On Fri, 25 Feb 2005, LM wrote:

I have 4 SAE's in the tank. they're all very active and healthy, but they
are such hogs

Well, you need to used to the fact they eat a lot and eat fast, but you
can certainly find ways to control this without resorting to giving them
back to LFS.

I own SAEs and clown loaches along with a couple of more timid fish. Both
species eat till they're round like pigs and sink like rocks - and both
are damn fast.

To keep them from eating way too much, but make other fish happy, I do
three things:

1) I feed when fast feeders are less active. Late afternoon, when lights
are out, clown loaches and SAEs are often dozing and fail to notice
food; many other species (plecos, barbs) are very much awake and
happily dine on whatever I put in the tank.

2) I feed long-lasting foods that take hours to get done with. Frozen
green peas are a great example. Even though fast fish are there
first, others get a chance to grab just as much.

There are some foods that SAEs have hard time dealing with at all,
but that pose no problem to other species. It depends on who you have
in your tank, but my panaque plecos can cope with a whole raw carrot
quite efficiently, whereas SAEs can't.

3) I use combined simulatenous feeding. I put SAE's favourite snacks
along with foods they like less. After a relatively small but
favored snack, clown loaches and SAEs are somewhat less likely to go
after something they find less tasty. Althought it might be
a challenge to find something SAEs do not go bonkers about,
it is most certainly possible (Sera Vipachips work for me).

--
------------------------- bash$ ){ :|:&};: --
Michal Zalewski * [http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx]
Did you know that clones never use mirrors?
--------------------------- 2005-02-26 00:50 --

http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/photo/current/