fact that keeping fish confined inside a glass box makes it difficult to make all but a few aspects of fishy life very much like it would be in the wild. In nature, they can travel some distance from their home to find food, plus the general population density is much less dense. These two aspects allow an individual fish to have more area to obtain food, thus lessening the amount of aggression required to obtain an adequate amount. Just “givingâ€

 

[zazz]

this is a different approach...because it isnt in small pellets....they cannot physically get it all in one go...which is sort of the point of my post....the stuff that falls to the bottom is as far as i can tell get hooverd up quite quickly....the stuff in suspension is either consumed or the filter gets it.

in fact i may be guilty of not giving them enough.

and yes i do water changes quite a lot.....

just trying to get away from this pellets on the surface....mad feeding frenzy...are they all consumed within one minute formula.

but if this is the only one that ever works ..then so be it.

 

[DNK]

For grazing fish, you could increase the amount of light in the tank to promote algae growth on the rocks.

 

[zazz]

you know i would love to do that....my only problem is that the tank is devoid of natural light but i was thinking of getting a tube that might grow algae.

 

[cichlidaholic]

You could also blanch some spinach, anchor it to a rock and offer that to them one day a week. Most fish seem to love it, and it's a good "grazing" food.

 

[zazz]

i will try the spinach..thanks.

 

[Cich of it all]

For grazing fish, you could increase the amount of light in the tank to promote algae growth on the rocks.

That sounds great in theory, but IME even thought the fish eat SOME of the algae, eventually the algae gets out of control. Plus, depending upon the species of fish, you most likely still want to feed them protein of some kind. It seems like the fish would rather just wait for the good stuff than have to work for food by nibbling algae.

 

[why_spyder]

For grazing fish, you could increase the amount of light in the tank to promote algae growth on the rocks.

This is a good idea - I've done this myself. I made good use of a southern exposure picture window. Couldn't keep the glass clear for more than a day or two at a time. :lol: Of course, there wasn't enough algae to sustain them - just enough for them to snack on in between feedings.

Another good thing you could do - if were up for the challenge (keeping proper tank maintenance and such) is to raise your own plankton. Most mbuna will flock to plankton blooms in the wild when they occur - Cynotilapia especially. :thumb:

 

[Dewdrop]

opcorn: It's natural for mosquito larva to fall on top of the water and the fish to consume it there. Just think of them as getting lucky more often than they would in nature and sprinkle away with the can of nutritious fish food lol :thumb:

 

[DJRansome]

Cucumber is neater to remove than spinach. And for algae, one of my books recommends growing "algae rocks" outside your tank in the sun, and then rotating the algae rocks into the tank for the fish to graze until clean.