How Much To Feed When Enough To Finish In 30sec Rule Doesn’t Apply.

Gonna be a Long post bear with me pls.


Even if I have been keeping Cichlids for sometime I have not mastered how much to feed game. I realized that after acquiring some very always hungry gluttons.

I have a Hybrid Parrot Fish, 2 flowerhorns and an Oscar. Of course in different tanks.

I do have 1 7” Rotkeil Severum, two 4” red spotted severums, and another 4” Green Severum, convicts and few other blood parrots Too in 6 different tanks.

The problem is only for 6 fishes. Who love to stuff their mouth as soon as I give food. I give HikarI Cichlid Gold (for >3” Fish type) sinking pellets.

With my Breeding Flowerhorn and his mate Hybrid blood parrot it won’t even last 10seconds no matter how much I put. I don’t know how many pellets are required. I put 10 gone in 5seconds or less. They come together and gulp all 10 sometimes together in one go and come back for more in less than 2 seconds. The bigger 5” Flowerhorn does a “beg dancing” when I am even remotely in the room 24hours. And look at me with piercing eyes when I feed other fishes.

Now his mate the 6” blood parrot female learned the exact same behaviour and does the exact beg dancing the moment she sees the Flowerhorn doing it. No food aggression they both eat from each other’s faces even sometimes. Usually blood parrot likes to eat the ones that drop to the floor and FH eats before the pellet sinks.

Next is the Oscar which is a 7” female I believe. She also does a different type of beg Swimming whenever I pass by. Again gulps even 10pellets at a time.

The blood parrot which lives with her also eats fast. But not so extreme . So does the Convict in another tank. But the 3” Flowerhorn juvenile is extreme, who actually eats more pellets than the blood parrot with in 5seconds. All my tanks go into a feeding frenzy sans aggression during feeding time. Yeah I am lucky than fish eat without aggression sometimes right off the face of each other as I drop the pellets. They make a lot of loud gulping sound, splashing sound and what not. I am feeding only once a day these days.

My severums on the other hand including the rotkeil are very slow and steady eaters. Rotkeil lives with Oscar and a Blood Parrot and stays away during the feeding frenzy. So I give it few pellets separately. And it eats. But I need to distract the other 2 with more pellets before I could do it. All my severums eat slowly, only sunk pellets one by one. So I know how much I need to feed.

So now the question is, for these always begging and always hungry gluttons how many pellets I should feed?

Any rule on how much food they require? Since all of them are growing I don’t wanna underfeed them just as much as I don’t wanna over feed. Now I am doing 50% water changes twice a week just to keep Nitrates below 30. So I know I am overfeeding now.

One time I put a cube of frozen blood worms for the entire tank to share and the blood parrot Hybrid came snatched and ate the whole cube in 2seconds. Ever since that I thaw the bloodworms until they disintegrate to individual ones before feeding.

But when it comes to pellets I am lost. Can some expert give me a correct feeding regime. Here are the fish that are gluttons again

1. 7” Oscar named Clara
2. 5” Flowerhorn named Macaroni
3. 6” Bloodparrot Hybrid named Sarah
4. 3” Flowerhorn named Fussili
5. 4” True Blood Parrot named George
6. 4.5” Male Convict named Robert

Is there any pellets per inch rule I can follow?

 

The good news, it is almost impossible for a fish to starve to death. Overfeeding is way more likely. I’d almost say to watch them, and if they are loosing weight to up the pellets a bit. I’m kinda curious about this too cause I have some pigs in my tank as well. (Not nearly as big but they think they are.)

 

The good news, it is almost impossible for a fish to starve to death. Overfeeding is way more likely. I’d almost say to watch them, and if they are loosing weight to up the pellets a bit. I’m kinda curious about this too cause I have some pigs in my tank as well. (Not nearly as big but they think they are.)

It’s the emotional blackmailing that is very very difficult to ignore. My Flowerhorn these days bump on things to make sound to get my attention or is it just he does enthusiastic Swimming and get accidentally getting bumped. One of that. I feed in the night usually. Today he was making so much splash and commotion that I fed them a bit before leaving. I have tried to see whether his swimming behavior is intentional by keeping a camera to record. And it was proven with 100% accuracy that this pattern Swimming and banging only happens when I enter the room.

 

It’s the emotional blackmailing that is very very difficult to ignore. My Flowerhorn these days bump on things to make sound to get my attention or is it just he does enthusiastic Swimming and get accidentally getting bumped. One of that. I feed in the night usually. Today he was making so much splash and commotion that I fed them a bit before leaving. I have tried to see whether his swimming behavior is intentional by keeping a camera to record. And it was proven with 100% accuracy that this pattern Swimming and banging only happens when I enter the room.

He has you very well trained

I feed mine by number of pellets and not how much they can eat in a span of time. You'll need to find what works for your individual fish. For my adult flowerhorns, I feed roughly 20 3-4 mm pellets per day. Split into two different feedings. I try to aI'm for what the fish is supposed to look like. If they start getting a little chubby, cut back on the food a bit.

Oscars are crazy eating machines. Mine used to jump out of the water at me when I opened the lid to feed. I'd have to open the lid, throw the food in and close the lid very fast. They will never be full.

 

He has you very well trained

I feed mine by number of pellets and not how much they can eat in a span of time. You'll need to find what works for your individual fish. For my adult flowerhorns, I feed roughly 20 3-4 mm pellets per day. Split into two different feedings. I try to aI'm for what the fish is supposed to look like. If they start getting a little chubby, cut back on the food a bit.

Oscars are crazy eating machines. Mine used to jump out of the water at me when I opened the lid to feed. I'd have to open the lid, throw the food in and close the lid very fast. They will never be full.

He certainly has. I need to do something even now he was like doing the beg-dance I tried to look away then his Girlfriend joined in. Finally I gave 5pellets each. I was thinking since I fed in the morning today I won’t feed again.

Here is the beg-dancing by the couple just took an hour ago. After having fed 5pellets each. Cichlidnut