pictus overfeeding

Olga

Medium Fish
Oct 28, 2005
82
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#1
could you give advice for feeding a pictus catfish...
the problem is it eats all the food that I put into the tank and looks like a ball.

(I have pictus catfish in my tank with Raphael catfish and a couple of bolivian rams)

Thank you
 

Olga

Medium Fish
Oct 28, 2005
82
0
0
#4
one pellet of brine shrimps every evening. it is about 6-8 mm long. I make 3 small pieces of it.
 

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FroggyFox

Forum Manager
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May 16, 2003
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#5
All you feed is brine shrimp?? That is not what your pictus is fat on...unless there is something else wrong with him than overeating. Brine shrimp basically has no nutritional value whatsoever, so you may want to re-think your food...
 

Olga

Medium Fish
Oct 28, 2005
82
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0
#6
oh, sorry,
mostly it is brine shrimps. twice a week - peas/other vegitable, sometimes - algae wafer, and I put cucamber overnight for pleco. leave food - about once in 10-14 days.

is it too much?
how often should I feed them and how change the diet to make it better?

It used to be in a different tank, with no other fish, so it was easy to control the amount of food it ate. now it is in 40 g. with others and I worry that other fish does not have enough food because of him and it started to eat more that it should. the pictus does not look fat..., it looks normal and healthy. just when it eats all the food it looks like a ball...which is not good
 

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FroggyFox

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#7
I am sorry I thought when you said that "it looks like a ball" you meant that the pictus looked fat??

I dont think pictus cats eat veggies, although I'm sure he will if he gets hungry enough. You should mix up their food a lot. Maybe feed brine shrimp once a week or once every other week. Get some frozen bloodworms and feed those once or twice a week. My pictus loves the normal flake food that I feed my fish also. Same with the shrimp pellets, although I have to go easy on those because he likes them a LOT.
 

Olga

Medium Fish
Oct 28, 2005
82
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#8
sorry that I confused you :eek:

it eats vegies as well...and much faster than the other fish.

if I put just enough food for pictus, how about other fish? will they starve or will they be ok eating cucamber (only one thing that pictus does not like)?
 

FroggyFox

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#9
Well I'm sure the pictus is very hungry if mostly all he gets is brine shrimp...they need some nutrition! A fish will starve to death only eating them. You should feed them as much as they'll eat in a few minutes, once a day. Put the veggies in at lights out for the pleco.

Once the pictus is a little less hungry he'll probably back down a little.

You can try putting food on two ends of the tank to try and make sure that all the fish get some of their respective foods.
 

Olga

Medium Fish
Oct 28, 2005
82
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0
#10
I will try that.
thank you for advice!

Just to make sure that I get it:
I should feed the fish twice a week live food, veggies every day and...flakes as basis, i mean every day as well?
 

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