What do you feed your Green Terrors?

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Waynethegiant

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 11, 2005
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cerritos,ca
How many times a day and what do you feed?

Maybe my way is too structured. I'm still learning so much about fish in general, I have no idea if I'm overfeeding. Some people say feed once, some people say feed 3 times, some people say feed until they burst.


Sunday-
Morning: Hikari Cichlid Gold
Afternoon- Frozen Bloodworms
Night: NLS Cichlid Formula Sinking pellets

Monday-
Morning: Hikari Cichlid Gold
Night: NLS Cichlid Formula Sinking pellets

Tuesday-
Morning: Hikari Cichlid Gold
Afternoon- Freeze Dried Krill
Night: NLS Cichlid Formula Sinking pellets

Wednesday-
Morning: Hikari Cichlid Gold
Night: NLS Cichlid Formula Sinking pellets

Thursday-
Morning: Hikari Cichlid Gold
Afternoon- Frozen Bloodworms
Night: NLS Cichlid Formula Sinking pellets

Friday-
Morning: Hikari Cichlid Gold
Night: NLS Cichlid Formula Sinking pellets

Saturday-
Morning: Hikari Cichlid Gold
Afternoon- Freeze Dried Krill
Night: NLS Cichlid Formula Sinking pellets


Please let me know if I am insane.
 
I feed once a day but I've heard to feed 2-3x a day to increase growth rates. Some of the signs of over-feeding are a film on top of the water, algae, high nitrates and excessive fish waste building up in the tank. If those are all absent I'd say you are good.

A lot of people use a day of fasting to help the fish digest any remaining food, clear their systems and give a break to the bio-load on the tank.
 
I Try to feed mine a varied diet of Hikari, NLS, Omega One and Ocean Nutrition with some fresh prawns and frozen bloodworms but he is very stubborn and will only eat what he wants to witch is mostly Massivore and now and then NLS 7.5mm floating pellets.
 
It's acturally a good feeding schedule. But it doesn't have to be so strict. I don't know what size and age your fish are. Feeding juveniles 3 times a day is not overfeeding, but feeding 12 inch oscars 3 times a day might be. I fed 3 times when they were small and right now i feed 2 times a day. Maybe once they are all full grown i'll just feed once depending on how quickly my nitrates rise.
 
yeah i agree with mark, thats a gerat schedule if they are all young but as he said as well it doesnt have to be quite so structured, i feed my cichlid several different types of pellets 2x a day, but i feed most of them at one feeding, like i will put a couple of one pellet, then a couple of the other, etc. i fraction the amount i would feed into however many of the different pellets i want to feed at the time, sometimes i just do two different pellets sometimes 3 or 4, and sometimes i will mix in some broken algae pellets and sometimes at night ill give treat of whatever frozen food i have at the time.

but yeah when they were younger i fed 3x daily, now i feed 2x daily as they are all about 4-7in, once they are all 8in or larger ill only feed once a day
 
You have a pretty good feeding schedule. If your GT is under 5" I would say you feeding it pretty well. Once it gets larger though I personally wouldn't feed it more than twice a day. Mine is a little under 4" and I feed him 1-2 times a day, and once in a great while (like once a month) I will fast him. I have a hard time fasting my fish because I am a sucker for beggars and all my fish beg.

I think that one thing that you are missing is feeding your GT veggies. I would recommend Omega one veggie flakes or pellets. I feed my GT the flakes or pellets once a week, and then I also feed fresh or frozen veggies once a week as well. Try skinned peas, skinned lima beans, asparagus, and maybe spinach.
 
mark377;4292287; said:
It's acturally a good feeding schedule. But it doesn't have to be so strict. I don't know what size and age your fish are. Feeding juveniles 3 times a day is not overfeeding, but feeding 12 inch oscars 3 times a day might be. I fed 3 times when they were small and right now i feed 2 times a day. Maybe once they are all full grown i'll just feed once depending on how quickly my nitrates rise.
Click to expand...

Sarah88;4292724; said:
when they were younger i fed 3x daily, now i feed 2x daily as they are all about 4-7in, once they are all 8in or larger ill only feed once a day
Click to expand...

I agree with both Sarah and Mark here. One other thing to consider when talking about over feeding is:
1. watch the feeding. Dont add the food then leave. This will enable you to see when the fish aggressively eats vrs when he just is grazing just because the food is there (they will over eat like pigs if you let them).Only put in what he will eat in 2min or so. After that you notice that he'll start "grazing". You cant go by the idea that if the foods all gone after while they must have ate it.. They must have been that hungry.
2. Take the remaining food out. After a few feeding you will know how much to put in to accommodate his eating habits.
 
Thanks guys. My GT is a male about 3 inches long. He's growing quite rapidly. I always watch him eat and he pretty much devours everything (other than the algae wafer at night for the pleco). I will add in some veggie flakes or some frozen veggies.

Since it is a decent schedule, I'll keep it for now until I learn more about fish and his behavior and I'll probably know when and what to feed him without thinking. Thanks guys you've all been a great help
 
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