Monday, May 24, 2010

How much should I feed my fish?

I have a 10 gallon tank. Five small fish (platys, zebras, little fish like that). Tropical.

How much and how often should I feed? I was doing a pinch but the water is nasty so I think that's too much.
Answers:
It can be pretty confusing hearing all this conflicting advice eh? Well, sometimes the advice gets a little to technical. It doesn't matter if you feed them in morning, afternoon, or evening, and it doesn't matter if you feed them once, twice, or three times per day. The key is to use common sense regarding your routine.

Fish need less then most people think to survive and keep healthy when it comes to food, and it doesn't help that food packaging is always recommending too much food (and thus can sell more).

My suggestion is to feed your fish enough flakes to allow them to eat for about 2 minutes per day. 5 minutes of gorging on flakes is just way more then necessary. Now, how many times per day is up to you, but figure on 2 minutes total (twice for 1 minute, four times for 30 seconds, etc.) - everybody has their own routine and there's no real right or wrong here.

Be careful about the recommendations regarding algae eaters and such. They don't help clean a tank - they do help clear some of the algae, but they contribute a lot of waste to the tank and will only make your 'nasty' water worse.

I strongly advise vacuuming your gravel weekly to keep it from building up, and doing a partial water change (20-30%) while you do this. Your fish should hopefully be worth half an hour per week of work, and the regular maintenance will save you from headaches down the road - a well maintained tank never needs to be completely overhauled and stays healthy for much, much longer. There is no need to age water when you change water, this is a hangover from another era - modern day dechlorinators work instantly and allow you to add new water right away.

I would also recommend cleaning out your filter every month - waste in the filter is still waste in the aquarium. Squeeze and rinse out as much physical waste as you can, but be sure to do it in dechlorinated water so you don't kill the bacteria.
just give them a little and then see how much they eat
a pinch of food in the morning
You need snails to clean the water.

First, put aside OVERNIGHT as many gallons of water you can.
Put the fish in it the next day and add snails to the water.
ONCE ina while-all you do is flush them when they begin to take over.
Or (I FORGET) that fish that eats nothing but the algae on the bowl,.......

YOU FEED THEM evry COUPLE of days,...
READ the box or call ANY pet store or a vet.
just a pinch once a day...snails??? you need an algae eater. Also is you tank in contact with any sunlight??? This causes algae to grow. And when was the last time you changed the filter???do you even have a filter? If it's really nasty you need to fill a bucket with the old water and put your fishies in there, then empty the tank to clean it start fresh fill it back up, but don't put the fish back in until the water warms up since your fish are tropical. Your best bet to keep it a little cleaner is top buy an algae eater, feed them less and make sure the tank is not in the sun!
If the water is nasty you have problems. Do you have a good fliler, and if so make sure you change the filter. Test the chemicals and make sure they are okay. After that about one flake per fish twice a day is about right.
Most fish should be fed twice a day. Only feed as much as they will consume within a few minutes. Try a gravel cleaner to get rid of the left over stuff. How often do you clean the tank? How often do you do partial water changes? Since you have a 10 gallon I assume it has a filter and such. I would do a 25% water change first and see if that improves the quality of the water. And also get a gravel cleaner and use it when the bottom looks icky. Also a algea eater or a corydora would help with cleaning up the leftover food on the bottom of the tank.
A good general rule of thumb is to feed the fish once a day, and feed them as much as they can eat within about 5 minutes. Put in a pinch, or an estimate of how much you think they should be fed. If they haven't eaten all the food within 5 minutes, you put too much in. If food is left in the water without being eaten, it starts to rot and causes murky water.

Also yes you might need to change the water more often. A 10 gallon tank is pretty small and it will get dirty quickly. You could upgrade to a 20 gallon tank if you want to clean it less; they're only about $20 at the pet store.
I agree with Ghapy, it's the total amount per day that's important when determining a proper amount of food. How many times just divides up the proper portion for the day.

It doesn't sound like you are over feeding, just under cleaning. I would suggest you do a weekly water change of about 25% and clean the gravel as you go of course. The filter will be far less dirty at the end of a month as well if you follow a weekly cleaning program.

