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steviev123

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 9, 2012
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Boston, MA
I had 5 peacock bass around 1-2 inches each and they all seem to be eating and wanting food constantly so I feed them bloodworms 2-3 times a day. The only problem is one died overnight and the others seem to be very skinny. The other fish in the tank are 3 Otto suckerfish and 1 yellow lab cichlid(in there cause he was badly beat up in another tank). The cichlid doesn't bother any of them. The water parameters are approximately 10ppm nitrates, 0 nitrites and ammonia and ph at 7.2. Temp is around 87 degrees Fahrenheit. What is caused the death of the fish and what can be fed to fatten up my pbass?


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Which species are them? If they are Bahia/Ceará or any CB fish you won't have much trouble, but anyway they prefer a more acidic pH for sure. I don't think it may be the cause of the death, but it's an advice.

I also think you don't need 30 Celsius, a 24 to 28 Celsius would be enough.

They seem to be fighting with each other constantly? Sometimes only the dominant fishes fatten up, while the others can't do the same. And it may also cause disease.

You may also try to treat them because they may have internal parasites, and try to offer other foods to complete their diet!

Im not used to blood worms, but I've read they are larvae with hemoglobin pigment, the offspring of some mosquitoes. I will paste here one text found in Ad. Konings book "enjoying Cichlids", that may refer to it:

" Red mosquito larvae, one of the most popular frozen foods, are very bad and should not be fed to fishes. These larvae are found in the mud stagnant pools and feed from the mud, including when it contains chemicals which are toxic to some fishes, specially to Malawi and Tanganyika cichlids. Moreover red mosquito larvae induce allergic reactions in about 30 percent of persons coming into contact with it (Liebers, 1991)."

Hope to have helped.
 
See whether they'll take small pieces of shrimp. That would make them grow faster than taking blood worms. I've been raising small Cichla (about 12 of them) from 2" for the last 2 months now and for me the key was very frequent water changes to maintain the water quality. I basically did 50% water changes every other day until they reached about 4" - 5". Good luck you'll enjoy them.
 
cpm6t said:
See whether they'll take small pieces of shrimp. That would make them grow faster than taking blood worms. I've been raising small Cichla (about 12 of them) from 2" for the last 2 months now and for me the key was very frequent water changes to maintain the water quality. I basically did 50% water changes every other day until they reached about 4" - 5". Good luck you'll enjoy them.
Click to expand...

This may sound like a stupid question but what shrimp do you feed them?


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I feed them farm raised or what they catch in the sea (both salt water) and available in the market for human consumption (note it is raw shrimp, not half cooked stuff). I remove the shell and cut them into smaller pieces according to the size they can take in.
 
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