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Juvenile SAE feeding



I have 10 young SAEs in my tanks. They are still fairly small at
about 2" each. If I put flake food in they will eagerly take this
and spend a lot of time actively moving about, nibbling briefly
at leaves or bits of algae growing on the gravel but don't seem
to settle down and seriously chew on a particular bit of algae
for very long. At the moment, there isn't very much algae in 
one of the tanks except some older stuff which has changed from
black to an almost white color (with increased CO2 concentration)
The white brush algae doesn't appear to be growing; any idea why
it has changed like this? This happened when I boosted the CO2
concentration. Does this mean it is dead? I also have small platys 
in my tanks so I'd like to give them food now and then too. The 
platys won't grow very quickly unless I feed them regularly.
I'd like the SAEs to grow to a good size too but don't want to
discourage their algae grazing habits. I'm also a little
concerned that there might not be enough algae for them.

Would it be better to do daily or biweekly supplemental feeding 
for the SAEs?

What kind of a feeding schedule do you SAE owners follow?

Will SAEs eat live tubifex or brine shrimp?

On a slightly related subject: feeding patterns of Farlowellas,
my last Farlie died about a week ago. :'( I suspect it might
have been malnutrition. He didn't seem interested in carrot
slices or other foods that I tried and I never saw them moving
around or feeding. Maybe they would have been happier in much
reduced lighting? What feeding patterns do Farlowellas normally
follow? Would they be interested in live worms possibly? Maybe
they only eat a specific kind of algae that was lacking in my
environment? How active should they normally be during daylight
or at night time?

Thanks for any advice or comments.

Steve Pushak      spush at hcsd_hac.com    Vancouver, BC, Canada
                                    (where it never stops raining)
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