MM
You need to see how much they are eating, give them a small pinch, if they eat it all within a minute you ok, if there is food still left, then your feeding too much. Your fish should be fed twice a day, morning and before bed time is good. About the water changes, you should do a water change along with vacuming the gravel weekly, take 25% of your water out through vacuming, this should keep your tank in better shape. It's not good to have all that rotting food and fish poop sitting at the bottom, this will cause ammonia to be present in your tank. This could be deadly to your fish. Snails might help, but there is nothing better than doing weekly water changes. Good luck,hope this help you!
I once filled a five gallon, small-mouthed jar with pond water which contained tiny animal life. I added a regular sized gold fish, sealed the bottle, and placed it in daily sunlight. The fish was doing fine after a year with no food at all.

Check with your aquarium store for feeding instructions but less is better. You may need a larger filter and you could clean it more often to help keep the water clean.
A pinch of food, once a day.


脽眉bbl毛拧
Well, you dont have an overly amount of fish, so i would suggest a small pinch in the morning, and a small pinch when u get home from work, or school or whatever (just around like 6 maybe even, right before u eat ur dinner) also, i would say u have to do water changes much more frequently. just do the math =) 100% of the water gets 50% more dirty lets say in one month. when u change ur water, 25% of it, that means that 25% is still dirty because 50% dirt -25% is 25%, and that builds up over time =%26#92; i dont raelly understand what i justdid, but the dirtynesss still builds up, so u should do 25% changes WEEKLY...not monthly.

How much should i change the water?

how much should i change the water in my piranha tank like days and how much water and what do i do iin the winter when iu cant change the water?
Answers:
You should do water changes once or twice a month with a siphon hose removing approximately 25% of the water. This is of course assuming the tank is the right size.

Knife fish usually get from 1 to 3 feet depending on what type it is. For 3 at least a 75 gallon probably.
I think you have to change the water every week. 50% water change sounds right. Just try to keep on schedule.
First off..what type of piranha, how many and what size tank? Why can't you change the water in the winter?
Depending on the type of knife fish, an adult can be 12 - 24 inches long and will require 100 gallon tank. They cant' be kept together. Even if they were the same species of knifefish.
Does your tank have a filter? If so, you can get away with changing the water less regularly.
If not, change 10% of the water volume every week with aged water.
The easiest way to do this is get a 2L soft drink bottle (or more if required) and fill it with water. Leave the bottle on your windowsill with the cap removed for a week. This ages the water and removed the harmful fluoride, chlorine and whatever else may be in your water.
If you are lucky enough to have a rainwater tank, use this water in your fish tank - you don't have to age it.
I can't tell you how often to change the water, since I am quite negligent when it comes to that. Probably once a month is good.. I'd take a couple of gallons. As far as the changing water in the winter goes, I bought a vacuum hose that you connect to your sink faucet (unscrew the aerator and screw in the hose). It came with like 25 feet of hose (or sometihng like that) and you can control the flow of water into the vacuum. Change water all year long. Just make sure your fish arent hungry when you change the water, they may nibble on your hand.
Siphon a quarter to one third of the water and replace about once a week or so. If you do that it should never have to be completely changed which often causes shock and can kill your fish.
For piranhas, at least 30% weekly. Be sure they don't bite off your hands first!

~ZTM
Changing water once or twice a month is not going to be enough. You should do a 25% to 30% water change once a week and maybe twice a week depending on the stocking level of your tank. Use a gravel vacuum and be careful to not startle the Piranhas. Just use tap water and use conditioner to remove the chlorine from the water.

How much salt to treat for ich?

I heard that ich can be treated with salt . so generally how much salt we need to put for ich and how long we need to treat the fish? and how to treat ? can any one tell me the process?
thanks
Answers:
The dose will depend on the species involved. just as it would for store-bought medications. Some fish are sensitive to salt and copper.

The normal dosage would be a tablespoon of non-iodized salt per gallon, along with raising the temperature to 86-90o if your fish can tolerate that temperature. If not, go as high as you can, and you may need to add some extra aeration. The heat will make the parasite's life cycle speed up. You'll need to treat for 10-14 days, or at least 3 days after you don't see any more spots. This is the amount of time you'll need to treat with medications as well. When the parasite is on the fish, it's enclosed in a cyst and isn't affected by the treatments - only when it's in the water, so it's very important that you don't stop treating when the spots disappear!

This link has info on the salt/heat treatment and medications that can be used: http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/he...

If you choose to medicate, get something that has both malachite green and formalin, as this type is the most effective.

