Everything you ever wanted to say about "Zebra luvin", but didn't because you thought everyone would take the mickey! Plus general topics for discussion including everything from what you feed them to your personal experiences.
I'm wondering how everyone feeds their zebbys with all of the tank circulation going on. Is it safe to turn off everything for awhile so that the food will settle at the bottom? What is a reasonable amount of time to turn the filters off so that the zebbys have a chance to eat?
I don't turn my filters off. I personally don't think it does the bacterial colony any good. Sure food swirls around a bit, but it does settle (there are usually areas of less current in the tank) and it's usually gone in the morning. And the zebs don't look like they've missed a meal either! But maybe that's just me!
I wonder if maybe I have too much filtration going on. Is that possible? When I put food in, the majority swirls around. Some food goes to the bottom, but it keeps moving along the bottom. And quite a bit goes into the filter.
I have this exact prob except mine doesn't get even settle really it just swirls to the filter and then GONE!! so i have to turn the filter off or the fish have no chance! i wonder if there is another way to do this?
Put a sponge prefilter on the intake. The fish become quite adept at grazing it off. I don't ever shut my filters off. All it takes is the phone ringing at the wrong moment one time to nuke the tank. I personally like my zebras enough that I am allergic to murdering them. The sponges work fine.
i have 3 filter running, an eheim 2329 thermo a fluval 4 and a clearseal sp-2500 powerhead with filter sponge, i turn off the the fluval and the powerhead for around 2 hours when feeding so all the fish get a chance to feed.
I turn off the powerhead for a couple of hours, but leave the Eheim on when I feed homemade foods. When feeding Zuchini or whole mussel or prawn (got to let the Zebby chew a bit as well ) there's no need to turn anything off, as they stay in place - the veggie needs a bit of help from a rock to stay put though.
IME, a tank full of dead zebras is pretty harsh shell. Been there, done that, albeit years ago. Not sure exactly why it offended your sensibilities to be phrased that way, but I'm ever so sorry if it did. I tend to be very honest and direct. It's never meant in a hurtful way. I'm not sure just exactly why everyone is overreacting to so many posts being made on the board lately, to be honest. Can't everyone just keep in mind that different methods of delivery do not mean you should automatically jump to the conclusion that it was meant in a bad way? We all keep fish, we all want to learn to do it to the optimum level we possibly can, don't we? I do this as a hobby, and like to help people all I can. This constant sniping takes quite a bit of the enjoyment out of it.
I used to shut off the filter for an hour each night as the food would constantly swirl round the tank. I added a coulple of sponge filters to the tank, driven by an external airpump. I now also use HUGE syringes to feed them frozen foods (brine, cyclopes, bloodworm etc) and I can direct the food straight onto the sponges. Both my adults and fry will graze from the sponges.
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Thanks for all the input, here's a little bit of detail on my set up. I have a 40 gallon tank. I'm running 2 Emperor 400s (rated at 400 g.p.h, hang on the back type filters) and 2 bubble diffusers at either side of the tank. So there is a lot of circulation in the tank, but it's not a whirlpool. I have a couple little dwarf apistos in there and they swim all about without problems.
For those that reccomended the sponge over the filter intake. Do you mean just take off the plastic filter end and replace with a sponge? What size sponge?
Does it really hurt things to turn the filter off for 30 mins to an hour? When cleaning my tanks I turn everything off and it probably takes me at least 20 minutes to clean my big tanks. What goes wrong when the filters are off?
When the filters are shut off, especially when canister filters are off, there is no oxygenated water passing over the bacteria colonies. This can lead to die off in varying degrees. I always recommend people dump out any water in a canister that's been off more than 10 or 15 minutes before restarting it. For people leaving them off longer than that, I'd be interested to see if they got an ammonia reading from that water.
The sponge filters I use are the Hydro brand pond filters. They use a standard 1" uplift tubing from UG filters, so most powerheads are already sized to fit them. The pore size is also large enough that if you clog one up, it won't completely restrict the flow and put your fish at risk. I try not to feed that much though .
Well said , I couldnt have worded your message any better.
I really do believe that using OPE (other peoples experiences) is extremely beneficial in all walks of life , not only in fishkeeping . Why make the same mistakes , when we can learn from the mistakes of others, especially when making these mistakes can be extremely costly.
In answer to your question, the longer you switch a filter off , the more the beneficial bacteria dies off, especially if one forgets to switch it back on.
These sorts of things are so easily done, Only a couple of days ago, I unplugged the heater, cleaned a 2 gallon quarantine tank , put a new plec in there , and replaced the sponge filter. The next day , when feeding the plec , noticed that the water was pretty cold. I had forgotten to switch the heater back on !!!!!!!!!!!!!. What would happen if you forgot to switch the filter back on ? !!!!!
I have my zebra tank filters running at between 5 to 7 times tank volumes and even then,finds the food having difficulty settling, especially if it is light, eg flake food.
Why is it deemed necessary to have filters running at 20 times volume ( 2 filters at 10 times volume) which would obviously give problems with foods settling?.
But maybe that's just me!
