[Smalltank3]

Sorry for the desperate title. I just got my cherries today in the mail(Thanks Wood) and was wondering when I put them in my tank, should I feed them? There is about 15 or 16. Also, I asked this in another thread but no one answered. When I feed them the algae wafers, veggies, and shrimp food, how often should I feed them? Every day? And should I feed them algae wafers one day, and veggies the next?

Thanks,

Smalltank

 

[dapellegrini]

Well - it depends on how much they can find scavenging. The only problem with feeding them frequently, is that they will eat less of the algae and other uck from your aquarium as they prefer the prepackaged food.

On the other hand you do not want to starve them. In one tank with little to no algae I feed mine every day - in another with a lot of algae, I rarely feed them - perhaps once every 2 weeks.

 

[CampCreekTexas]

I'd go ahead and put a piece of algae wafer in the tank now and see if they go for it (may not if they're too stressed, but don't worry about it ~ they'll get over it). If they don't have much interest in it, then wait 'til tomorrow or the next day to try again, provided the original algae wafer piece you put in is gone. Use small pieces of an algae wafer so you don't have to clean a whole one out of your tank if they don't like it.

What I do to tell how much to feed is watch them after I feed them. I'll start out with small portions of food and if they're clambering all over it and clean it up quickly, I'll give them more the next day (maybe twice as much as the day before). If not many are eating it and it takes forever for them to clean it up, I'll either give them nothing the next day or just a bit.

 

[Owen Stubbs]

A large portion of my son's original stock of cherries came from Tundragirl. She also included a variety of food to get him started, and we have yet to go through it all. Based upon what she sent, here was her recommendation for approx 2 dozen cherries of various sizes:

Spirulina granules or shrimp pellets - either 2 shrimp pellets or a pinch of spirulina every other day. For size comparison, the pellets are about 1/8 - 1/4 inch long max, by about 1/16 inch in diameter.

Dehydrated spinich and squash - one or the other, once per week. These are dime or smaller size pieces.

Fish flake food - I do not recall the original recommendation, but we feed a pinch of this on the alternate days I do not do the spirulina or shrimp pellets.

FWIW - we also have 2 ottos in this 10 gal tank.

I can tell you that originally, we were feeding a bit more than I just described. Snails were beginning to exceed the population of most small countries, so we backed off a bit to what I just described. Still have snails, but nowhere near as many as we once had. Plenty of plants, but quite frankly, the tank does not look nearly as nice as yours smalltank!!!

 

[tundragirl]

go with what your tank is like -I have a tank with almost no algae that I feed as owen Stubbs Described and then I have another tank with lots of algea that I only suppliment 1-2 a week with pellets, spirulina etc.

 

[wood]

Great advice by everyone. #1 thing to not do is overfeed and have food leftover. Feed VERY small amounts for a while and you will slowly realize the perfect amount they consume in an hour.

15 cherries will not need much food at first. I would recommend letting them get acclimated and eat the stuff in the tank first. The cherries I sent you are voracious eaters and are also very hardy so it wont take long for them to get acclimated and eat the tank clean. Don't be surprised when you drop a small piece of algae wafer in there and see them swarm it and devour it real fast. Keeping them constantly hungry is the key IMO.

-Ryan

 

[CampCreekTexas]

#1 thing to not do is overfeed and have food leftover.

No kidding ~ I had an outbreak of hydras and pond snails because I was feeding too much. I swear there were more snails in there than shrimp. Ugh.

15 cherries will not need much food at first.

And again Wood's not kidding ~ I have fifty adults and atleast 200 babies in my tank and I give them only a couple algae wafers a day. I gave them three today and it's taken them six hours to finish them. I think I'll skip a day and go back to two wafers.

 

[tpl*co]

:icon_idea OMG, I think you guys have touched on my problem with all the CRS I had, I over fed them! (easy to do when my other tanks have chow hungry big fish that expect to be fed 3-5 times a day!) I still have my cherries that are expecting though.

Tina

 

[bulrush]

I have 50+ RCS in my tank. I feed them about 5-6 sinking pellets, 2mm sized, twice per day. Once in the AM, once in the PM. They eat every bit of it and continue to graze on java moss and around the tank.

I sometimes feed them flake food, and they eventually swim upside down and find it on the surface of the water.

 

[kunerd]

With my 30 i have maybe 30 in it and they get one waffer every other day

 

[A Hill]

Great advice by everyone. #1 thing to not do is overfeed and have food leftover. Feed VERY small amounts for a while and you will slowly realize the perfect amount they consume in an hour.

15 cherries will not need much food at first. I would recommend letting them get acclimated and eat the stuff in the tank first. The cherries I sent you are voracious eaters and are also very hardy so it wont take long for them to get acclimated and eat the tank clean. Don't be surprised when you drop a small piece of algae wafer in there and see them swarm it and devour it real fast. Keeping them constantly hungry is the key IMO.

-Ryan

Hey Ryan, it really depends on the food and tank size as well. In my 55g RCS tank I'll just throw in a good amount of food once a week or so let them eat it over whatever amount of time they wish, 1hr or 1day doesn't really matter. If your filtration is good enough you're fine. We keep shrimp, not Oscars our bioloads are ridiculously low!

I would suggest feeding every other day in larger ammounts, so on the second day they forage. I know it isn't something most people do but it works well.

More or less find something that works for you!

-Andrew