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Re: What (and how) to feed bottom feeders



At 02:54 AM 3/5/2003, Jason wrote:

>I have been dropping little generic shrimp pellets (they look like rabbit
>food and are available in bulk at my local fish store - it's what they
>recommended) along the bottom of my 55 gal tall planted tank.  Problem being
>that these sometimes get stuck in the plants, or under a rock, etc. and
>start to rot with a peculiar mold-like effect.  Can't be good!  So...
>Couple of questions:
>What would be the better thing to feed them without getting into live food?
>Another local fish store uses tablets/blocks - are those any good?
>And what would be a better way of feeding them what I currently have?  Some
>sort of food corral?
>As far as bottom feeders go, I have 4 loaches, 2 knight gobies, 3 corys, 2
>flying foxes and 4 algae eaters.


Yea, all those upward facing cup-shaped leaves can present quite a barrier!

Two ideas:

     * Pick one area for feeding, and keep it clear of stem plants.
       Front and center usually works great, as it is usually free
       of stem plants. The fish figure this out very quickly, and
       you get to see them more. I've resorted to planting hairgrass
       and low crypts in this area, to keep the other tank inhabitants
       from getting to the bottom feeder food too quickly.

    * Why not live food? Corys and the like spend their entire lives
      sorting through the muck for little worms. Grindle worms are
      really easy and cheap and will make their day!

I feed dry food in the morning and worms at night. Both feedings go in 
front and center, and I make sure that some sinks below the cover of the 
crypts/hairgrass. The bottom feeders congregate there and happily root 
around for hours. If anything survives more than a few hours, feed less-I 
believe that the "only feed what they can eat in 3 minutes" rule has to be 
broken when you have bottom feeders.