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Overfeeding- what is it?

1K views 4 replies 2 participants last post by  gmoses 
#1 ·
SO when I was a cichlid breeder the idea was you only feed what can be eaten in a few minutes. But what i learned is its not that simple for a few reasons. Some of the more aggressive cichlids would feed first. Others smaller or less aggressive would wait til they could get in there and others waited til it was dark and quiet. I have seen similar reactions with my shrimp. For example my CRS seem to atatck food as soon as it goes in. My RCS seem to have some that attack food immediately and others dont seem so interested while I have a group of CBS that some will go for th efood and then hours later i will see the fore yellows which are smaller around the food later and even still another tank that seems like no one eats except the snails until dark. So two questions. Is it overfeeding if the food is ot gone with in a certain time period and do shrimp like some fish eat as much as you will feed them or will they stop and leave it alone once they are full so overfeeding can mean to much available food? Or is it overfeeding if it sits in the tank to long hurting teh quality of the water?
 
#4 ·
In my experience they just aren't that hungry. My Tigers and CRS that are heavily populated will attack food seconds after it hits the water. Anytime I do anything in the tank they start swarming around looking for food, even if I am not feeding them. Within 2 minutes the food is surrounded. I have been feeding them around 8 pieces of shirakura food lately and every piece gets swarmed.

How long do your shrimp take to start eating the food and what are you feeding them? How many shrimp do you have in the tank and what size is the tank? Shrimp prefer biofilm so if the population density is low enough they will just feed on biofilm.
 
#5 ·
My two tanks that swarm are my CRS and RCS tanks which are 20 and 15 gallons... they are them most planted but also the most amount of shrimp in them with RCS probaly 30-40 and 20-30 CRS. My fire yellows and CBS are new aboyt 25 in a 30 gallon with some plants but not much yet... I need some easy plants still looking though.
My tt and carbon rili tanks about 20 in a 10 gallon with a few plants and subwassertang. I have been feeding azoo growth and breeder. Today for the first time i tried some organic boiled spinach which every one seems to like. SO i put it in the freezer and figures i will feed once a week. I am looking to add new foods to their diets.
 
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