Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping => Gallery Showcase => Topic started by: Andy M on June 19, 2013, 06:51:59 PM
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Hope this works. Poor pics but best I can do
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Ooh how exciting! Lovely tank and fish :-) How they all settling in?
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They look nice fish ;D I'll bet you're glad to finally have some thing live in the tank - well alive and big enough to see ;D
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cherrys seem ok, harlys seemed to be at on edge of tank looking frantic, fed them a little food, bloke in MA said would be ok cos he hadn't got round to them today
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Some species settle in straight away, others take a few days. Give the harlies a bit of time. You'll probably find that both of them get more colour as they settle in.
They've been through a series of traumatic experiences - shipped to the shop, put in a tank where they get stared at with nowhere to hide, and every so often someone sticks a net in and chases them round. These particular ones were caught today and put in a bag, then into a strange tank with water that'll be slightly different from where they were (even of the shop was next door). It's not surprising that fish are a bit stressed when they get to the new owner's tank.
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Yeah when you put it like that its no wonder, they seem a bit more at ease now they had a little to eat. Is it best to just feed once a day?
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Oh wow, now those are nice looking fish. :)
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Thank you, dunno how you can tell from quality of those pics lol
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Is it best to just feed once a day?
Either once or twice, but if you feed twice use half the amount of food each time so the total amount per day is the same. I do realise it's next to impossible, but try to feed the same amount of food per day that is the same amount as one eye per fish. A fish's eye is about the same size as its stomach.
Feed a variety of food. The main staple should be flake or pellets (that is, commercially prepared dry food). They are designed to have all the nutrients a fish needs. If they keep spitting pellets out and trying again, soak them in a bit of water before putting in the tank.
Live food, or frozen live food, can be fed as a once or twice a week treat instead of flake. Frozen is safer as it kills any bugs you can get in alive live food. Bloodworm, brine shrimp, daphnia should be available as sheets of cubes in a freezer in most shops. The cubes go a long way. For the fish you have at the moment, cut a cube into four and defrost a quarter in some tank water before feeding. Dried live food is available but this should definitely be soaked before feeding to rehydrate. Dried has less nutrients that frozen or alive because the drying process destroys a lot.
And peas once a week. Microwave a few in a bit of water or save some from your meal (unless you cook them with a lot of salt). Squeeze the insides out of the skin and chop up or mash till the pieces are the right size for the fish's mouths. I feed peas the day before I do a water change so I can get out any bits left uneaten before they decompose. Even carnivores go mad for peas ;D
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That was quick for piccies...thank you.
They all look lovely, enjoy your new bubble-blowers ;)
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Is it best to just feed once a day?
Either once or twice, but if you feed twice use half the amount of food each time so the total amount per day is the same. I do realise it's next to impossible, but try to feed the same amount of food per day that is the same amount as one eye per fish. A fish's eye is about the same size as its stomach.
Feed a variety of food. The main staple should be flake or pellets (that is, commercially prepared dry food). They are designed to have all the nutrients a fish needs. If they keep spitting pellets out and trying again, soak them in a bit of water before putting in the tank.
Live food, or frozen live food, can be fed as a once or twice a week treat instead of flake. Frozen is safer as it kills any bugs you can get in alive live food. Bloodworm, brine shrimp, daphnia should be available as sheets of cubes in a freezer in most shops. The cubes go a long way. For the fish you have at the moment, cut a cube into four and defrost a quarter in some tank water before feeding. Dried live food is available but this should definitely be soaked before feeding to rehydrate. Dried has less nutrients that frozen or alive because the drying process destroys a lot.
And peas once a week. Microwave a few in a bit of water or save some from your meal (unless you cook them with a lot of salt). Squeeze the insides out of the skin and chop up or mash till the pieces are the right size for the fish's mouths. I feed peas the day before I do a water change so I can get out any bits left uneaten before they decompose. Even carnivores go mad for peas ;D
And i was just going to use flake :-[
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Don't worry - I made the same mistake of assuming I could just feed flake too! The frozen food is really cheap too and lasts for aaaages. I bought some for my fish when I first got them, and I've used about 1 cube so far of daphnia and brine shrimp (though my fish are smaller!). MA will sell them so you could always get some when you go back to get your endlers :D
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I will mention it next time i go, will have to be couple of weeks for more fish
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Flake is fine. I have flake and pellets as I have different kinds of fish. You may find it useful to get some kind of sinking pellet if you get cories as they feed off the bottom and the mid/upper level fish usually eat everything before it reaches the bottom of the tank. Putting both flake and pellets in at the same time means some pellets usually reach the bottom for the cories.
The live food is only a treat and you don't need to use it. Think of the flake/pellets as being a proper meal and the live food as a Macdonalds burger, nice but not much food value ;D
The only downside to flake is the potential for causing constiption. That's what the peas are for, and most people have frozen peas in their freezer.
Tip - with small fish I find it helps to crush the flakes up a bit. That gives more bits which means all the fish can find some rather than one or two fish eating all the whole flakes.
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I'm really glad you got the fish. My male Cherry Barbs have turned an incredible shade of cherry red, but it's taken them six months. Remember, too, that you fish are still very young. They tend to colour up as they get older.
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Added 3 endlers today but the harlequins seem to be giving them a hard time. Is it just a case of them being the new additions?
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Probably. Harlies are not known for being aggressive. They are even on the list of possible tankmates for a betta. Keep an eye on them and see if it settles down in a few days.