If you're treating tetras, scaleless fish, or other fish that are sensitive, start with a half dose and build up.

If you have any questions, feel free to email them directly with the link in my profile.
I think it's better to go to your pet store and buy this liquid to drop into the fish tank. It's made for ich. Don't chance using salt, create an imbalance and your fish could die.
in fresh water you can treat ich with salt . its 3 teaspoons per gallons Oh and dont use table salt.
It is very easy to treat Ich with salt. You鈥檒l need a concentration of 0.3% salt (3 teaspoons per gallon) to eradicate the Ich. To reach 0.3% salt you would add 1 teaspoon of salt per gallon of water to your tank 3 times, each 12 hours apart. Predissolve the salt in tank water and then add slowly to a high water flow area.
In small tanks, the most recommended method of treatment for ich consists of adding aquarium salt until a specific gravity of 1.002 g/cm鲁 is achieved, as the parasites are less tolerant of salt than fish. This means about 4gm per gallon of water.

Fish can also be dipped in a 3% (30,000 mg/L) solution for thirty seconds to several minutes, or they can be treated in a prolonged bath at a lower concentration (0.05% = 500 mg/L). Salt at low concentrations (0.01 to 0.05% solution) is an excellent means of controlling "Ich" in recirculating systems without harming the biofilter.
There are also other ways to treat ich using dissolving tablets, and liquids that can be purchased at your local pet store or even Walmart. I have had success with these products and they are very easy to use. No sense in putting salt in your tank if possible. There are also other treatments that the tablets can cure and you may as well get those benefits as well. A box of 8 tables cost around $2.50 and you only use 1 tablet per 10 gallons, so it's pretty cost effective as well.
You don't mention the type of fish you have, i would suggest you don't use salt and consult the aquarium shop, telling them the type of fish you have. I personally don't like to use salt preferring to use a proprietary treatment and raising the temperature for a few days.

How much salt per gallon do I put in to cure ick?

My tank isn't infected with ick, just if it does, I want know.

Thanks
Answers:
Treatment of Freshwater Ich, Ichthyophthirius.
It is believed that ich is present in all aquariums. Fish that have the disease exhibit small white dots about this size of a grain of salt. It is very contagious and it is fatal.
The best protection is a healthy tank with water changes done weekly or every other week with a gravel vac in the amount of 20-25% of the tank volume. A sound practice in fish keeping is to keep new fish in quarantine 4-7 days before adding them to your tank. The stress from being shipped from the wholesale to the retailer, the stress of living in the retailers tanks which may be overcrowded and poorly maintained and the stress of being bagged up and taken to your home can weaken a fish and make it most vulnerable to ich and other ailments. Rather than introduce a sick fish to your aquarium, it is better to quarantine it until you know it is healthy.

When sound fish keeping practices are not enough, fortunately ich is also very easy to cure. Freshwater ich should not be confused with marine ich, Cryptocaryon irritans. Salt will weaken freshwater ich, obviously marine ich, being in salt water already, this is obviously not the same treatment.

First step:
20-25% water change with gravel vac. Most likely your poor water conditions contributed to the outbreak of ich.
Second step:
Raise temperature (no more than 1掳 per hour) to 85掳.
Third step:
Add aquarium salt (not table salt) in the amount of one rounded tablespoon per 5 gallons. If you have scaleless fish such as loaches, catfish and "algae eaters", reduce that to one rounded teaspoon per 5 gallons, as they don't tolerate salt well.
http://www.aquariumpharm.com/en_us/produ...
Fourth step:
After 24 hours, a second 20-25% water change. Add more salt. If you took 5 gallons out in the change, put another rounded tablespoon in.
Adjust for your situation.
Fifth step:
Wait 24 hours.
Sixth Step:
A third water change of 20-25% and replace salt removed.

If this does not cure the fish, and no signs of improvement show up yet, you may want to use a commercial ich curative, all of which require removal of the carbon from your filter, or the carbon will filter out the medication. You can continue with the cleaning process and maintain salt levels. Brackish water fish such as mollies need to have some salt in order to maintain good health. Most other fish benefit from a little aquarium salt as well.

