FISHLIPS Posted October 19, 2011 Report Share Posted October 19, 2011 well i finally fed my fish all the remaining food i had laying around about 2-3 months ago,since then i've fed mostly NLS and i have to say i've never seen my tanks so dirty,the substrate was absolutely poluted with a rusty red scum which resembles the pellets and the filters are the same.So bad i gave each tank a 60-70% water change and the water was still a mess.I really haven't noticed a quality change in the coloring of the fish.When i first started feeding it to them they would spit it out and search for something else.Could it be because they are sinking pellets and they're not getting all of them? It certainly doesn't seem to be the case with the pleco as they love them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted October 19, 2011 Report Share Posted October 19, 2011 How much are you feeding? My filters and gravel do have red stuff in them but they aren't gunked up with it and the gravel is never visibly dirty, even with weeks in between water changes. You might be feeding too much. You don't need to feed a lot, less then regular pellets. I just add enough for the fish to eat within a few seconds. Pellets shouldn't be falling to the bottom unless you are feeding bottom dwellers. Also since the pellets sink, I feed a little at a time. That way the fish have time to eat them before they fall. If you feed too much or too fast lots of the food just falls to the bottom and can go uneaten, which pollutes the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostface Posted October 19, 2011 Report Share Posted October 19, 2011 I feed NLS Pellets daily to my GBR / Cherry Shrimp / Rainbows tank, I have sand substrate and never had this problem. I feed very little, 2-3 pellets at the most, along with some other type of food. They usually eat it up within 5-10minutes. Like Vallisneria suggested, you might be feeding too much. Do you have any snails, shrimp in the tank that can help clean up? If your pleco isn't cleaning up leftovers, then theres def way to much food in the tank...they are like garbage trucks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cgy_Betta_Guy Posted October 19, 2011 Report Share Posted October 19, 2011 +1 to Feeding too much. I throw in a pinch and a bit in my tanks... roughly 20-25 fish per tank. As usual if the food isnt gone or being nibbled on within a few minutes then you are putting in too much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted October 19, 2011 Report Share Posted October 19, 2011 I have found that bc NLS is so yummy, the fish will over eat so much so that the food doesn't all get processed and comes out roughly in the same condition as it went in. I would recommend feeding about 1/2 of what you're feeding now, and see how it goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JORG Posted October 20, 2011 Report Share Posted October 20, 2011 I have the same problem when I feed pellets that are too big for the fish - try using a smaller size. I also feed only what the fish can eat in 30 seconds or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FISHLIPS Posted October 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2011 How much are you feeding? My filters and gravel do have red stuff in them but they aren't gunked up with it and the gravel is never visibly dirty, even with weeks in between water changes. You might be feeding too much. You don't need to feed a lot, less then regular pellets. I just add enough for the fish to eat within a few seconds. Pellets shouldn't be falling to the bottom unless you are feeding bottom dwellers. Also since the pellets sink, I feed a little at a time. That way the fish have time to eat them before they fall. If you feed too much or too fast lots of the food just falls to the bottom and can go uneaten, which pollutes the tank. i feed one large pinch twice a day with 6 cichlids that are 5-6"s long and it hasn't ever dirtied the tank and filters this way with other food.The fish are crapping this out in huge chunks.I think i'll sell the rest of my bucket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JORG Posted October 20, 2011 Report Share Posted October 20, 2011 5-6 inch fish, what size pellets are you using ? For that size you should be using the 1 mil pellet maybe the 2 mil if you don't overfeed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted October 20, 2011 Report Share Posted October 20, 2011 Try feeding once a day first. In my experience you should use about half the amount of NLS that you were feeding other pellets. For an example, I feed my african tank(16 fish, 2-5") 2 pinches of the 1mm pellet once a day. Then throw a couple sinking wafers in after lights out for the catfish. In my community tank I feed the small fish formula for the smaller tetras and and 1mm for the rest. Each fish ends up getting about 1-2 pellets/day. Then I throw in 2 sinking wafers (broken in half) for the loaches and plecos. I use NLS in all my tanks and have never had problems except when I overfed in the beginning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pikeaholic Posted October 22, 2011 Report Share Posted October 22, 2011 Thats the first time I have heard that someone is not happy with NLS......I have done allot of reasearch on cichlid foods and NLS is in the top two......They have many sizes of sinking and floating types....... I have many large and small cichlids in my 750 gallon tank and feed 4 different sizes of NLS sinkers and floaters..... I def. overfeed, but after the feeding the fish spend hours digging in the gravel to find every last piece...... I only do a gravel vac. once every 6 months due to the size of the tank.......the last time I did a vac. was yesterday and I was amazed how clean the gravel was......I do have a very large pond canister filter and a sump on my tank so this helps..... Do you have adaquate filtration???? No offense, just asking..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FISHLIPS Posted February 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2012 Try feeding once a day first. In my experience you should use about half the amount of NLS that you were feeding other pellets. For an example, I feed my african tank(16 fish, 2-5") 2 pinches of the 1mm pellet once a day. Then throw a couple sinking wafers in after lights out for the catfish. In my community tank I feed the small fish formula for the smaller tetras and and 1mm for the rest. Each fish ends up getting about 1-2 pellets/day. Then I throw in 2 sinking wafers (broken in half) for the loaches and plecos. I use NLS in all my tanks and have never had problems except when I overfed in the beginning. the biggest problem is my geophagus refuse to eat nls Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperGuppyGirl Posted February 19, 2012 Report Share Posted February 19, 2012 Not knowing much about cichlids but have you thought of trying the flakes? My guppies refuse to eat the pellets which in it's self is odd cause they are usually piglets for most food, but will go nuts for the flakes same for my other fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayba Posted February 19, 2012 Report Share Posted February 19, 2012 the biggest problem is my geophagus refuse to eat nls Skip a few days of feeding, and try again. If they are hungry enough they should try it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FISHLIPS Posted February 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2012 the biggest problem is my geophagus refuse to eat nls Skip a few days of feeding, and try again. If they are hungry enough they should try it. they won't ever eat it,as soon as i feed them the frozen stuff (once every 3 days)they go nuts .The severum with them eats all the nls.The nls practically falls right on there geos heads without any interest......what other food can i try? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatpuffer Posted February 19, 2012 Report Share Posted February 19, 2012 i've starved my puffers for 10 days before they start accepting. they will not accept if they get food q3days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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