Feeding fish

[MacZ]

MacZ I thank you always for taking an interest and trying to help. I embarrassed to say what is EC also I don’t really understand what you’re saying because you’re at a level with this hobby that I am not even close to and probably never will be sorry for constantly wasting your time with me

EC is Electric Conductivity. The meter you use for TDS takes the conductivity, divides it by 2 (roughly, I'l spare you the decimals) and gives out the TDS. Ec has the advantage of being the parameter that is actually measured and it's irrelevant of what ions it's put together from.

TDS stands for total dissolved solids. But the fact it's total makes the parameter useless unless you know at least some of its parts. GH and KH are part of it and they usually are the biggest portion. So if you know those, the numbers become much more approachable.

There are people that take TDS readings to estimate when to do a waterchange, because over time the TDS rise. Mostly due to water evaporating and leaving solids behind, but also due to waste products rising. The method is tricky if you don't know the baseline. But still people promote it on social media and in general aquarium forums.

I was also a small business owner (well technically, because in my former line of work freelance was the standard and that required registering as a small business). 60 hours a week, only 40 actually paid, then the 'rona hit and I dropped out of the trade (language courses for adults/immigrants), as nobody in the field was able to work anyway. Right now I'm getting by with minimum wage and some housing benefits, while I finish my degree, which was put on hlt for four years due to lack of funding. At least we don't have tuition fees for university in my country. So I know dang well what you're going through.

sorry for constantly wasting your time with me

If it helps you give your fish better care and ultimately making your day a bit better when your fish make you happy in turn, it's not wasted.

It would be wasted if you were one of the people that come here, that don't care for their pets wellbeing but only for an impressive looking colourful tank, no matter what's the cost in money or animal lives.

But you don't make the impression. So... no harm done, I guess. (All this from the mouth of an autistic person.)

 

[Don cheech]

EC is Electric Conductivity. The meter you use for TDS takes the conductivity, divides it by 2 (roughly, I'l spare you the decimals) and gives out the TDS. Ec has the advantage of being the parameter that is actually measured and it's irrelevant of what ions it's put together from.

TDS stands for total dissolved solids. But the fact it's total makes the parameter useless unless you know at least some of its parts. GH and KH are part of it and they usually are the biggest portion. So if you know those, the numbers become much more approachable.

There are people that take TDS readings to estimate when to do a waterchange, because over time the TDS rise. Mostly due to water evaporating and leaving solids behind, but also due to waste products rising. The method is tricky if you don't know the baseline. But still people promote it on social media and in general aquarium forums.

I was also a small business owner (well technically, because in my former line of work freelance was the standard and that required registering as a small business). 60 hours a week, only 40 actually paid, then the 'rona hit and I dropped out of the trade (language courses for adults/immigrants), as nobody in the field was able to work anyway. Right now I'm getting by with minimum wage and some housing benefits, while I finish my degree, which was put on hlt for four years due to lack of funding. At least we don't have tuition fees for university in my country. So I know dang well what you're going through.


If it helps you give your fish better care and ultimately making your day a bit better when your fish make you happy in turn, it's not wasted.

It would be wasted if you were one of the people that come here, that don't care for their pets wellbeing but only for an impressive looking colourful tank, no matter what's the cost in money or animal lives.

But you don't make the impression. So... no harm done, I guess. (All this from the mouth of an autistic person.)

Thank MacZ and may god bless there should be more people in this world like you.
I have had so many

EC is Electric Conductivity. The meter you use for TDS takes the conductivity, divides it by 2 (roughly, I'l spare you the decimals) and gives out the TDS. Ec has the advantage of being the parameter that is actually measured and it's irrelevant of what ions it's put together from.

TDS stands for total dissolved solids. But the fact it's total makes the parameter useless unless you know at least some of its parts. GH and KH are part of it and they usually are the biggest portion. So if you know those, the numbers become much more approachable.

There are people that take TDS readings to estimate when to do a waterchange, because over time the TDS rise. Mostly due to water evaporating and leaving solids behind, but also due to waste products rising. The method is tricky if you don't know the baseline. But still people promote it on social media and in general aquarium forums.

I was also a small business owner (well technically, because in my former line of work freelance was the standard and that required registering as a small business). 60 hours a week, only 40 actually paid, then the 'rona hit and I dropped out of the trade (language courses for adults/immigrants), as nobody in the field was able to work anyway. Right now I'm getting by with minimum wage and some housing benefits, while I finish my degree, which was put on hlt for four years due to lack of funding. At least we don't have tuition fees for university in my country. So I know dang well what you're going through.


If it helps you give your fish better care and ultimately making your day a bit better when your fish make you happy in turn, it's not wasted.

It would be wasted if you were one of the people that come here, that don't care for their pets wellbeing but only for an impressive looking colourful tank, no matter what's the cost in money or animal lives.

But you don't make the impression. So... no harm done, I guess. (All this from the mouth of an autistic person.)

