Does my zeb look thin?

thebuddy · Post by **thebuddy** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:13 pm

do brine shrimp pellets make a good meaL?

chanettt · Post by **chanettt** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:49 pm

do brine shrimp pellets make a good meaL?

i herd that it is the one beside frozen bloodworm.

crazie.eddie · Post by **crazie.eddie** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 12:38 am

The beefheart mix was made from my discus breeder, which contains deveined beefheart with the fat removed, shrimp, spirulina, vitamins, dried fish flakes, and etc. Hence the name beefheart mix.

It seems to do ok with the foods I've been giving it, since it was only under an inch when I got it 5 months ago. Now it's about 2". I barely disturb the zebras, even during my detritus cleaning and water change. I use a turkey baster to blow the junk underneath the caves and wood. I just happened to take a picture of it, when I brought a new juvenile zeb home.

I do have reason to believe that it was my setup before, slicing smaller pieces of the bloodworms, which made it allot easier to get moved around by the current. Also the current from a bigger filter with no pre-filter sponge or cover for the intake, didn't help much either, which resulted in sucking up the bloodworms.

As I mentioned, I did rescape everything so there are more dead spots for the food to settle. I also got a smaller sized filter, rated for a 20 gallon tank. My original filter was rated for a 40 gallon tank.

I'll try some ground real shrimp for it, since it should sink to the bottom.

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 1:25 am

As for the food being blown around the tank and sucked up by the filter..

I have my filters running off one of those $5 timers you find at Home Depot (DIY store for non-North Americans). I only insert the "on" tabs into the timers, never the "off" tabs.

When it's feeding time, I click the override to the off position and spin the timer round 'til the "on" tab is resting against the cog that switches the timer on and off so it's ready to click back to "on" again. This gives the fish about half an hour or so to eat before the filters switch back on - and any food they haven't gotten by then is resting on the floor and harder for the filter to pick back up.

crazie.eddie · Post by **crazie.eddie** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 3:59 am

That's a good idea. Unfortunately, my zebs come out long after lights out. They seem to wait until all is quiet before they start exploring. Therefore, I just leave the food their before lights out and clean up everything in the morning.

crazie.eddie · Post by **crazie.eddie** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 7:55 am

I have noticed also that they appear to be feeding more when there's little light in the tank, not necessarily when it's pitch black. All my tanks lights go on in the morning at around 10am, turns off at 10pm, with a timer. This includes the tank with my zebs. I would then syphon up all the left overs in the morning. I would still worry, because there was still allot of food left over, unlike before.

I went into the regiment of only turning on the light on the zebra tanks when I need to clean it or place food in there. Otherwise, I would let the very little ambient lighting provide the lighting for the tank. After doing this, I did notice hardly any food was leftover. It does make sense becuase the zebras are raised with no lighting in their room, except when they are beeing fed, tanks being cleaned, or when buyers are looking/picking up fish.

So I guess the mystery has been solved. I've been scaring the one zebra with the lighting I use and cleaning up the food before it got a chance to even eat it.

Asides from the foods I've been feeding it, I'll also try to make my own shrimp mix to add to their diet.

eklikewhoa · Post by **eklikewhoa** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 9:46 am

i dont think the timer for the filter is such a good idea, i would rather manually turn on/off the filter then have a timer do it. what if the filter doesnt come back on or builds air pockets and just sits there gurgling and not filtering?

instead of waking up to full zebras you might be waking up to dead zebras.

have you thought about moonlights? i have moba frontosa's that are a bit skittish to bright light but with moonlights on they are very active and feed well during this lighting, frontosa's are nocturnal.

crazie.eddie · Post by **crazie.eddie** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 10:55 am

The timer that Pete is using sounds like a regular timer. There are tabs in there that you can insert to turn on an appliance. When he feeds his fish, he turns the manual switch to off, then turns the dial so that it is close to the on time again. It's good becuase it gives the fish a few minutes of no current. The timer eventually comes back on again probably in 10-15 minutes, turning on the filter.

