What to feed??

[chris1805]

I am wondering what to feed, i see so many apisto's here that colour up great and mine won't. I think it has something to do with my feeding. How often a day should i feed them and especially, what should i feed them? I heard bad stories about mosquito larvae, that they increase the risk of diseases for apisto's.

I have a pair of A. nijsseni and a pair of Mikrogeophagus ramirezi and at the moment i feed them fronzen daphnia and frozen brine shrimps. I also feed them like twice a week some dry food (don't know the right english name for it).

I hope you guys can help me out and thanks in advantage

 

[ADC Nederland]

There are many aspects that influence the colors they display, water quality is one of them. Water conductivity and pH.

I feed granulate and frozen live foods such as Daphnia and Artemia. The brands do make a difference so make sure you pick a good quality fish food.

I would read up on the water conditions and make sure you adjust them correctly and start feeding them multiple times a day in really small amounts.

 

[chris1805]

Thanks ADC, do you recommend any brand? (since we are both dutch it should not be hard to find for me) And what is your opinion about the mosquito larvae?

My water conditions are:
ph: about 6.7
kh: 1-2
If this is not good enough, do you maybe have a good source that i could use for this?

 

[gerald]

Bottom color can make a difference too. White sand or bare glass bottom can suppress their colors; a dark bottom is generally better for color expression. Set up some plastic tubs or barrels to collect your own mosquito larvae and they will be disease-free and pollutant-free. We dont know what might be in the water at sites where the commercially harvested frozen bloodworms and mosquito larvae are collected from.

 

[chris1805]

I knew that bottom color also determines the color of you fish if you choose a bottom that's not dark enough. So i choose a more dark bottom. Thanks for the information on the mosquito larve Gerald, i will look up some information for collecting them myself

 

[Mike Wise]

I heard bad stories about mosquito larvae, that they increase the risk of diseases for apisto's

Not for the fish, but for the people in the area. I mean 'black mosquitos', not red (bloodworms) or white (glassworms) mosquito larvae. Even black mosquito larvae from unpoluted waters can carry human diseases. They are transferred from the female mosquito into her eggs. Bloodworms and Glassworms can carry fish diseases if collected from polluted waters, however. These are not dangerous to us because the adults do not feed on humans.

 

[chris1805]

Was not afraid for myself but more for my fish getting some sort of disease. So red and white mosquito larvae are not a good option or does this diseases story not count for frozen mosquito larvae? How about live tubifex, do you guys recommend that to feed them once in a while?

 

[Mike Wise]

As Gerald wrote, if the red or white mosquito larvae are harvested from unpolluted sources, they should be fine.

The same it true for tubifex or blackworms, but the tubificidid worms have 2 problems:
1) They live and feed in waters with high 'biological loads', so there is a better chance for them to contain harmful bacteria.
2) They have a high protein and fat content and, if fed in large amounts/frequency, they tend to make fish obese, They cause fat to form around the liver and other organs, leading to early death. These worms are excellent for conditioning breeder for spawning, but the same can be said for terrestrial worms like Gindal and Whiteworms. The latter have the advantage of not living in biotopes that contain fish diseases, but they also can cause obese fish if fed too much.

Personally, I would try to feed more live foods like baby Brine Shrimp, Daphnia, Grindal & Whiteworms produced at home. Supplement this with occasional dry foods (if your fish will eat it - mine usually do not).

 

[ADC Nederland]

Thanks ADC, do you recommend any brand? (since we are both dutch it should not be hard to find for me) And what is your opinion about the mosquito larvae?

My water conditions are:
ph: about 6.7
kh: 1-2
If this is not good enough, do you maybe have a good source that i could use for this?

I generally just buy my granulate foods from a wholesaler which doesn't carry a specific brand but I could maybe sell a large pot to you. Frozen livefood generally just comes from the Hornbach (yes, the hardware store) which sells good quality frozen foods. The have a pretty large selection.

