How often and what do you feed your Serra?

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Diogenes

Diogenes

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Oct 9, 2008
2,407
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Birmingham, AL
So I thought it might be a good idea to compile a list of foods and feeding schedules for different serrasalmus species.

My marginatus has recently started behaving differently. He wasn't eating in front of me, but now he grabs the food while it's sinking down to him, and eats right in front of me. When I bought him the guy at the LFS said to feed him every 3 days and to feed him white fish filet and shrimp. About once a month I'll buy whatever tetras are cheap (neons, BA, black skirt etc) and he'll munch on those for a couple of days.

My question is this: now that he seems to be more enthusiastic about eating, should I be feeding him more often than once every 3 days?

How often do you feed your serra? What kind do you have?
 
right now I offer my rhom (8 inch) food everyday, he has no accepted yet still adjusting. My elong I feed every 2-4 days and my small rhom (2 inchs) I try and offer food daily.
 
I tried to feed mine everyday since he doesn't eat much.
 
all my p's eat differently... my 9" manny eats every 3-4 days while my 6" manny eats once a day. while my 11" GDR eats every 2 days.
and my piraya shaol eats 2 fillets every 2 days.
 
i feed my rhom on no set schedule....i might go everyday for a few days. then skip a day... feed every other day for a while. i might skip 2 days then go back to every day for a bit. he eats catfish fillet, raw thawed out shrimp, smelt, tilapia, and other fish fillets that i might get.
 
I feed my serra of unknown species (something in the compressus group) every 2-3 days. I usually vary the diet according to what he ate last, although sometimes it's easier and cheaper to thaw out some frozen shrimp in the middle of the week when I'm super busy than vary the diet.

The main part of his diet is frozen shrimp shell on. If I cut it into chunks he will catch it as it sinks and eat it. I do feed live feeder fish cichlids and tetras only. I usually buy like 20 neons and put them in the tank. Sometimes we go with slightly bulkier tetras like BA's, or black skirts, but not 20 at a time. He goes through them all in about 48 hours. Sometimes I feed him juvie convicts and JDs. I also feed ghost shrimp, he eats about 12 at a feeding. Generally I will feed all the feeders large amounts of spirulina flakes prior to feeding them to my fish. I also sometimes feed juvie crayfish,one at a time. I recently started feeding super worms. I throw a baby carrot into the carton and let them devour it before I feed them to my fish. I hope that the vitamin A and beta carotene will help with colors. I have purchased white fish fillets from the grocery and fed them including tilapia, and other kinds of white fish, but P's eat scales and I would rather feed the whole fish than just the part a human would eat. I have also fed small slices of raw chicken without fat or veins, and he likes it, but it does not make up a substantial portion of his diet.

I've read that they eat fruit and stuff too, but have never fed that. Any ideas on what to try there?
 
I conditioned mine to eat shrimp by stuffing it in a dead fish.
Perhaps you could try something similar with the fruit?
 
As everyone else here has stated, you would really have to go with the flow of the fish.. They are in fact individuals and will all eat on different schedules and they will all eat different amounts.. I find that small portions more frequently will benefit them more then feeding a large portion every couple of days.. When in the wild all Serras are opportunistic and feed heavily on the scales and fins of larger fish. Thus they have a constant intake of small portions rarely being able to gorge themselves at one time.. During certain seasons they will and do eat the occasional fruit, but i have yet to get any response in the aquarium,. I think this is in part due to the fact that the water chemistry during those season trigger the wild fish to change up their diet.. I have not been able to replicate any of these changes in the water that my fish resides in.. I usually feed my fish every night, small amounts and fast one or two days a week. He has put on more size this way and i believe it helps to counteract the fishes naturally fast metabolism.

I hope any of this information will be helpful to any readers. i type quick and make my visits here brief, but i am always willing to stike up a good convo
 
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