# feeding little fish - CPD, Chili, pygmy cory



## raven_wilde (Jul 12, 2006)

It sounds like you are overfeeding and can probably safely cut back.

I keep D. margaritatus, B. maculata, D. erythomicron & C. pygmaeus all in a community tank and I feed 1-1.5 times per day and usually skip one day a week at random to give my fish an opportunity to 'clean their room' so to speak. I have noticed no problems as a result so I don't see why you can't expect the same.

What I feed (if you are interested): I have a bottle of what is a mix of Tetra Color granules, Hikari Micro Pellets, some Ken's Flake, some freeze dried brine shrimp, some freeze dried Mysis shrimp, and some Hikari Shrimp Pellets... and probably leftovers from other stuff I don't remember. Basically I am always buying new stuff to try and then just end up mixing it together. Sometimes in the morning before work I put a small pinch of this mix in the tank - this is what I consider the .5 feeding. This is maybe every other day.

Later in the evening when I am at home they either get a larger pinch/sprinkle of this stuff or a pinch/sprinkle of Golden Pearls. I usually also toss a bit of Repashy Shrimp Souffle in the tank to keep the Cherry Shrimp busy. Sometimes the fish pick at this but usually its just a Cherry Shrimp free for all.

As for what to feed your Cories - I happened to be given some Ken's Immune Booster flake by another hobbyist this past weekend. My Cories swarm it - which is something I have never seen them do before. Its about $5 for quite a lot of flake so maybe its worth trying. Also, the flakes are huge, you only need to put one in the tank and it keeps them busy for quite a while.


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## raven_wilde (Jul 12, 2006)

Also, those shrimp pellets and soft bottom feeder pellets are terribly messy. I would suspect that they are behind a lot of your woes. Try eliminating them and sticking to smaller sized pellets.

What you should do is find something that your shrimp really like - I use Repashy for this, but you could also try blanched zuchinni or kale or something - put that in the tank first and let them pile on. Then drop in the fish food in another part of the tank for the Cories to find.


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## ThatGuyWithTheFish (Apr 29, 2012)

Those nitrates are not a problem.


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## HSA1255 (Apr 2, 2013)

I agree with a comment above and do not think your nitrate level is an immediate concern, but looking online general concensus is below 20 for the best long term health of your tank's inhabitants. Remember that the nitrate test is the one that you must shake bottle #2 for 30 seconds before you drop it into the vial. Many people get inaccurate readings overlooking this step. 

Reading your feeding list I honestly felt you are feeding a lot of variety which is good, but I do think once a day would be adequate. My cardinals are small and I feed once a day and often skip days. I try not to even consider the shrimp at feeding time in my fish and invert tank because they are my shredders, they are in there to eat biofilm, algea, leftovers, and to break up plant matter so good bacteria can work more efficiently. I add a supplement for baby shrimp when I see a berried female to ensure the babies have available food. It sounds like you wanting to ensure the cories eat may cause you to over feed a little. Perhaps a different food, like one mentioned above would be a good idea. I read one comment that cories go crazy for freeze dried tubifex worms (that have to be weighted to sink), another said bloodworms got that result. Maybe it is just a process of finding the favorite food for yours.

I googled your fish species and they are really beautiful! I thought the D. margaritatus online had amazing colors as did the D. erythomicron. Some odd predatorial pencil looking fish came up under D. erythomicron at first, then I found the danio type and it's vertical stripes and the spot on the tail that mirrors the eyes really make it a unique looking fish. It sounds like you really are making a great effort to take care of your fish, so I'm sure you will figure this out. Maybe a new home for some of those guys, or a bigger tank would make sense? If you suspect over crowding, and over feeding; you're probably correct. What kind of filter is running on this tank and if you clean the filter media is it with every water change and how do you do it? I remember the days when I thought cleaning the tank meant cleaning the filter just the same... and even after some insight I was still cleaning off good bacteria using tap water on filter pads and media rather than gently rinsing it in settled tank water siphoned from the tank during a cleaning. You want to do everything you can to protect those good bacteria and keep your tank stable... even a tank thought to be well established may not be stable because of incorrect cleaning. I'm sure there are things I still do not know that affect my parameters, we learn as we go. I think you could handle these fish easier with more or better filtration... I say that from personal experience as I have had excellent results using more filtration than product details and guide lines suggest. 

Your tank is beautiful. Please know this is all just my opinions based on my experience; I'm new here but have enjoyed keeping tanks since my Dad bought my first one when I was in grade school. Take what you will from posts and read online about it, seriously search each of your questions because there is so much info out there available. I'm pretty sure a reduction in feeding (maybe the messy types of food first, and try once a day every other day if you are concerned about the cories) would not hurt. Second, a reduction in the number of fish in that tank would help the nitrate levels, or increased/improved filtration may give you that same result without having to move fish or buy another tank. I do not want to encourage my addiction, but I vote for a second larger tank and perhaps leave the coryies in this one with lower numbers of schooling fish and see how they behave.

