PlanetCatfish.com

Hello!

I picked up 5 2.5" - 3.5" L-081 last week from my lfs. Their tankmates (in a 75g) are 2 twig cats, a bunch of kerri and black phantom tetras. I've been giving them spirulina discs every night, and they mostly all get eaten. Today I wanted to give them some protein, but all I could find was thin sliced beef (I was hoping we would have some frozen prawns...). I took out most of the fat, then microwaved it for a bit, then rinsed away any resultant fat and juice, chopped it up and dropped into the tank. They are loving and eating it up! I was wondering if this is something I should avoid feeding them, andif it will do harm to their digestive systems? I am not really sure how to do their feeding schedule. I was wondering what everybody else has got theirs eating?

For sure one thing that you have to avoid is the mammal flesh which may harm their digestive system by bloating your fish.Imagine that mammal meat is not suggested even for piranhas.

Here is a quote from the CatElog profile page....

"These fish are grazers, but not in the sense that they eat only vegetation. They actually sift and chew at the film of organic matter on hard surfaces in search of higher protein foods. In the wild this would constitute a variety of foods from small insect larvae and crustaceans to other animals eggs and possibly even recently dead animals. With this in mind, frozen foods such as bloodworm and blackworm should be offered along with frozen prawns. Algae and plants are avoided, but cucumber and courgette appear on the accepted menu. Accepted food morsel size changes with age in all of these fish."

If you look on the nutrition facts of the wafers i am sure that you will see that it has a bit of protien in it.

jeremy242 wrote:If you look on the nutrition facts of the wafers i am sure that you will see that it has a bit of protien in it.

Or quite a lot - in Hikari's typical content, IIRC it's 35% protein, which is MUCH more than most (any?) types of fruit and veg.

--
Mats

Perhaps the cat-elog entry should be changed?

It is my understanding that Baryancistrus are primary algae/aufwuchs consumers. This can be inferred from their dentition and long gut.

For commercial foods widely available in your area I'd recommend.


TetraMin Tablet Food
HiKari Tropical sinking wafers
HiKari Tropical Algae wafers
HiKari Tropical carnivore tablets
HiKari Cichlid gold sinking pellets


These should be fed in extension with each other (ie: 2 types of the above at once alternating nights) and combined with frozen bloodworm and spirilina brine shrimp as well as cucumber and Zuchinni.

So far, from what I can see, they eat up vegetable matter with great gusto (cucumber and zucchini are the only ones I've tried so far). Animal matter (I'm giving previously frozen crushed shrimp, and rarely, fish roe, every third night), along with some flake from other inhabitants of the tank and Wardley's spirulina tablets every night. I'll pick up some frozen blood worms to supplement also.

On the subject of meaty foods however, don't they (as well as many other species of tropical fish) take beefheart, which would have to be meat protein, since after it is the heart of a cow? I can imagine that a subsistence diet of red meat cannot be good (as it is for neither you or I), but rather supplementation of the normal diet would be the best use of animal protein?

As for now, I will feed spirulina nightly, and fresh vegetables or animal protein every third night. I'll start on the blood worm (also on a every third day basis), and see how happy the little guys are.

The feeding of beefheart is a divisive issue among fishkeepers.

Many discus keepers swear by it and have reared thousands of healthy long-lived discus, even though no discus in the wild would ever eat a cow.

On the other hand, most people have adopted the logic that feeding saturated fat to a fish is bad because it solidifies, becomes indigestible and will build up around the fishes organs and send it to an early grave via some sort of heart attack.

While this seems on the face of it logical, I don't think it is based upon any concrete research.

Although I agree with you ashik, that it probably doesn't do too much harm if fed occasionally, I would not risk feeding it (or any mammal protein) to grazing Baryancistrus. Their long digestive system may react badly to food that rich and lacking fibre, much in the same way that bloat affects mbuna and Tropheus.

They will get all the protein they need from the algae wafers, spirulina tablets and shrimp.

I would make sure there are always vegetables in the tank for them to feed on 24/7. Sweet potato they adore, and can be lightly boiled then conveniently frozen.

Thanks racoll! I'll be sure that they eat their veggies every night then!