Range from about 2-3.5", what should I gut load them with? And can I put them in a 20gal for a few minutes to do this?
Starving???
- Thread starter Benito
- Start date
navygirl76;2456200; said:
I have tried and got up to 100+ feeders but you can't keep the feeders tank at such a high temerature so they were dimmenished by ich. It is a good idea to do as you have stated but it is a long turn around for sizeable feeders. It takes a long time to get your feeders to a feedable size it really is a waste of time. Getting a good breeding program going is a very good idea just takes more time then you really have feeding such vigorious eaters.
I have 26 other cichlids all mates and I usually feed the fry from these pairs. But even that doesn't last very long. So dealing with the LFS is a reality that we as Cichla keepers have to accept.
CichlidDan;2456219; said:
I feed my feeders Bloodworms when there breeding. But just to gut load to feed to your cichla I would use Cichla Bio Gold, Hikari Gold, and I throw krill in also just to supplement nutrient's I also soak my pellet's in Vita Chem for fresh water fish. (I have also used Vita Chem for Salt water fish with no ill effects.) It's liquid vitamen's for your fish a few drops on the dry food's and then feed it to your feeders and then the feeders to your cichla.
At that size I would do a leat 50 feeders at a time when your down to 10 go get more and so on. Keep this up until they hit 8'' and you should be in the clear.
navygirl76;2456200; said:
The problem with breeding feeders is getting ahead of the power curve. Meaning having enough feeders large enough to feed at all times. There is also the matter of tank space needed to maintain the feeders. Then once the Pbass get bigger you'll need more and more taking you back to problem 1 the power curve.
This is my procedure with feeders. Keep in mind i buy btw 100 and 200 med-large feeders about every 8 days.
1. Drain off all the LFS water (I use a colander for this) and place feeders in a rubbermaid tub with a lil extra salt. The salt sppeds up the metabolism causing them to "clean themselves out".
2. leave them in the tub for several hours until there is visible evidence of waste.
3. Drain off all of that water, place feeders in fedder tank from which I feed at will.
4. Feed the feeders crushed up Hikari gold pellets.
I buy all of my feeders at my fav LFS they keep the feeder tanks in pristine condition. I have never had a problem.
Thanks my cichla are my heart. I have a whatever it takes mentality when it comes to my fish.
CichlidDan;2456256; said:
My cichla all went from 3'' to 14'' in a year on a strictly feeder/raw shrimp diet. I would say so. But if your gut loading like I do then there truely getting the best of both food sources.
Now that my cichla are 13''+ I stuff there shrimp with pellet's. I have one Cichla that eat's pellets and the rest just watch him eat and don't even try so the teacher fish idea is suspect to me. It just never worked. So to make sure there getting all there nutrient's I just stuff the pellet's inside the shrimp.
Nice writeup on the preparations for feeders, makes me feel better about giving my fish them, I haven't seen dead fish in feeder tanks at my lfs before so hopefully that and preparing them the way cichlid savage said should do the trick, how much salt do you use...tablespoon to 5 gallons? I am deathly afraid of internal parasites in my fish for some reason, I guess I still have the no feeder mentality. So they should take the crushed up hikari cichlid gold no problem then?
CichlidDan;2456279; said:
No problem at all. And I don't even crush them. If you have an extra tank then just dose the tank there kept in. That is what I do with my rosies. YOUR GOING TO SEE SOME LOSSES WITH YOUR feeders. Which is good because these are the ones you don't want to feed. But I still feed these also to my other cichlds with no ill effect. It's all choice. I have been doing this for 17yrs and havn't seen any problem in feeding feeders in all of these year's.
I would not feed any dead feeders to my cichla as they don't eat them anyway. But all the information listed should give you a better result with your feeders.
thanks for the info high city and cichlid savage! i love learning about all fish..
im with ya savage-i keep great care of my fish and they get a varied diet-they are my babies and i do everything i can to help them have a good life..
thanks for sharing info guys.. i also didnt know their temp is kept higher than africans (i keep them at 78-79 degrees)
thanks again..
im with ya savage-i keep great care of my fish and they get a varied diet-they are my babies and i do everything i can to help them have a good life..
thanks for sharing info guys.. i also didnt know their temp is kept higher than africans (i keep them at 78-79 degrees)
thanks again..