One of the most common is copper sulfate medications like Aquarasol http://www.aq-products.com/appro/aquaris...
In more extreme cases, Malachite Green is very popular.
http://www.aq-products.com/appro/quickcu...
In the case of scaleless fish such as loaches and catfish, a formaldehyde based Formalin
http://www.aq-products.com/appro/formali...
Be extremely careful with Formalin doses, many are super concentrated containing 37% formaldehyde, as 1 teaspoon treats 90 gallons.
Some are pre-diluted like Formalin-3, where the dosage is 1-2 teaspoons per 10 gallons. Formalin will kill the bacteria in your filter that break down the waste,
http://www.novalek.com/kordon/formalin/i...
Some products contain a combination of these medications. Read the labels and know what you are putting in your tank.

Good Luck
just goto a local fish store and buy the medicine for ick...so much easier
I've only seen salt cure ick if it's not a very bad outbreak. The best thing to do is go to the petstore and get some ridick. Salt is used more as a conditioner for fish - you can put about 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons. you can use fish salt, or table salt as long as the table salt is non-iodinized.
Ick or Ich or White Spot are common names of this disease.

The salt cure is not about the proportion of salt to the gallons of water.

It all depends on the tolerance of your fish to high salt levels and high PH levels.

Know these and you'll know how much you need.

To answer your question, its 1.5 to 6 tablespoons of salt per five gals of H2O. I suggest you slowly work your way up the level to protect your pet fish. Close observation to your fishes is needed. No changing of water for the treatment period of at least one week. Do not discontinue even if the spots go away.

For an off-the-shelf cure... Try CopperSafe.
Go to a local pet store and pick up Quick Cure, it will take care of the Ick in about 2 days by using 1 drop per gallon, make sure you remove your carbon filters when medicating as carbon will remove the medication from the tank. If you have scaleless fish (clown loaches etc) use only half the recommended dose as they are very sensitive to medications and may die.
DO NOT BUY ICK MEDICATION!!! Trust me! it will turn your silicone on the tank blue FOREVER, unless you redo it and take a chance of it leaking. Anyways here is what ick does. It attacks fish and uses it as food ever 3 day or so it goes dormant in the gravel and then spawns 2-3 times over, meaning it might be 50 white spots and 3 days later it is 100-200. It will keep doing this over and over till all your fish are dead. I would recommend to turn lights off and only turn on for feeding. Add salt as mentioned before. 1 Tsp. per 5 gallons. This will increase your Ph but it will go back down in about 1 hour or two. If you are that worried you can always do a water change in fact i would recommend it every other day just 10-20% Also raise the temp in the tank to about 82 tops. Ick needs light to reproduce and hates heat. I have lost a whole tank to Ick when I first started form one bad sick fish I got from a LFS in 2003. i have found Ick usually is a sign of low water conditions or a bad fish store so let this be a word to the wise. Inspect the fish in the store and decide if it looks like a clean Fish store before you buy.
I think it's 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons BUT all salt does is irritate the fish so that they generate a thicker slime coat, making it harder for the ich to burrow under their scales.

Healthy fish have a nice, thick slime coat to begin with so keep your fish happy by doing regular water changes and not overstocking and your chances of having an ich outbreak are lower. Always quarantine new fish for a couple of weeks before adding them to your new tank and your chances go down to pretty much zero.

If you DO get ich, the best treatment (for your pocketbook and more importantly your fish) is the heat treatment:
1) Turn the heater up 2 degrees F per hour until the tank is higher than 86 degrees.
2) Do a 1/3 water change every day.
3) After 10 days, turn the temperature in the tank back down to normal, again only changing it by 2 degrees F per hour.

How much pro teen does fish have?


Answers:
Firstly, "pro teen" is spelled 'protein'.

There are approximately 15-20 grams of protein in 3 ounces of fish.

A normal adult will eat about 6 to 8 ounces of fish.
correct spelling is "Protein" hahaha

and it depends on what kind of fish.

In tuna, a can would be about i dunno maybe 30 something grams of protein.
DONT EAT FISH!
Ha
Fish doesn't have pro teen.