The moonlight sounds like a good idea. Supposedly, fish cannot see blue light, but I'm not sure if it holds true or not. My 125 gallon (473 liter) tank has moonlighting on a timer. I often come to see the fish in the shadows of the moonlighting (blue leds). I would drop some Hikari carnivore pellets in the tank for my Gold Nugget to eat and if one of my angels was nearby, it would go for it. Which makes me think that they can either see the blue light or have exceptional eyesight in the dark.

The 10 gallon tank they are in is only temporary, since the biggest is only about 2" and the other about 1.25" or so. I do have plans of moving them into a 20 gallon long (30"x12"x12") and eventually, into a 40 gallon breeder (36"x18"x16") once I get enough zebras. Whether they will be in the a 20 gallon long or a 40 gallon breeder, I'll consider moonlighting on those tanks.

rhino · Post by **rhino** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 11:46 am

crazie.eddie wrote: The moonlight sounds like a good idea. Supposedly, fish cannot see blue light, but I'm not sure if it holds true or not. My 125 gallon (473 liter) tank has moonlighting on a timer. I often come to see the fish in the shadows of the moonlighting (blue leds). I would drop some Hikari carnivore pellets in the tank for my Gold Nugget to eat and if one of my angels was nearby, it would go for it. Which makes me think that they can either see the blue light or have exceptional eyesight in the dark.

I have a 75 gallon tank with moonlights and my fish also go after anything feed to them with just the moonlights on. I think they can see just fine.

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 1:55 pm

eklikewhoa wrote:i dont think the timer for the filter is such a good idea, i would rather manually turn on/off the filter then have a timer do it. what if the filter doesnt come back on or builds air pockets and just sits there gurgling and not filtering?

The whole trouble with manual is it's too easy to forget to turn the filter back on. The timer can't forget

I feed twice daily and use external hang-on filters (Emperors). The longest time between feeding is going to be maybe 11 hours between evening feed and morning feed. Even if, for some reason, the timer didn't turn the filter back on, 11 hours is not long enough for the filter to completely die - and even then, if it was, the ammonia wouldn't build up to any significant degree. Maybe in one of my heavily stocked African fry growout tanks but not in the kinda setups we've got Zebras in.

By way of failsafe I have two of the "on" tabs in each timer spaced at about an hour interval just in case the first doesn't trip the timer back on.

My Zebs learned very quickly that the filter turning off means food time and they visibly go on high alert, twitching their fins and nosing around on the tank floor as soon as the filter is off.

Plastic Mac · Post by **Plastic Mac** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 3:35 pm

The whole trouble with manual is it's too easy to forget to turn the filter back on. The timer can't forget

Lol...I done that before once or twice. I no longer rely on manual switching off and just leave everything running while I feed them. It's made no difference to them being able to get food as after several months they are still doing fine.

TomSharland · Post by **TomSharland** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 7:12 pm

crazie.eddie wrote:The beefheart mix was made from my discus breeder, which contains deveined beefheart with the fat removed, shrimp, spirulina, vitamins, dried fish flakes, and etc. Hence the name beefheart.

The whole point with the shrimp/fish mix instead of the beef heart mix is that beef heart is mammalian protein - how many cows do you think a zeb eats in its lifetime? I'd hazard a guess at none. Most fish are not set to eat mammals, so the beef heart may not be digested correctly and could cause any number of problems down the line.

Shrimp mix on the other hand is more lkely to be the meat that zebs have access to and therefore less likely to cause any unforseen problems.

Tom

Jojoyojimbi · Post by **Jojoyojimbi** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 9:47 pm

how many animals do you think die and wash into the river? what eats them... cardinal tetras?

TomSharland · Post by **TomSharland** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 10:01 pm

Jojoyojimbi wrote:how many animals do you think die and wash into the river? what eats them... cardinal tetras?

Do tell, I'd be interested to know!

Jojoyojimbi · Post by **Jojoyojimbi** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 11:08 pm

TomSharland wrote:
Jojoyojimbi wrote:how many animals do you think die and wash into the river? what eats them... cardinal tetras?
Do tell, I'd be interested to know!

plecos with a primarily meat based diet surely eat the remains of any dead, dying, or decayed red meated animals that wash into the rivers, there are caimens, predatory birds, and other predators that surely drop part or all of their kills into the waters where these fish live, it wouldn't be unfeasible to imagine a team of plecos showing up to finish off a half eaten carcass of something larger