how much to feed?

Have never directly fed my catfish til now, they have always eaten algae off the tank and the odd bit of flake goldfish food that has floated down.

Tried a cucumber chunk, and some of the bigger ones liked the middle.

Put a few de-shelled frozen peas in - they disappeared within 15 mins, but didn't see who did it!

Bought some dried loose bloodworms (they floated and the danios ate them all)

Got some spirulina wafers/tabs, also went down well and disappeared fast.

My problem is I don't know how much to feed of these things (nothing was written on the packs, I got them off ebay), and I don't want to overfeed them and affect the water quality or health of my fish if these things are supposed to be fed like treats and not main meals - can anyone given me a guideline on how many spirulina tabs and how often?

I have 3 adults, a few 3-5 cm ones, and lots of new babies.

Thanks.

hrmm, it is a tough thing to get ones head around as most catfish eat at night.

They way i do it is i always have some cucumber in the tank. that provided the bulk that they need in their diet as they are algae eaters they are used to eating bulk in order to get the nutrition they need. i then supliment them with algae wafers every few days (work on one wafer between 2 adult fish). I also mix up the cucumber with some ofther things like zuchini, rockmellon and peas every now and again. I do throw in some high protein foods too, like frozen feeder block or frozen bloodworms as the hit of protein is good for them and helps condition the adults for breeding.

The only real way to fgure out how much vege to give them is trial and error. but the best thing is that if you over feed them its easy to take out the left overs. I only leave veges in the tank fo about 36hrs (by which time they are usually gone anyway)

if you keep veges in there, they will be fine. upplimenting with other foods like algae wafers and meats is only that, a suppliment, and should not be done too often as it can lead to things like bloat which is a big killer for new bristlenose keepers

I only feed courgette as a treat once a week......
Slice it into a piece about 5 inches long then slice again down the middle and just feed one half....
Thats just once a week....
In your case i would just feed one wafer per adult plec per night and put an couple extra in for the baby's....i normally do this for 3 days in a row with one day off feeding then on the fourth feed the courgette then another day off then back to 3 days of wafers again....
Ive never had no real probz doing it this way.....

Thanks for your answers!

I don't think I'll put cucumber or other fresh food in every day, maybe weekly, and I certainly wouldn't leave it in longer than a day. The peas go really fast so I don't think there'll be a problem there.

Will try freezing the bloodworms and see if they can reach the :<a href='h before the danios and goldfish eat them all!

Ok, I'll remember to leave some gaps in the spirulina feeds.x

I do the same as doug pretty much always have cucumber in there, never has done any harm to my water and have raised hundreds of bristlenose in a tank that ive kept cucumber in more than a day.

Cucumber is pretty much water anyway, thats how I look at it.

I personally never give fish dried bloodworm gave my fish major bloat and lost quite a few. Soon as i swapped to frozen it never happened again

Ok, thanks. Will ease off on the bloodworms. The danios and goldfish eat them all anyway, thought maybe next time a block would be better as they just float on the surface at the moment. Live ones went well, but takes a long time for me to catch them!

Why don't you just buy frozen bloodworm it's really easy then

um, because I didn't think of it and just got whatever I could find online. I don't have any fish suppliers near me that I can get to easily, so I'm just guessing as I go along and then usually finding out afterwards what I should really have got!

bloodworms make a great protien enhancement for bristlenose, thats what may come acorss in the wild

if you need another protein enhancment, then any meat based food will do, i use the frozen feeder blocks. but not too often tho as they might get bloat.

becouse i have fry in my tank i have cucumber in there all the time 24\7. but if i dont have fry i put one in and when its finished (usualy after 2 days) i skip a day and feed it the next.

That reminds me, I must put some more cucumber in. Not that many ate it last time though, the snails had most of it. The danios are getting the bloodworms, pretty sure nothing gets past them and reaches the bottom of the tank. The BNs have just started spirulina tabs and seem to love them.