Karmicnull
Member
I thought I would tap into the UKAPS hive mind as I can't find anything useful on the interweb.
I am two weeks into being the proud possessor of 10 Glowlight rasbora (Trigonostigma hengeli). And am being confounded by the fact that they appear to be mid-water feeders. They completely ignore any food floating on the surface, and eschew any sinking flakes or pellets that are less than 10cm from ground level*. Furthermore, they are still pretty nervous of the big hulking thing that periodically approaches their home, and flee to the opposite end whenever I rock up with food. There's no point in my putting the food in whilst they're not there, as it will all sink and be ignored. So I have to get ready with my 1/128th teaspoon of food (flakes, pellets, granules, whatever), and hang around by the side of the tank for 5 mins or so, waiting for them to slowly, cautiously come back to my end. Then, verrry sllooowly, I move my hand over the tank. dump a minuscule amount of food in, and let it sink (poking it with my finger to break surface tension if necessary). They will then scarf it down. I repeat this with further minuscule amounts until they start getting bored. I'm doing this two or three times a day, and it's not sustainable.
Don't get me wrong, I love the whole process, but there are occasions when there just isn't time. In my other tank if I'm in a hurry I'll dump a pre-allotted amount of food in. Anything not eaten will end up on the bottom of the tank, and hungry fish will eventually root around grumpily and find it. This tank doesn't even have bottom feeders (apart from shrimp and snails) who will hoover up any leftovers, so I'm being really careful about dropping in small enough volumes that nothing ever reaches the ground.
Any suggestions on how to make this a faster process?
Cheers,
Simon
*It's really quite astonishing. Battlestar Galactica springs to mind:
"Copper 7, this is copper leader. The food is too close to the ground - I repeat - the food is too close to the ground!"
"Copper 7 to Copper leader - acknowledged. I'm pulling up; nom nom run abandoned. Guess I'll have to find a less risky target."
I am two weeks into being the proud possessor of 10 Glowlight rasbora (Trigonostigma hengeli). And am being confounded by the fact that they appear to be mid-water feeders. They completely ignore any food floating on the surface, and eschew any sinking flakes or pellets that are less than 10cm from ground level*. Furthermore, they are still pretty nervous of the big hulking thing that periodically approaches their home, and flee to the opposite end whenever I rock up with food. There's no point in my putting the food in whilst they're not there, as it will all sink and be ignored. So I have to get ready with my 1/128th teaspoon of food (flakes, pellets, granules, whatever), and hang around by the side of the tank for 5 mins or so, waiting for them to slowly, cautiously come back to my end. Then, verrry sllooowly, I move my hand over the tank. dump a minuscule amount of food in, and let it sink (poking it with my finger to break surface tension if necessary). They will then scarf it down. I repeat this with further minuscule amounts until they start getting bored. I'm doing this two or three times a day, and it's not sustainable.
Don't get me wrong, I love the whole process, but there are occasions when there just isn't time. In my other tank if I'm in a hurry I'll dump a pre-allotted amount of food in. Anything not eaten will end up on the bottom of the tank, and hungry fish will eventually root around grumpily and find it. This tank doesn't even have bottom feeders (apart from shrimp and snails) who will hoover up any leftovers, so I'm being really careful about dropping in small enough volumes that nothing ever reaches the ground.
Any suggestions on how to make this a faster process?
Cheers,
Simon
*It's really quite astonishing. Battlestar Galactica springs to mind:
"Copper 7, this is copper leader. The food is too close to the ground - I repeat - the food is too close to the ground!"
"Copper 7 to Copper leader - acknowledged. I'm pulling up; nom nom run abandoned. Guess I'll have to find a less risky target."