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I have the following stock and I'm not sure how much food is too much. I give them one cube of brine shrimp everyday but that's all finished in about a minute and a half.

2 dwarf gouramis
1 bichir
6 tiger barb
1 sailfin molly
3 lyre tailed mollies
1 red-tailed shark
1 common pleco (the cheap brown kind
4 corys
1 Blood Parrot
(and 1 stubborn feeder fish minnow that doesn't get eaten)

Should I supplement with flake food?

A variety of high quality, balanced foods is the best way to get fish into full health and good colour.

I would suggest picking up a good staple flake food such as Omega One, OSI, or a good Tetra brand, and feed that every morning.

Mid day you can use your freeze dried bloodworms/plankton/shrimp and your frozen, doing this every other day. On the days you don't feed these, use a staple pellet or other staple of differing texture than flake.

Also pick up a good pellet/sinking tablet such as Hikari Sinking wafers or Tetra Sinking Tablets. A good Hikari Algae wafer for the plec and cories as well would be appreciated. Mix in a few of these with the morning/night feed for your bottom feeders.

A variety of ingredients/textures will make your fish come alive

I would give them a variaty of food & not only Brine Shrimp all week. I will suggest you giving them Flakes, Granules & other sinking food. Also there are other live or frozen food that you might feed them.

I would "obey" Fallout suggestion & feed them different food daily.



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

azmentl

As far as "Fish Food" I give mine 1/4 teaspoon of flake food & a rotation of 3 sinking pellets most days. with 3 broken up algea chips. Three days a week I feed then 4 frozen blood worm cubes and three broken algea chips.

This is always done within 30 minutes of the lights coming on.

There are plenty of other non fish foods I use as well.
I never feed fish food at any other time of the day.

The other foods can vary as it is usually at our meal times the extras are available

Have a look in [link=My
Profile]http://www.fishprofiles.com/interactive/forums/profile.asp?userid=6741" style="COLOR: #00FF00[/link] for my tank info

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

2 follow ups:

1. Is it better to feed them in the morning?

2. Keith - what do you mean "3 sinking pellets?" Pellets of food? Big ones, no?

azmentl

The main reason I feed first thing in the morning is that it is a regular habit I have got myself into and I will not forget to feed them. Another reason is all the food is eaten during the day when the lights are on. Other than that, it is something that I have always done for the last 30+ years.

Here is a photo of the sinking pellets I use the small ones on the left are called Shrimp Sticks, the other two are what I usually get from my supplier.

I rotate (I do not mix them) these as I previously stated using 1/4 teaspoon each time

Keith



keithgh attached this image:


Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

Couldnt help but notice that you had a bichir. Do you no what type? how big is it? have any pics??


fish1

My bichir is an endlicheri or a saddled bichir. It's beautiful, all the saddles are clear and uniform, though this might be because it's still small (about 5 inches). I'll work on a pic for sure cause it's awesome (in my completely objective opinion )
Thank you for the feeding tips. I have high quality flakes and sinking granules as well as the algae tabs. I just wasn't sure how much was enough to give them. The Tiger Barbs usually get the majority of whatever I give - so I'm trying to give the sinking granules at night when they appear "asleep".

Thank you soo much for the pic Keith. Much obliged. I'll go to the LFS and see if I can get some of those cause if it takes 'em any more than about a minute to eat them, I'd be more confident that I'm giving them enough. And I'll rotate.

I just wasn't sure if brine shrimp are the best, but they're probably best as a treat.