How much to feed 30 inch SAL

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Yoda1

Candiru
MFK Member
Dec 2, 2010
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How much do I need to feed my 30 inch South American Lungfish?

The lfs I got him from told me they gave him a prawn "now and then".

Have had him a week, and his appetite has picked up as the week has progressed.
So far he has eaten everything I have given him: Smelt, pieces of fish from the supermarket, cockle, Pleco algae wafers.
 
As much as he wants without stuffing him, I tend to feed my fish as much as they want generally then skip a day, then feed again the day after that.
 
He seems to be having a varied diet, so maybe you could supplement with some Pellets such as NLS or Massivore just to make sure hes getting everything he needs / maybe missing from other foods?
 
Yoda1 said:
How much do I need to feed my 30 inch South American Lungfish?
Click to expand...

Generally speaking, an adult fish requires at least 1/2 of 1% of his body weight per day for maintenance. That is, it needs at least that much just to move around, breathe, replace lost tissue, etc. Active, reproducing or growing fish require more.

Obviously, this varies by species.

But your fish would weight just under 6 pounds (around 2830 grams) and would need by these calculations around 98 grams of food (dry weight) per week. Assuming shrimp is 59% water, this works out to 166 grams of shrimp (or ~ 1/3 pound) per week if you want to get to 1/2 of 1% body weight. Other items (e.g., smelt, squid, codfish, pollock) will have somewhat similar calculations

I've never owned a lungfish, but I would use that as a minimum. I think supplementing that with a high quality pellet (1/4th to 1/3rd of a pound) per week might be what I'd do as well. Of course, that might not be correct for a lungfish as these are general calculations, so if lungfish are one of those species that gets by on next to no food, they might do fine with less.

Regardless, I would keep his diet varied as you have it with algae wafers, smelt, etc.
 
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Fat Homer said:
He seems to be having a varied diet, so maybe you could supplement with some Pellets such as NLS or Massivore just to make sure hes getting everything he needs / maybe missing from other foods?
Click to expand...
Does NLS do a fairly large pellet?
 
Drstrangelove said:
Generally speaking, an adult fish requires at least 1/2 of 1% of his body weight per day for maintenance. That is, it needs at least that much just to move around, breathe, replace lost tissue, etc. Active, reproducing or growing fish require more.

Obviously, this varies by species.

But your fish would weight just under 6 pounds (around 2830 grams) and would need by these calculations around 98 grams of food (dry weight) per week. Assuming shrimp is 59% water, this works out to 166 grams of shrimp (or ~ 1/3 pound) per week if you want to get to 1/2 of 1% body weight. Other items (e.g., smelt, squid, codfish, pollock) will have somewhat similar calculations

I've never owned a lungfish, but I would use that as a minimum. I think supplementing that with a high quality pellet (1/4th to 1/3rd of a pound) per week might be what I'd do as well. Of course, that might not be correct for a lungfish as these are general calculations, so if lungfish are one of those species that gets by on next to no food, they might do fine with less.

Regardless, I would keep his diet varied as you have it with algae wafers, smelt, etc.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your detailed reply.
I have been feeding him a bit less than what you have suggested. But he seems to be ok, so far
My lungfish seems to relatively sedentry. Doesn't do a lot of swimming. Surfaces now and then for a gulp of air. And a bit of a nose around the bottom of the tank. So perhaps its energy requirements are less??
 
Yes, many species will utilize nutrition differently, so my remarks were a general guide. Growth obviously in an adult fish requires more than the bare minimum for maintenance, but it's plausible that a fish that is normally a highly sedentary fish that is being maintained and not expected to grow could survive on a low level of nutrition.
 
Yoda1 said:
Does NLS do a fairly large pellet?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure about in the US, but over here the largest pellet i've seen for sale is 10mm which maybe kinda small, but are quite dense...

Otherwise, you could possibly use Hikari Massivore or Hikari Carnisticks?
 
Drstrangelove said:
Yes, many species will utilize nutrition differently, so my remarks were a general guide. Growth obviously in an adult fish requires more than the bare minimum for maintenance, but it's plausible that a fish that is normally a highly sedentary fish that is being maintained and not expected to grow could survive on a low level of nutrition.
Click to expand...
OK, thanks.
Will have to monitor how he does.
Don't want to over feed. But on the hand, don't want him just surviving either.
 
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