Amount to Feed

I know one of the most common mistakes that novices make is overfeeding. On the flipside, however, I don't want my fishies to be hungry.

(Rather than make two threads, one for each fish forum, I just stuck it in here. I apologize if I picked the wrong forum (yet again) )

I have a male betta and a bristlenose pleco. I'm not sure of the age of the pleco, but she's about two inches long. Under normal conditions (I'm currently possibly battling constipation with my pleco, so I'm feeding her less) I give the male betta about 4 pellets (small round ones; I'm pretty sure it's this stuff but not positive, and I'm away from the tank ).

Is this too much? Not enough? (I doubt it's too much, but from what I know it's better for fish to be slightly underfed than overfed, if anything.) How much do you recommend I give him?

I used to give the BN pleco one algae wafer per day, but now that I know this can cause constipation, I've only actually given her half of one since. I've tried peas (without the skins) but she won't touch them. Two nights ago I fed her thin slices of zucchinI and cucumber, one of each (which she absolutely demolished, nothing left but a tiny strip of skin, and I think she even ate some of that). The strips were probably about 1/8" each. I was sort of surprised how much of it she ate, though only about half was eaten by morning, and she finished off the rest while I was gone for the day. Should I feed her again tonight? Is this an okay amount of food for two days, or does this sound like a daily meal?


Sorry if that sounds kind of rambly, I'm having a hard time organizing my thoughts this evening! Thank you for any information.

 

Hello!

The only information I can offer on your pleco is that I have read they like to munch on driftwood. I've also read that driftwood helps their digestion.

Stand by for more replies...

 

There is a piece of driftwood in there, I got some Malaysian driftwood last weekend. At first she didn't seem interested, but now I see her on it quite frequently.

 

As an update, I read in a different thread that plecos are actually omnivores, while I had thought that they were strictly herbivores. Since I hadn't fed my pleco yesterday or today (after her veggie feast two nights ago), I tossed in a single sinking shrimp pellet (a small cylinder roughly 2mm in diameter and less than a cm long). Long story short, she went totally nuts! She was shaking her head back and forth like a predator trying to maI'm its prey. Then she sort of lied on top of it and wriggled a bunch, so the pellet (which had softened and loosened up) totally exploded.

Does this mean she really likes them? I was thinking (since they're so messy) that if it's okay she continues to eat them, I'd probably only feed one per week, the night before tank-cleaning-day. (Unless she should have more, which I doubt.)

I know plecos aren't supposed to have a lot of protein, but oddly enough, these shrimp pellets (at 30%) have less protein than the algae wafers (at 35%).

Though at this point it probably doesn't really matter, as I just noticed very fine algae growing on the walls. I had been feeding her a bit extra (before the constipation stint) because I was afraid there wasn't enough algae because this is a new tank. I'm thinking I probably won't feed her this weekend (she's still looking a bit plump anyway); she used to munch all over the walls, and now that I think about it, I haven't seen her do that quite as much. She is still one of the most active plecos I've seen though!


If anyone sees any problems with the above statements, please let me know!


Also, if you know anything about algae, take a peek at the thread I'm about to write; maybe you can help me ID it (once I put pictures up tomorrow) and lend advice about how to take care of it.

 

Good morning,

I have moved your thread from Freshwater Beginners to Freshwater Tank Equipment/Fish Food section of the forum.

Too, I added the link to your Algae Thread in post #4 above.

Thanks!

Ken

 

Haven't you been busy this morning I'll figure out what all the threads are eventually. Thanks for your help!

 

I think you are doing fine. I feed my fish less often, but there are plenty of members who feed everyday. I feed my Bettas 5 pellets every other day, but since yours will be in a community, feeding a smaller amount everyday would probibly be better. I have not keep a fish yet that doesn't go crazy for the shrimp pelets( I put them in for the cories and shrimp, but every one goes after them)