It has protein though :-P I couldn't answer how much. Check the labels.
ok, well first, let's write the sentence correctly. It's: how much protein do fish have?

now the the answer: it depends on the species of fish.
protein? hahahahahahaha. it really depends on the fish itself.
Depends on kind of fish. usually around 16 grams for a 100 gram fish
3 good teens that r girlz
Cod fillets (baked) 22g 1.4g
Cod in batter (fried) 20g 12g
Haddock fresh (steamed) 24g 0.7g
Haddock in breadcrumbs (fried) 22g 8g
Halibut fresh (steamed) 18g 3g
Lemon Sole (steamed) 21g 1g
Lobster (meat only) 27g 1.3g
Monkfish (steamed) 24g 1g
Mullet (steamed) 25g 1g
Sole in breadcrumbs (fried) 22g 2.7g
Plaice fresh (steamed) 20g 1.5g
Plaice in batter (fried) 18g 18g
Saithe (steamed) 24g 1g
Shark 24g 2.3g
Skate in batter (fried) 15g 10g
Sprats (fried) 19g 21g
Sturgeon 21g 1.2g
Whiting (steamed) 15g 1g
Whiting in breadcrumbs (fried) 16g 10g
Oily Fish Protein Fat
Anchovies (canned) 25g 20g
Herring (grilled) 17g 13g
Kippers (baked) 18g 9.8g
Mackerel (fried) 19g 12g
Pilchards 19g 5.7g
Salmon (steamed) 20g 12g
Sardines in tomato sauce 18g 11g
Sardines in oil 24g 14g
Trout (steamed) 17g 3.3g
Tuna in oil 26g 8g
Tuna in brine 24g 0.5g

http://www.weightlossforall.com...
/protein-fish.htm

How much money does a 100 gallon aquarium cost?


Answers:
Used or new? Glass or acrylic? A new glass 100 gallon tank costs about $300. However, the stand, hood, lighting, filtration, heater, gravel, decor, etc., will cost $300 or more, depending on what you want. An acrylic tank will cost 2-3 times as much as the glass tank. Used aquariums will, of course, cost less, depending on age and condition.
Here is a link to 100 gallon tank on ebay
they seem to average about 3$00

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll...
NEW 700-1200 depending on stand and finish and accesories..
USED 450-900 Depending on ware.
used or new?
Glasscages.com is THE place to order your tank from. I've got a 240g and a 135g complete setup (Tank, Stand and Canopy) and they were cheap. You can check your local paper.. used tanks should sell no more than $1/gallon for the tank itself then add reasonable cost for whatever else is included.
I would say for just the tank about $250 dollars but with all the supplies that comes with a tank i wold be aroung $500 or $400
ok... one it depends on where your at.. I suggest searching ebay first to see if there are any around your area that would be cheaper, 100 gal. isn't something your just going to pick up at your local walmart you have to put 5 lbs of rocks per gal. of tank ... thats alot of money right there alone if you could find one that is around you, it would be alot cheaper, and if your willing to go to a lower gal. size you can get a 55 gal at walmart for 150. 00 and a stand for 70 I have two 55 gal on a stand from walmart the tanks are already complete and I have the room that I want and can have many differnt types of fish if you haven't searched the price then you probley aren't ready for that size of tank and maybe should think about starting at a lower size..
I would say 200-275 dollars
It all depends on the factors the others have stated. You can get a new 100gal glass tank alone for around $175
go to petsmart best suppies easy service or try www.petsmart.com

How much light I need for coral in my 50 gal tank?

I have a 50 gal tank, live rock and live sand now, gonna have about 5 fishes. would like to add some corals. how much light do i need. what is the cheapest way to get a light fixture for my tank? where can I get them at? please help
Answers:
Actually, the that answer is only mostly right. The amount of light you need depends on what you are keeping and the spectrum you decide to go with depends on what you are trying to achieve. The bluer the spectrum the more color but less growth. The yellower the spectrum the more growth; but less color. Most people stay sort of in the middle with either 10 or 12K bulbs. As for actinics, that is not a must but if you run a 10K bulb which is on the yellow side of blue, the supplementing them with blue actinics provides a full spectrum and you get great color as well as good growth. SPS require a lot of light for the most part while mushrooms and some other softies you can get away with less light. IF you want to do softies and some LPS like Frogspawn you can get away with some nice Power Compacts. If you want SPS corals then you should either go with a good T5 setup or MH.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com
the minimum lighting u need is 3 - 5 watt%26#92;gal
u must use 50% Actinic Blue Fluorescent Bulb (420nm peak) = 100% blue spectrum. These are the most widely used aquarium

and the other 50% (10000K - 20000K) High performance upgrade which are great for corals, live rock, and related marine life.

go to
http://www.marinedepot.com/homepage.asp...