Feeding Habits

Are cardinal tetras surface feeders? I've noticed that mine seem to prefer the sinking wafers to flake. Was wondering if another type of food might be better for them. They seem to be doing remarkabley well considering the care they get at the moment.

Cardinal tetras have terminal mouths. Terminal mouths are typical of midwater fish and allow the fish to approach their food head-on. They will feed from the surface but they are mainly mid to low feeders. I'd try very small pellets that sink, big enough so they have no problems eating it. Make sure you soak them in a cup of tank water for a few minutes so they're nice and soft and should sink once you pour them in, plus they'll be easier to digest.

If they're not going for the flakes, try breaking them up into smaller pieces for the fish. I do this for my white clouds and black phantoms who prefer them that way rather than nibbling at big flakes.

Baby is doing very well, thank you and yes she's nearly 10 months. She's very active. But the fish are actually a help as she'll stay in one place for at least 5 minutes watching them, so they now get fed most mornings! And it prompts me to clean the tank so she can see the fish more clearly - though I have to do that when she's asleep or daddy is entertaining, so doesn't happen so often.

I think I've only lost cories, and I think they starved, as they didn't get fed for many weeks.   Cured my snail problem though.

I don't know how big your tank is Stephan, but a 25% water change for me is about 40l. So in 10l buckets that's 4 out, 4 in. And takes a bit longer than half an hour. Problem is that I can't start it unless I know I'm going to be able to finish, as taking time to wash my hands is usually long enough for all help to break loose! Cleaning the filter is one of the more time consuming jobs. There was actually mud in there last time!    I've stopped injecting CO2 and no longer turn on the extra led lights, so the plants don't grow so quickly any more. The down side is that I've got more of an algae issue, but it can mostly be easily removed. I have enough bottom feeders to stir up the gravel just enough that I don't seem to get a noticeable build up of milk. And the tank ispretty heavily planted - even more so as the cryptocorynes have taken over with the lack of 'gardening'! Last time I changed the light tubes, I put in one with a lot more yellow / green in the spectrum. I will be using those for both tubes going forward as the extra light means that my limnophilia has gone beautifully bushy, and stopped getting leggy so quickly. I also don't feed the fish as much as I used to. Before they got 2 meals a day. Now they get one meal most (but not every) days. I will get to a point where I find the ideal routine, but I'm not there yet as it's difficult to establish a routine that specific with my little monster. Other reason for not doing anything fish related is that monster is just started to learn how to open cupboards and I don't want her to realise that there are cupboards under the fish tank. I know it won't work forever, but I want to put off having to child proof the fish tank as long as possible. Not sure how to do that with push catches.

Hi Sue. We've got some of those, but not got around to fitting them yet. What I'm not sure about is whether they would work with the type of catch that doesn't have a handle. In that you push it to make it pop open then push it again to close it.