5 new geophagus winemilleri. recommended diet?

[mos90]

hi all. im a newbie to keeping geos. i just finished acclimating my 5-4" geo winemilleri. they are in my 300g 96x30x24. it has a fine sand bottom that was originally for my stingrays. the geo's should like it. the tank design is more open with a few caves for hiding spots, no plants.

current stock.

2-6" retic stingrays
1-16" silver arow
3-4" redtailed sharks
3-6" armatus scombs
5-4" geo winemilleri

the water temp is kept right around 80deg ph at 7

i also run a drip system 3gph. nitrates are never more then 5pmm.
2-fx5's and 2 emporer 400's for filters
25w uv running 400gph 8 hours a day.

i just want to make sure they eat properly. what does everyone recommend for a staple diet?

i feed my rays live blackworms 1 or 2 times a day. the geos may like them also?

 

[CrAzYNeSs]

hi all. im a newbie to keeping geos. i just finished acclimating my 5-4" geo winemilleri. they are in my 300g 96x30x24. it has a fine sand bottom that was originally for my stingrays. the geo's should like it. the tank design is more open with a few caves for hiding spots, no plants.

current stock.

2-6" retic stingrays
1-16" silver arow
3-4" redtailed sharks
3-6" armatus scombs
5-4" geo winemilleri

the water temp is kept right around 80deg ph at 7

i also run a drip system 3gph. nitrates are never more then 5pmm.
2-fx5's and 2 emporer 400's for filters
25w uv running 400gph 8 hours a day.

i just want to make sure they eat properly. what does everyone recommend for a staple diet?

i feed my rays live blackworms 1 or 2 times a day. the geos may like them also?

I have fed mine NLF for Cichlids and they love/thrive on it since they were 1.5" large.

BTW - might want to stop feeding blkworms. I use to feed them to my rays but turns out they may get addicted to it. Becomes SUPER hard to train to eat other foods. I would use earthworms, but to answer your questions. My geos also eat the blkworms when I use to feed it to the rays.

 

[cchhcc]

I agree. Try to get the rays off the blackworms.

If you feed the small NLS sinkers the geos will be able to get their share while the more aggressive eaters will largely ignore them. Very important to give geos small sized foods to allow them to "do their business" (i.e. sifting). The rays will likely develop a taste for the pellets over time too, and you can start offering them some larger sinkers.

 

[FSM]

Small sinking pellets.

 

[Delhezi B]

Watch out for those payara. If there armatus most likely they will outgrow the geos and the red tailed shark and eat them. If there scombs you sould be fine.

 

[peathenster]

I used a mixture of 5-6 different sinking pellets. Mix them in the same bottle - very easy to use. And there's usually too much competition for them to pick their favorite type....they just hog down whatever pellets they are closest to

 

[jgentry]

I used a mixture of 5-6 different sinking pellets. Mix them in the same bottle - very easy to use. And there's usually too much competition for them to pick their favorite type....they just hog down whatever pellets they are closest to

I do the exact same thing. Buy several bags of different good quality pellets that have different things to offer. Mix them all together and just pitch a handful in. That way they will always pretty much eat any food I offer. They are never stuck on one pellet of food.

 

[mos90]

Watch out for those payara. If there armatus most likely they will outgrow the geos and the red tailed shark and eat them. If there scombs you sould be fine.

they are scombs. wont get too big.

ive been trying to get the rays on other food with no luck yet. tryied to soak krill in blackworm juice. ill keep trying.

the geos do like the blackworms and have been eating sinking pellets too.

 

[CrAzYNeSs]

ive been trying to get the rays on other food with no luck yet. tryied to soak krill in blackworm juice. ill keep trying.

Won't work, I tried it too. They are hooked. How big are they? You can try starving them a for a couple of days and pick up some Canadian Nightcrawlers. I use to use the Red Wigglers, but they smell like crap. I can only imagine what they taste like - the nightcrawlers seem much more sanitary.

 

[mos90]

they are 6" and ive had them for a month. they wont touch nightcrawlers or trout worms or krill or prawns or..or.or.. lol

not sure what else to do.

could try the 2 day starve and cut up some nightcrawlers like u said.