Thank you and God bless you MacZ.
There should be more people like you in this world. Trust me, I can tell just from our interactions on this forum. I went into the pizza business with my parents at the age of 20 and worked for 78 hours a week for 20 years. Then opened up a restaurant and went down to 65 hours a week six days I have had several major surgeries and still require more. Thankfully, both my parents are still alive but mom has very progressed dementia and dad is not doing well, my wife just got hit with cancer for the third time first in the uterus then in the breasts and now in the pancreas, it’s not looking good for her she’s my soulmate. We are together 43 years. I met her on a blind date for my high school prom. Both my daughters tested positive for the Brc 1 cancer gene which means they have to go through all of that at some point.
The restaurant didn’t make it and costed us every penny we had so now I’m back to work for a friend in the pizza business and my body and mind can’t handle the job. Things got so bad financially that we had to set up a go fund me page because of all of the medical bills associated with my wife but you know I get up every day and push and my only salvation is this hobby. I love it so dearly on my day off sometimes I put in a 12 hour day with it.
yesterday it was six hours. I had five tanks had to get rid of two because it was taking too much time away from taking care of my wife anyway, thanks for listening and being there for me with this hobby, thanks again

 

[MacZ]

Fishkeeping is a very helpful hobby when you are going through a burnout. Been there.

But maybe edit your post and keep the private stuff to PMs? Public oversharing tends to bite you back. (Sorry for the bluntness)

 

[Don cheech]

Fishkeeping is a very helpful hobby when you are going through a burnout. Been there.

But maybe edit your post and keep the private stuff to PMs? Public oversharing tends to bite you back. (Sorry for the bluntness)

Oh I know you’re 100% right it’s hard you know a person has to be in such a bad place to put all of that out there but yeah no you’re right thanks

 

[anewbie]

Like the others, usually once each day, with a day of fast. Fry are different of course.

How many fast day a week. i normally feed all the my fishes twice a day - though the larger cicihld i feed a ton of plant based foods - the dwarf cicihld are mostly meat eaters and i feed mostly bug bites though I have to admit my winkelfleck (male) could go on a diet. the females are to my eye ok. The ortegai and lineta are also not on the fat side still maybe i feed too often if i do 2x 7 times a week and everyone else is doing 1 twice a week.

 

[Mike Wise]

Hopefully you aren't feeding only Bug Bites. It is a good high quality food, but I use it as a supplement for live and frozen foods. Feeding 2 X 7 is IMHO a waste of your money and profit for food sellers. I found that my apistos tend to live longer once I stopped overfeeding. This, of course, assumes that your fish are in a well established tank and can find naturally occurring food in it.

 

[anewbie]

Hopefully you aren't feeding only Bug Bites. It is a good high quality food, but I use it as a supplement for live and frozen foods. Feeding 2 X 7 is IMHO a waste of your money and profit for food sellers. I found that my apistos tend to live longer once I stopped overfeeding. This, of course, assumes that your fish are in a well established tank and can find naturally occurring food in it.

Ok i will reduce the amount i feed them. What frozen foods do you feed them? I mostly feed dry foods - mostly bug bites but i mix it up with flakes and a few other things. I'm not really setup for live food other than bbs for frys. I've thought about setting up a tank for black worms but right now i'm kind of saturated.

 

[Mike Wise]

I feed mostly BBS and frozen adult brine shrimp to all my fish. Even adult apistos love BBS. I periodically use other forms of frozen small crustaceans and insect larvae. I feed Bug Bites maybe once per week. Blackworms are usable only if cultured in a clean environment. Blackworms, and any other annelid, have a high fat contact which is not good for healthy fish except as a supplement or production of eggs in females.

 

[anewbie]

I feed mostly BBS and frozen adult brine shrimp to all my fish. Even adult apistos love BBS. I periodically use other forms of frozen small crustaceans and insect larvae. I feed Bug Bites maybe once per week. Blackworms are usable only if cultured in a clean environment. Blackworms, and any other annelid, have a high fat contact which is not good for healthy fish except as a supplement or production of eggs in females.

The problem i have with bbs is the constant rehatching. For me it gets messy; i could look into how to grow the bbs into adult brine shrimp. Also kind of wish brine shrimp could live in the tank till eaten. There is this ebo brine shrimp which is not exactly dry but not frozen. Our local shop only sells frozen blood worm which i consider a no-no; though expensive i could order frozen brine shrimp in a large quantity to justify the cost of shipping.

 

[Mike Wise]

The problem i have with bbs is the constant rehatching. For me it gets messy;

I personally don't understand this comment. I've been using the same method (and soda bottles!) for the past 30+ years and for me it is just as easy and fast as thawing frozen food. I have 3 bottles that run regularly. Each day one of the bottles gets new eggs, one gets bbs removed for the fish. I simply remove the air line and replace it with a piece of air line tubing that I use to siphon the contents into a brine shrimp net over a pitcher. Then the net is dipped into a small container of water to remove most of the salt. Then the net is inverted over a small container and fresh water is poured over the net to flush the bbs into the container. Then the bbs is portioned out using a kitchen baster. All of this take about the same time as thawing frozen foods

i could look into how to grow the bbs into adult brine shrimp.

Unless you are willing to set up and maintain a marine-like tank, it's not worth the effort.

Also kind of wish brine shrimp could live in the tank till eaten.

Sorry, but if the shrimp aren't all eaten withing 5 minutes then you are feeding too much.

There is this ebo brine shrimp which is not exactly dry but not frozen. Our local shop only sells frozen blood worm which i consider a no-no; though expensive i could order frozen brine shrimp in a large quantity to justify the cost of shipping.

I can't say anything about your LFS, but here frozen brine shrimp is found in every store that sells aquarium products, ususally also with blood worms, glass worm (Weiß Mucklarven), gammerus, daphnia, as well as prepared food. Frozen food, for me are slightly more expensive the brine shrimp eggs.