I never had any problems with frozen live foods and the granulate food that I feed my fish, I do however had trouble in the past when buying frozen foods from commercial pet shops, which sadly buy their frozen foods at the cheapest price and not checking quality.

 

[chris1805]

Thanks a lot for all the quick responses I got a bit wiser again

ADC thanks for the offer, we will keep contact about this. If your whole settings is ready during the christmas holiday i will probably come for a visit to see how you worked it all out, and than probably buy a pot

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Live "Glassworms" (Chaoborus crystallinus, a Chironomid midge larvae like "Blood worms") should be all right, as they only live in fairly high quality water.

The foods that make fish colour up are ones that contain carotenoids, these naturally occur in Copepods like Cyclops, and some other crustaceans, like Krill. In all these animals they are derived from algae.

Commercial foods that will cause enhanced colours contain Astaxanthin. These foods are used to turn farmed salmon flesh pink, and are commercially produced from culturing the algae Haematococcus pluvialis (below). From <http://caoh.com/liquid-vitamin-blog/i-dont-think-we-should-be-taking-food-from-whales-astaxanthin/>

cheers Darrel

 

[chris1805]

Thanks Darrel!

 

[gerald]

I'm not at all convinced that "clean" water = no fish diseases. Fish in pristine habitats have parasites too, and bugs or worms harvested from waters where fish live (including aquaculture waste settling ponds) could be carrying diseases transmittable to fish. Freezing and freeze drying may kill some parasites, but not all. Food animals grown in water without exposure to fish should generally be safer, although bacteria can be anywhere. That's why I prefer home-grown Moina, Daphnia, Cyclops, mosquitos, and worms.

 

[regani]

Keep in mind that light is an important factor in how we perceive colour. Most photos will have been taken with a flash angled in from the front or top. The bright wight light reflects from the pigments in the fish scales/skin and gives those beautiful colours, similar to what we see in sunlight. Aquarium lights have a different spectrum which leads to a different colour perception to start with and close to the front of the tank the light comes more from behind the fish as well.
Other factors such as light diffused through plant cover or tannins in the water also have an impact. E.g. most of my tanks have duck weed on the surface which gives the light a green tint, tannins in the water and the lighting is not very strong to start with. So most of my fish look a bit drab just with the tank lights on. If I take a picture with a flash the fish show much brighter colours and you can see much more detail, too.
So all your fish may be stunningly beautiful already, you just can't see it

 

[chris1805]

yeah that's true regani

I tried to feed my fish in 2 times now instead of once at 6pm and 10pm. Well what should i say about it... I think i just saw world war 3 exist in my tank. My A. nijsseni was not really happy to share "his" food with the others when i divided the food. He was chasing every fish away especially his own female. Is this normal to happen? or should i feed just a bit more than half of the portion i normally did at once?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I'm not at all convinced that "clean" water = no fish diseases. Fish in pristine habitats have parasites too, and bugs or worms harvested from waters where fish live (including aquaculture waste settling ponds) could be carrying diseases transmittable to fish.......That's why I prefer home-grown Moina, Daphnia, Cyclops, mosquitos, and worms.

I mainly use home grown live food, and I wouldn't use shop bought live Tubifex or Blood-worms (or any commercially frozen food).

I've got less reservations about live Glassworms, but I've never seen them for sale in the UK. I'm not sure about in the States, but in Europe there are only 2 species of "Glassworm", Chaoborus crystallinus and C. flavicans. Chaoborus crystallinus is only found in ponds without fish, which have a reasonable population of Daphnia. I've never seen C. flavicans, (which looks similar) but it occurs in lakes where fish are present. I've fed C. crystallinus, the main problem is that it is difficult to collect a lot of them.

cheers Darrel

 

[Munroco]

My LFS in Dundee has live glassworms weekly, they come in polythene tubes and cost £1.20. Not cheap but there are loads in a tube