[WaterRat980]

Recently, I purchased a large container of Cyclops-Eeze, but the can came with no feeding instructions. It is supposed to be super-high in protein and I have been using it as a food supplement along with Spectrum pellets and frozen foods for my fry (less than 1"). The container did not have any feeding instructions, so I have been feeding it as I would a pellet or flake. The fish seem to love it and stuff themselves. My questions is"Does this food need to be re-hydrated before use?" I have my fry tanks set up with automatic fish-feeders to make sure they have food while I'm at work. Most of the time, my small angels will stuff themselves so much that they look like they're going to explode and you can see the bright orange food in their stomachs. Every once in a while, I'll find a few small angels dead at the bottom of the tank. Other than their stomachs are completely full, there are no other obvious reason why they died. Earlier this week, I had a feeder malfunction while at work, and about three times the normal food was dumped into the tank. The peas-sized angels obviously gorged themselves, as when I got home, they were so full they could hardly swim. I removed the excess food and did a 90% water change. Last night, there were about two dozen dead baby angels with their stomachs obviously distended with food. This morning there was another dozen or so dead babies. Is is possible that when fed dry and eaten by smaller fish, the Cyclops-Eeze absorbs water and swells enough to kill the fish? This has only happened with my angelfish fry. Has anyone else had this happen?

Thanks

 

[triscuit]

The website has some information, including this table:

http://www.cyclop-eeze.com/product_info.php

My guess is that too much of your fish diet is made up of this stuff and you are feeding way too much. I don't know of a autofeeder than can effectively dispense powdered food in small enough quantities for fry.

My fry tanks get decapsulated brine shrimp eggs and golden pearl. I use a salt shaker to dispense the powders, and have baby plecos in my cichlid tanks for clean up.

 

[WaterRat980]

Thanks. That's exactly the information that I was looking for. I definitely was feeding too much of the Cyclops-Eeze. Since there were no instructions, and it is marketed as a brine shrimp replacement, I assumed that feeding them 100% Cyclops-Eeze was OK. It took a while, but after a week or more, I started to experience the previously mentioned die-off. Interestingly enough, this only happened to the smaller angels, not to the German Blue Rams or the larger angelfish (quarter-sized and up). My guess is their little bodies couldn't process the high protein content. After altering their food, the die-off stopped and we're back to healthy fish once again.

Feeding too much has not been a problem. When I say fry, I was referring to pea-sized angelfish that are housed at the rate of about 300 per grow out tank. These little guys are capable of eating flake food, but I wanted to give them something with a little higher protein content. They inhale anything and everything that I put in there, so over-feeding with the fish feeders isn't usually a problem, and I'm already doing 70-80% water changes every other day to keep things in check.

I will reintroduce the Cyclops-Eeze back into their food at the recommended rate and we'll see what happens.

Thanks again for the info.