Feeding Pet Fish is not Easy

Feeding Pet Fish is not Easy

I have made a hash of it recently.

Let me tell all the mistakes I made later but antecedents worth a brief mention.

It is extremely hot and my guppy fish started dying simply because of the heat and the algae menace.

I keep fish to avoid mosquitoes.

My main interest is propagating water plants and due to the extremely hot weather, I have to top up one to two inches of water almost every day and it is making me tired, at the end of the tether, so to speak.

My outdoor fish tank's front glass broke due to shear heat to add to my problems.

I foresaw this and divided the tank into two portions one in front with glass front and back with only cement.

That saved the day and all the fish were quickly transferred to the backup, back portion of the fish tank.

Some plants are wilting away and the algae are dominating the eco-sysyem.

With all these misadventures, I decided to make a mini garden, so that I could propagate few of my exotic water plants indoors.

These exotic plants won't last a week outdoors.

Mind you, I have given up keeping fish indoors, anyway.

So all my problems started a week after, I have decorated my mini water garden with plants (in a mini tank).

Within a few days the plants were showing poor health.

I thought of lack of CO2 and Nitrogen.

Added few Guppy fish and gradually the numbers swelled to over 30 since out in the wild I had a variegated collection of male fish with beautiful colours.

I am fascinated by their genetic variation and exotic array of colour display.

One cannot find two fishes looking alike.
 

That is the reason for exceeding the number (which should have been twenty the most, for the mini tank).

Then with my home folks coming to to advocate design qualities, reluctantly I had to had few Neon tetras to the family of guppy fish.

This is where my problem started.

At about the same time guppy fish started breeding.

When they are under stress they breed, sometimes prematurely and very often the mother fish dies leaving a school of tiny guppy fish.

The Neon tetras are fastidious in habit, both feeding and in their behavior, heavily domesticated and they would not live in peaceful co-existence with fully independent and almost neurotic guppy fish.

Guppy fish are very active and they cannot stay still.

Their random movement add colour to the static picture of the mini plants.

Neon tetras prefer to stay in a shoal.

They do not feed with big pellets.

They prefer the fish food in dust form.

Guppy fish in a second finish the food and there is nothing left for the Neons.

I had no option other than to overfeed with tiny guppy fish numbering over 40 needing ample supply of food.

Th hell broke in a week.

In a week there was more than the desirable algae in an indoor tank.

One morning when I was about to feed I noticed that all guppy fish were docile.

Water was more turbid.

One fish showing definite signs of ill health.

This was an emergency (they were lucky I was on a long holiday).

If I delayed another day neon would be gone, even though they did not show any signs of ill health.

In actual fact they were having a fair share of food with guppy fish being very sluggish.

Overfeeding leads to toxicity specially due to nitrogen and within 24 hours the fish would be dead, including the adaptable and resistant guppy.

Remedy.

1. Fed the fish.

2. Transferred all the guppy fish except ten to my big tank already repaired.

3. After half an hour, I quickly removed half the water (there were two dead guppy fish at the bottom).

4. Did not fill with fresh water till evening.

5. Next day no feeding, they can live up to 10 days without food except the very young.

No problem there was enough algae in the system.

6. Removed half the water.

7. Refilled in the evening.

8. Added two algae eaters.

9. Estimated the amount of food for a day.

In three days the fish are adapting and coming back to normal “status quo”.

1. How to feed?

2. When to feed?

3. How often to feed?

4. Type of food?

The answer to all three is very simple.

Do not go by books, hearsay or gut feeling.

It has to be “tailor made”.

Your tank is unique so you have to observe every day and make a mental note.

Any sign of turbidity of water (overfeeding or algae) is an impending disaster.

Underfeed instead of over feed.

If the tank has healthy plants one can feed even every other day.

That is how I am going to manage.

They never complain but adapt. 

I prefer the flakes but not the pellets for tiny fish.

It is better to stick to one formula or type of food.

Do not mix food like I do for my big tank.

To the big tank I add all three (pellets, flakes and chunks).

That is for surface feeders, bottom feeders and the middle of the tank feeders.

There is a big scavenger fish to eat the dead fish and he is the biggest and the most docile in the big tank.

Keeping an indoor tank in healthy state can be easy but may led to catastrophe.

Better avoid it if you have no time.

But it is a very healthy pastime and good for your heart.

I will end up with few more observations.

Neon tetras are no longer in a shoal.

They are adopting guppy habits.

Few of them are actually fighting and chasing their fellow beings.

They are becoming more independent and self assured.

After two days of starving they now eat even flakes.

I can wean off the food in dust form soon, when the tiny guppy tots are big enough.

Algae eaters are busy cleaning the glass.

My water plants leaves are cleared of the dark algae on their surface.

Mind you they eat only algae.

Adequate light is mandatory for plant life.

Make sure to turn off the light in the evening.

Plants needs continuous dark spells for their “Health” in addition to adequate sunlight or artificial light.

Bottom line is guppy is the most versatile, beautiful and easy to breed fish.

They grow in numbers and nothing else one can do other than increasing the size or number of tanks in your possession.

One inside and another in the garden to dispense the increasing numbers, is my solution.

I used to release them back to the wild in good old days but with streams and paddy fields are polluted to the extremes with toxic pesticides (including arsenic) and waste, it is a death wish for my guppy fish now.

We are a miracle country NOW.