FishProfiles.com Message Forums

generally speaking, i know that the plants like to have the lights on. Does it affect the fish if ya don't always have an exact schedule for the lights?
Also, if ya have a community tank that has mollies, guppys, some cories and a betta, what is the frequency of feeding.
Before i had fish, i have raised rats, dogs cats, and ferrets and they all do better with having food there all the time. I know that fish do not di well with a lot of food, but how do ya judge it?

well for the lighting, dont leave it on too much or you will have an algae explosion. the lighting does matter after dark, in other words, dont hit the tank lights at 1am, it will freak them out.

feeding frequency? a rule of thumb is only as much as they will eat in 5 minutes. sword tails and mollies always seemed to not be super agressive at going after food from what i observed when i had them. drop some community fish food by where the mollies are swimming. the best thing to do is have one corner of the tank where you feed. when the tank light comes on my fish all hover to that corner, my mollys and sword tails always did the same thing, they remember.

when they stop being interested, and after about 5-7 minutes of dropping a few pellets in every few seconds, you can call it good. just watch how much they eat and how quickly they eat it. if you drop food in and they dont go after it, they have had enough or you are feeding them too much. if they dart for it and devour it you need to feed more at a time.

once a day feeding should be fine. buy some shrimp pellets as a treat for your corys to substitute for just leftover food the mollys and sword tails dont grab on the way down.

Ya i have noticed that they associate light with food, that is really cool. I thought they were too ditzy for that. I have some dehydrated shrimp to put in the top, but the sinking ones sound like a really good idea. I prefer to have each species to get something that is not just leftovers, i think my cories will really like them!
Thanks,
Edna

My plants get anywhere from 10-18 hours of light a day, and they do just fine. Their schedule is based around when I wake up and go to bed.

---

I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Fish do need a time with no lights to sleep and seem to benefit some from a schedule. However the lights do not have to be on for a solid length of time. Such as if you work all day you can have the lights on for 1-2hrs in the morning before you leave and then have them go off until right before you get home until bed. This is assuming you have no plants. Plants need at least 8 preferably closer to 12hours or even more of light.

Telling someone how much to feed is near impossible. It depends what you are feeding and what fish you have as well as their size and even somewhat what your tank maintenance routine is. Some fish would be severely overfed if you gave them enough food it takes them 5minutes to eat it. In fact I'd say 90% of my fish would be overfed if they had that much food. With a few exceptions such as feeding tubifex cubes which take awhile for the fish to eat away or FD krill which are in large chunks they have to breakup. If I fed them 5minutes worth of flakes or pellets my tanks would be a real mess. I barely feed them enough of those foods that it takes them more than 1-2minutes to eat it all. I also have fairly fast fish(tetras, rainbows) but even the rams and large gouramis can eat more than enough in that time. The sparkling gouramis are slower and take probably that long just to eat 3 NLS pellets. The plecos could take a few hours to half a day just to come across the food. It varies so much that I think the rule of feeding your fish all they can eat in 5minutes is even more worthless than the inch per gallon stocking rule.

Feed as much as your fish will eat in 2/3 minutes & try to see what plants you have & how much light they need. There are some plants that need alot of light & some that are low light plants.

The Betta might attack the Guppy's, because their flowing tail.


http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/s8xi5heh/my_photos
http://www.geocities.com/s8xi5heh/classic_blue.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/buzaqq/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

Adding to evrything mentionned about feeding, it also depends on what form or food you are feeding. Floating pellets don't make a mess in the tank as opposed to flakes. Sinking pellets are tricky too. I'd go with what Jason said, 2 / 3 min. specially if feeding flakes. Floating pellets are more forgiving IMHO. Whatever is not eaten right away will remain on top for a long time... so fish may snack on them during the day. That's what I do with my African Cichlids. I give them premium quality spirulina floating pellets.

Jason is right. Expect the Beta to attack the guppies' tail. Saw it, been there, done that. Beta + guppies = Happy Beta, tailess not so happy guppies.

Sponge

we have our tank lights on a timer, it seems the easy option and timers are pretty cheap.

heh, i guess it means that my betta is a woos(sp?). I have never seen him chase anyone else and not even bullying during feeding time.
Edna