The water conditioner is already helping my male Gus. Most of the pinkish coloring is gone!
Micro Pellets VS Micro Wafers
- Thread starter Fishie Mama
- Start date
I'm not a fan of mealworms or freeze dried foods in general for most fish. The mealworms have those hard outsides that might be difficult to chew up & maybe to digest. Freeze dried tends break up into dust & often floats for a long time unless you soak it first. I don't like tubifex in any form. Maybe they're better quality these days...
I have frozen cubes of bloodworms that i can defrost in some hot water and give them a little bit to try at dinner time
No need to use hot water to defrost the bloodworms, just let them thaw naturally at room temperature.
I do what dudley does or if a tank gets an entire cube I sometimes just hold it in the tank & swish slightly. The worms come off a few at a time & sometimes brave fish will hand feed. That can be fun or risky, lol. Some of our cichlids thought arm hair looked like worms & pulled hard. They especially liked my husband's furrier arms.
If your tiny girl is too small for whole bloodworms you can slice the very slightly softened cube so there are more bite size bits for her. A serrated knife works well.
Word of warning, I've become slightly allergic to bloodworms over time. Nothing more than itchiness but even during water changes the next day. In MA my fav lfs owner was so bad he wouldn't even sell them.
It's nice Eleanor helps keep her tank tidy
That's almost opposite of how adults care for fry. They move the fry away from the poo. Watch out though, males soon forget to spit them out when he's ready to breed again. Females are better for a little longer & may drive the male away...until she's ready to breed again too.
If your tiny girl is too small for whole bloodworms you can slice the very slightly softened cube so there are more bite size bits for her. A serrated knife works well.
Word of warning, I've become slightly allergic to bloodworms over time. Nothing more than itchiness but even during water changes the next day. In MA my fav lfs owner was so bad he wouldn't even sell them.
It's nice Eleanor helps keep her tank tidy
That's almost opposite of how adults care for fry. They move the fry away from the poo. Watch out though, males soon forget to spit them out when he's ready to breed again. Females are better for a little longer & may drive the male away...until she's ready to breed again too.I always have to defrost frozen completely to feed it. that is because i mix two different "recipes." Grow tanks get a mix of cyclops, rotifers and a bit of daphnia. I also keeps some BBS cubes on hand for quick feeding babies when I have no time. But these are really expensive and do not make sence for serious use. The rest of them get a mix of Mysis, Brine Shrimp, Brine gut loaded w/ Spirulina, Daphnia and SF Bay Mini Blood worms. Sometimes, I do a limited feed of larger fish using bigger mysis and full size blood worms.
I basically put frozen into specimen boxes and add warm tap (from our well) and get it all un-frozen and then I feed it using a strainer to get the food out for adults and I just pour in the fry food directly from the container. Heating food degrades its nutritional value. How much depends on how hot. So I try not to use overly hot water. But I also have a lot of tanks to feed and I need to get things defrosted fairly fast.
As alway, the above is my way not the only or, necessarily, the best way. I do what works for me and my tanks.
I basically put frozen into specimen boxes and add warm tap (from our well) and get it all un-frozen and then I feed it using a strainer to get the food out for adults and I just pour in the fry food directly from the container. Heating food degrades its nutritional value. How much depends on how hot. So I try not to use overly hot water. But I also have a lot of tanks to feed and I need to get things defrosted fairly fast.
As alway, the above is my way not the only or, necessarily, the best way. I do what works for me and my tanks.
Oh, yeah, I forgot about mini-bloodworms. None of my fish have ever really liked mysis shrimp much, I'm not sure why. They're too big for some...
FM, when your Dempsys get bigger you might try "regular" size pellets like shrimp (now catfish), earthworm or other types. Read the labels. Some "cichlid" pellets, wafers, etc are formulated for the mainly vegetarian African cichlids. New World cichlids like yours are more omnivores & need more protein but some plant material is good too.
What water conditioner did you use? How often & how much water do you change? The pinkish color could have been from a water quality issue. Do you test for (at least) ammonia & nitrate? It can take a while to learn how to keep nitrate under 20ppm (less is better). Ammonia should not be a problem (ie never there) unless you overfeed sometimes. As your fish grow you may have to change your routine. Many of us do weekly water changes, it's a good habit. A tiny "poo vacuum" or 2 might not be enough to keep water & fish happy. Some of us do 50% every week. I have slacked off on that the last few years; I have few fish & lots of plants. My nitrate never gets above 5ppm...but that's just 1 of the easy things we can test for. There are others we can't, so water changes help in many ways. Whenever my fish look "off" the first thing I do is a water change. It really can work miracles!
Sorry to go off on a rant when you just asked about food...As you already can see I tend to long, bossy posts, it's part of my "charm" LOL
FM, when your Dempsys get bigger you might try "regular" size pellets like shrimp (now catfish), earthworm or other types. Read the labels. Some "cichlid" pellets, wafers, etc are formulated for the mainly vegetarian African cichlids. New World cichlids like yours are more omnivores & need more protein but some plant material is good too.
What water conditioner did you use? How often & how much water do you change? The pinkish color could have been from a water quality issue. Do you test for (at least) ammonia & nitrate? It can take a while to learn how to keep nitrate under 20ppm (less is better). Ammonia should not be a problem (ie never there) unless you overfeed sometimes. As your fish grow you may have to change your routine. Many of us do weekly water changes, it's a good habit. A tiny "poo vacuum" or 2 might not be enough to keep water & fish happy. Some of us do 50% every week. I have slacked off on that the last few years; I have few fish & lots of plants. My nitrate never gets above 5ppm...but that's just 1 of the easy things we can test for. There are others we can't, so water changes help in many ways. Whenever my fish look "off" the first thing I do is a water change. It really can work miracles!
Sorry to go off on a rant when you just asked about food...As you already can see I tend to long, bossy posts, it's part of my "charm" LOL
It’s how I defrost them for my axolotls so I just figured do them the same way
Thats exactly what I do with my frozen bloodworms. I put them in a tiny cup and let them defrost. Then I just empty the cup into the tank. When I tried giving them to my fish I gave them using tweezers so they all got to try them. They were all gone in seconds!
I checked the packages of micro pellets and wafers and they both have fish & vegetable in both including krill, cuttlefish, garlic, seaweed and spirulina. The larger pellets have the same ingredients. My Mom really likes the brand Hikari.
