Trying to find ideal weekly feeding schedule for Cacatuoides / Tetra tank

[davidjp1982]

OK so I having a bit of trouble ensuring my 3 Cacatuoides get a good varied diet without the neon / back skirt and black neon tetras becoming obese! At the moment I have a fairly regular schedule of 2 feeds daily alternating between a couple of pinches of Aquarian flake and NLS Cilchlid pellets one day and two feeds of live daphnia or grindal worms the next. However all I seem to be achieving is some very fat tetras as they devour most of the food in seconds. I also throw in a hikari algae wafer once a week in pieces which they all go crazy over and some frozen bloodworm or tubifex once a week. Do you think I should cut down on the live food and feed more of the flake / pellets? Any tips on making sure they all get a share? I've heard some people fill the tetras up on flake before dropping in the live food but I could literally feed 10 minutes of flake and the tetras would still attack the daphnia or worms even to the point they can't swallow them and have horrible lumpy stomachs! Any ideas?

 

[rob the dwarf cichlid fan]

Ive got tetras in my tank with my cacatuoides I only feed them once a day.
one day on flake then next day on live food. Been doing this alternating food for 2 years now
and my fish are all healthy and not obese and all get a fair share.
hope this helps someway.

 

[bludfire]

Yeah 2 feeds everyday is way too much food.

I went to an Cichlid experts talk recently and he said it's best to skip days completely

For example:
Monday - feed once
Tuesday - feed once
Wednesday - skip
Thursday - feed once
Friday - feed once
Saturday - feed once
Sunday - skip

The readon for this is it
A) cleans out their system and allows any food blockages to clear so won't suffer from bloat
B) it prevents them from prematurely ageing which happens when they are overfed in the aquarium
C) it improves water quality dramatically as there is less waste being created
To make sure apistos get enough buy a long pipette and you can squirt the food past the tetras and right in front of the apistos.

 

[regani]

Several feeds during the day are not bad per es, just make sure the total amount is not too much, most people tend to overfeed.
If you are worried that your apistos don't get enough food, get sinking micro pellets, start feeding with a little flake on one side, add the sinking food on the other side of the tank. That will give the apistos a better chance and also encourages more natural behaviour where they find their food sifting through sand

 

[davidjp1982]

I guess the common advice of frequent small feedings is good if you can be disciplined in not overfeeding (something I struggle with). Also the answer was right under my nose in the form of a turkey baster - I tried this earlier and found it very easy to spread the food around in small doses for all the fish.

Will switch to once daily with the odd "gut clearance" day thanks all

 

[themountain]

I feed my fish only 4 time s a week and there are doing fine ...?? Get them to become less shy also.