Feeding

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Jpqintx

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 27, 2019
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How much should I be feeding my monsters? They’re always hungry and am feeding them once a day. My stock includes:
Tiger Oscar 8”
3 PB bass 3-6”
Bichir 6” currently not eating
Red tail cat 7”
Asian red tail cat 5”
Tiger shovel nose 5”
Fish are currently in a 125 gl. Currently trying to get them off live feeders with tilapia and silver sides instead. Currently fighting an ammonia bloom of 1.0 ppm. Tank is ran by 2 350 gph canister filters with foam, carbon and poly fil inside. Also have a separate tank with gold clown knife and a Arowana. Any help would be appreciated!
 
To be honest questions about feeding shouldn't be your number one priority. That ammonia reading is a real concern and it needs addressing or you won't have any fish to feed!

Although most of your stock are quite small i'd still say your oscar and those cats alone are putting out a fair bio load, and if your water change schedule isn't up to scratch then that's where your ammonia is coming from.

Forget about feeding for now, do some water changes, test your water and get that ammonia down. And if possible thin out your stock in that tank. And then we can give you advice on feeding.
 
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I agree with esoxlucius esoxlucius . and Backfromthedead Backfromthedead . about getting the issue resolved with the ammonia. Your bioload is too much for your filters to handle. There should be 0 ppm of ammonia and nitrite if there is proper amount of bio bacteria.
 
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Tank has been running perfectly for months.Water has always been crystal clear. I made a bad decision ? I pulled one of the canister filters off and put it on another tank to jump start it and replaced it with a brand new canister filter. There fore removing half the bio supporting the tank. How often should I be doing water changes to help during it down? Did 50% on Tuesday and again this morning.
 
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I have a 60 gl with peacock cichlids in it I’m gonna empty and put the Oscar in to help reduce some load
 
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Jpqintx said:
Tank has been running perfectly for months.Water has always been crystal clear. I made a bad decision ? I pulled one of the canister filters off and put it on another tank to jump start it and replaced it with a brand new canister filter. There fore removing half the bio supporting the tank. How often should I be doing water changes to help during it down? Did 50% on Tuesday and again this morning.
Click to expand...

Crystal clear water means diddly squat in this game, don't fall into that trap. It can still be toxic and look amazing at the same time.

We can't tell you what your water change schedule should be, your nitrate reading that is unique to your bio load governs that. If you don't have a test kit already I suggest you get one.

After a good sized water change your nitrate should be very low, certainly no higher than 5ppm. Then just monitor daily or every other day, it will rise gradually until your next water change is due.

Some people are happy at 20ppm and then they'll change, others 40 ppm, some even higher. Others try and keep their nitrate as close to 0ppm all the time but of course that means plenty of regular big water changes to achieve this.

Personally I never let my nitrate get above 20ppm.
 
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I normally do 30% weekly water changes with 0 nitrates and ammonia until now. Appreciate the feedback most definitely!! Really mad at myself for this stupid mistake. Hate to think of my fish suffering or even worse, loosing one ?
 
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