Best,
Heather


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## Indychus (Feb 21, 2013)

Be careful skipping meals with the B. Brigittae. They are cyprinids and don't have a stomach. I feed mine crushed flake in the morning and either frozen bloodworm or cultured daphnia in the evening. I skip one random day a week. Just be careful not to skip two days in a row or close together as they can't store food for later use and will show obvious weight loss which could be dangerous or deadly for weaker or smaller fish.

Some sinking food for the cories is a good idea, and you can supplement the otos diet with zucchini or cucumber (remove the soft, seedy middle first).

I don't think you are overstocked, but that is a rather large bioload for a 15... That's probably what's causing your moderate nitrate levels. 20-40ppm is fine. I usually do a water change at 30-40ppm. Keep up your testing and water changes and you won't have any issues at those levels.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 4


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## daylily (Nov 11, 2012)

Sorry for not replying sooner. I recently had eye surgery and had a bit of a set back. Had a tough time being online/reading there for a few days. Better now, enough to tell what I am typing anyway. 

I have read a bit about the Tom Barr method, and I really don't know if the 20-40 nitrate is a problem or not. I do have a lot of plants (I think). There are red root floaters, water lettuce and Nymphoides sp. Taiwan on the surface. Considering I don't do lots of fertilizer and don't do CO2, I think the plants are growing well. I don't have many off color or dying leaves, once a month or so I have to do a pretty good trim back because plants have reached the surface, or are out of the tank an inch and rubbing the glass canopy. 

I believe I am doing the nitrate test correctly. I do a full 30 second shake etc. I have a program on my ipad that has multiple timers and I have a bunch set with labels such as "Nitrate bottle#2 - 30 sec shake" So it makes it easy to run down the list and not mess up. I get a nitrate of 5, sometimes a little more, on the two betta tanks. I recently opened my new API Master kit, as my old one a couple bottle ran out, and the new one had the same results on the nitrate as the old one. 

The first few months after I set up the tank, I had 4 pygmy cory (all the fish store had), the Oto (originally I bought more, but only 2 lived more than a couple days after bringing them home), some Male Endlers, and 8 male Cherry barbs, with a few cherry shrimp. The shrimp grew in number to at least 60. The Cherry barbs flew around in the tank, got territorial, chased the heck out of the Endlers. 4 Endlers jumped out. A friend wanted the Barbs, so I gave them to him. Then, I tried Neons. I had T5 lights then, and they hid under the plants all the time. Took them back. 
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Ordered the current fish from a vendor here at TPT through the mail, since I could never find more cory at the fish store. I carefully figured how many to get... then added in a couple more, figured a few would not make it due to shipping and my hard water etc. I had no idea the vendor sent extras too! And that they would all make it! That is how I ended up stocked a bit on the heavy side. They are all tiny fish though. 

I haven't been feeding for the cherry shrimp - I consider them the clean up crew. Some of the food will float on top of the water lettuce or the leaves of the nymphoides and the shrimp munch that down. And you are right, they do eat the zucchini and cucumber when I put it in to try to get the Otos to eat it. I didn't think about the "messiness" of the bottom feeder food. 

Raven_wilde - I never thought about putting something in that the shrimp would go nuts for - and THEN feeding the cories. That is a great idea. 

HSA1255 - you mention I should improve my filtration. I mentioned that I have two AquaClear 20's running on the tank now - it's a 15 gallon tank. Do I really need more filtration than that? There is pretty good water movement in the tank now, with one filter at each end. The plant person in my local fish club showed me how to clean a planted tank as far as vacuum, rinsing filter in tank water in bucket, etc., and so I think I am doing it correctly. (I do have sponges over the intake tubes for the baby shrimp and Chili's safety - and I do rinse them every week, or they clog up so much the filters don't flow well.)

Indychus - thanks - I thought you were supposed to feed the B. Brigittae, the Chili's ... fairly often. I don't think I can do live daphnia. I do have frozen though. I usually feed that once a week. Should I bump that up to more often? I've tried the sinking foods my local store carrys for the cories and Otos and they just don't seem crazy about it. I keep all the dry fish food in the freezer, except a small amount that I would use in a month, so I don't think it is stale or bad. I've thought about ordering Ken's or some thing to try but ordering a half pound or pound of something for 9 pygmy cories when you don't even know if it is something pygmy cories will eat ?? They have so many choices! Thanks for saying I might not be over stocked. The person I ordered from thought I was ok, helped me figure out how many to order of each. I won't get anything more, I know that. I didn't expect them to all live through shipping & acclimating and didn't expect extras. They do seem happy.

One thing I did think about - I have a ring about 4 inches across I made out of tubing that I used to corral my water lettuce in when I first got it. I am thinking of putting that back in, to keep the floating plants OUT this time - and putting the food in that ring when I put it in. That would help keep the food where the CPD and Chili's can get it, and it can also drift to the bottom, instead of floating over top of plant leaves and getting stuck on the top of floaters where only the shrimp and snails can get it. I can cut back some by not having to allow for that happening if the ring works.

I'll try cutting back some feeding for a while and see if it helps. I'll see if someone in my local fish club has any Kens or resplashy food that they would sell me a little of to try.

Again, sorry for not responding earlier... I kept coming and trying, but just couldn't see well enough to read and type.


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