Leiarius longibarbis Feeding

[Shovelnose]

I have a pair of Marbled Pims (bout 12") in my catfish communitty tank and i have been following a specific schedule for their food. Though they r extremely active, Im getting the feeling dat im over feeding them. I have attached the schedule below. Feedback please.



Day Morning Evening / Night
Sunday Water Change -----
Monday Pellets , Algae Wafers Cucumber
Tuesday ------- Peas , Spinach
Wednesday Pellets , Algae Wafers ------
Thursday ------ Live Feed , Worms
Friday ------ Potato
Saturday Pellets , Algae Wafers ------

[sidguppy]

if you had siaid "Panaque feeding" it would have made sense

but what's up with all the veggies and potatoes for a piscivore catfish?
I don't get it.

[Richard B]

if you had siaid "Panaque feeding" it would have made sense

but what's up with all the veggies and potatoes for a piscivore catfish?
I don't get it.

In another thread, shovelnose lists the other tankmates - veggie eaters included in the group, so the marbled pims will be only eating the meaty or pellet style foods.

[Richard B]

I have a pair of Marbled Pims (bout 12") in my catfish communitty tank and i have been following a specific schedule for their food. Though they r extremely active, Im getting the feeling dat im over feeding them. I have attached the schedule below. Feedback please.



Day Morning Evening / Night
Sunday Water Change -----
Monday Pellets , Algae Wafers Cucumber
Tuesday ------- Peas , Spinach
Wednesday Pellets , Algae Wafers ------
Thursday ------ Live Feed , Worms
Friday ------ Potato
Saturday Pellets , Algae Wafers ------

So the longibarbis are probably getting something for them on Mon, Wed, Thurs & Sat - given competition with tankmates this seems ok.

It would be good to check nitrate, nitrite & Ammonia to see if any of these are building up due to excess waste caused by high volumes of feed & then waste products.

Is there excess food visible after 20 minutes or so in the tank? A visual sign would be a better indication.

[Shovelnose]

dere s almost no trace of d food bout fifteen mins after its in. sometimes potatoes r left over and i ensure they r out in half an hour max. d thing is d pims seem to enjoy d veggies more dan the others. I didn think they would. How else do u get carbs to dese fish????

[sidguppy]

and now in English please?

[CFC]

Your longibarbus should be fed meaty foods once or twice a week depending on appetite, a good indicater is to look at their stomachs after feeding, after a meal the stomach should be swollen to two or three times its normal size and the fish should not be fed again until it has gone flat again.

While it may seem good that they are eating vegetables it could actually be causing them harm as they wont be getting the large ammounts of protein they need to keep up their rapid growth rate, predatory catfish get all the nutrition they need from the prey they consume. A better diet would be to feed them things like whitebait/lance fish shrimp/prawns and cooked shelled mussels. Pellets will become a very expensive way to feed these fish as they grow larger.

[Shovelnose]

Ok. So I should ideally cut down on the amount of vegetables that go in the tank. Cant stop feeding vegetable all together though. And I don give them any cooked or dead food. Anything that goes in is fresh. Never tried earthworms . Will start with them right away. I usually collect shrimp from nearby ponds as they are plenty in number and they also get goldfish regularly. I have never gone beyond this. Is chicken advisable?????

[Bas Pels]

Assuming you did give your fish the vegetables because you assumed they needed it, I wonder why you would cut it down? Your veggie catfish might still need it

However,I think you should add other items, such as the shrimp you mentioned, more often.

Some fish might be able to digest warm blooded animals, but many are not. Warmbloodedness does result in solidifying of the tissue at lower temps, and where mamals are 37 degrees centigrade, birds (such as chicken) are warmer, if I remember correctly 42 degrees centigrade.

People argue that beefheart will not be that solid at 30 degrees, but you will agree, chicken will be much more solid at the same 30 degrees.

I don't know wheter this pim will eat warmblooded animals in nature, but my gruess would be - rarely, if ever. I much rather would feed it with water animals, such as fish, shrimp and so on. Land based animals will not lead to the same problems mamalian or bird flesh do

you wrote you never fed them dead or cooked feed. not cooking does sound like a good advice, but what's wrong with fresh frozen shrimp? I can not think of anything

[CFC]

I've been feeding my catfish cooked frozen seafood for as long as i've been keeping fish that eat that kind of thing, and i've got the largest Liearius pictus i have ever seen or heard of (she's a 27"+ monster) so there can't be that much wrong with it.

Throw in a few cooked mussels and prawns or some frozen raw whitebait (sprats) twice a week and your fish will love you for it.

[cichlidfinder]

I fed my Leiarus on comercial prepared foods from the time I purchased him at alittle over two inches. For two years he did wonderfully well. I would also feed one day until satiated then wait to see his stomach go down and then wait one more day. At the end when he was about 20 inches I was feeding massivore diet. All was well until I went to my fishroom to turn the lights on and found him on the basement floor. I miss that fish !

[Shovelnose]

Frozens cool man. I prefer live one s because it replicates their natural environment to a certain extent atleast and also I guess some of the calcium and protein content is lost once they re frozen. I haven found any shop that stocks sprats here yet. But yeah, judging from the replies I guess commercially prepared food isnt as bad as I thought twas. Thanks for the replies man. Il try altering the diet just a little bit and see if they still like it. Will get back with what i see. I must say they re clumsy predators man. During feeding everything gets knocked outta place....filters,bogwood other fish, my hands which they try eating everytime they re in. I ve so far lost 3 red tail sharks, 2 tiger shovelnoses , 4 golden algae eaters (I still dono why i tried putting em in though) and 1 Striped raphael to them and I still say these fish have awesome character.