Feeding Poll

[suphi]

Let's hear how you guys feed your fish (types of food, amount, interval). This should be interesting.

My current regimen: I use an auto-feeder to feed 5 times a day from 6:30AM to 5:30PM using Saki Hikari growth (green bag), amount is enough for fish to eat them up within 1 minute. I try to finish the day off with bloodworms around 6PM, but a lot of time I don't get home until late so they would miss this. Probably going to move bloodworm to early morning but that means I have to get up earlier which is hard to do.

I used to do 3/day feed with increased amount but decided to try to up the feeding interval to see if this will work any better.

With this regimen fish is slightly sluggish at the end of the day until they go to sleep, tank is also littered with poops in the morning requiring vacuuming.

Also, my fish are indoor and my wife doesn't allow algae in tank for aesthetic purpose, so they don't get any extra snacks.

[small_ranchu]

I feed bloodworm 2 times in the morning and 2-3 times after work. I have autofeeder on in between for every 3 hours of 2 mins duration.

[Virginia ranchu]

In one of his articles, Geert Coppens commented that he moderates his feeding based on how the fish is developing. If a ranchu is getting too round, and is losing its rectangular shape, he will cut back on the food a bit. This seems to make sense. Can feeding too much adversely affect development?

Rob

[small_ranchu]

Yes, I also cut the food base on their shape. AKA Mita is on diet now.

[bigbettadan]

Yes, not only development but also temps(seasons)...... Obviously my feeding regime is vastly different in Jan vs June.......

Dan

[small_ranchu]

Here we have to differentiate into two, indoor and outdoor enviroment. I have mine indoor and temp never go below 70.

[orandablue]

Where do you buy saki Hikari growth? Do you like it as a staple food?
I use Omega straight up NO color enhancers Auto feed 2X plus a extra toss in mornings. Bloodworms in evenings and Kale/sometimes peas and I just found a shrimp(frozen) that I like with spirulina. "Omega super shrimp w spirulina" I think I am going to really like it as an add on. I do not like spirulina in other foods but this seems more pure as is frozen. If you order online what is best place to get the Saki Hikari??

[suphi]

Saki growth isn't widely available in the US. You can get it from xxxxxxxxxxxx and occasionally from ebay. The color enhancer Saki can be bought from local fish store these days but this will cause color smear in R&W fish if used exclusively.

It's a very good staple food, used by breeders and people who enter fish in contests. Pellet size is quite small reducing risk of constipation. It's got probiotic in it which is supposed to reduced fish waste and enhance absorption. There are more exotic brands which are more expensive and probably better such as Chanko, Ranchulord, etc. but they're not available in the US. Saki itself is already pretty expensive compared to other brands.

[bigbettadan]

I do use hakari saki daily( I get it from Paul as well) but my "staple" is really Hakari frozen bloodworm..... Its one food not to skip for ranchu. For fish under 5 months of age, its live baby brine.........

Dan

[devins23]

I use chanko and hikari frozen bloodworms - with pretty good results especially since I raise my tvrs the nonconventionall way lol.

[Mikey V]

Hikari Lionhead 3 times a day, Hikari Frozen Bloodworms once or twice daily, and one meal of either brine shrimp or algae tabs a day. Lately I've been experimenting with color enhancing pellets with some good results

[herp17]

I need to work on my feeding program. Glad I found this thread. What type of automatic feeder devices does everybody here prefer?

Also, what type/brands of bloodworms do people like? Frozen or dry?

[Mikey V]

I have heard far too many anecdotal horror stories about auto feeders to use one...I think you're better off getting some duckweed growing.
I was really impressed with Hikari's freeze-dried bloodworms, much nicer than your average dried worms-i definitely endorse them.

[bigbettadan]

On bloodworms...... as with all live foods, live> frozen> dried...... But Hikari freeze dried is excellent(I would use their freeze dried over most other brands frozen), their frozen is phenomonal...........

Dan

[small_ranchu]

For pellet food, I prefer Daze autofeeder. You can only get it from Ebay. I have used different autofeeders and have seen problematic feeder as Mike described. if you properly do the setting with Daze, you are not going to seeing any issue. At least, within 1.5 years, I don't have any bad experience.

[Cincy Ranchu]

Bloodworms, I like frozen but have been using OSI freeze dries and I like them very much, I also buy 1 lb bags from Aquion

Feeder- I used the Fish MAte F14, best if purchased from Pet Mountain

Saki - I have bought some from Trickers and Pet Mountain, I believe that Trickers is the better pricing!
Feeding 3X to 4X a day when I am in town 1X to 3X when I am out....

[William Tricker Inc.]

More Saki in on Monday Gary!

[BruceP]

Ive quit buying Hikari freezedried bloodworm in favor of Omega One's. Much better product in my opinion. Matter of fact, I've liked everything Ive tried of Omega Ones so far but havent been using them long so the jury is still out.

[bluebelly]

I use Omega's frozen bloodworms ,mysis ,brine shrimp ,baby brine shrimp, pelleted and flake foods. Toured facility was so impressed brought my aquatic veterinarian to meet their nutritionist. They now supply food to our non profit aquarium project.My electric eel feasts on their herring.

[suphi]

For me, nothing beats frozen bloodworms. However, the problem is...water stinks so bad if you feed too much of those, plus their shells which don't get digested end up floating around on the surface requiring manual removal.

I find that autofeeder is a must-have if you can't be around to feed them several times a day. My fish are developing much better, and properly, since I start powerfeeding Fred's style. I wish that I'd done this when they were younger. Indoor feeding twice a day in a tank without algae will definitely stunt the fish.

[small_ranchu]

I believe power feeding is a must when the fish is young(less than 1 year). But when I used omega one for power feeding, I got a lot of floating issue. Hikari is the best for this purpose (either Hikari lionhead or saki).