# What do you feed you r Geo's and how?



## klumsyninja (Aug 14, 2008)

So I feed mine NLS 1mm or the new Omega One sinking pellets (I think they're 1mm too)

I've gotten into the habit of soaking them in a little container with some tank water first.. Read it was a good idea somewhere.

So dwarfpike mentioned that some people crush up their pellets.. do you?

What do you feed yours and how?


----------



## edburress (Jun 9, 2007)

I use Omega One shrimp pellets and Vegi-Flakes. I always crush up the pellets into small pieces (they are the stick-shaped kind) even for the adult fish. Frozen foods like Brine Shimp and Mosquito larvae are good a few days per week. Three days per week I feed either blanched zucchini or skinned peas. A few individual fish really like algae wafers and catfish wafers, so I crush one up occasionally and feed those too. I used to maintain a shrimp colony and fed live shrimp often but currently do not have a colony because of necessity for the tank for fish. If you can fine clean black worms or red worms, they are appreciated treats. Generally, I avoid meat-based foods and aim more for invertebrate-type foods and green foods. I'm experimenting with a few other foods, so maybe I will follow-up after I see how they do. I feed _Geophagus_, _Satanoperca_ and _Gymnogeophagus_ all in the same manner. If for any reason you have a picky eartheater, Hikari Mini-wafers are a great, small-grained sinking food.

Ed


----------



## japes (Jan 10, 2008)

I feed a hugely varied diet and make sure all of my tanks get a good dosing of vegetable matter in their staple diet, although I do feed some reasonably meaty dry foods such as Hikari-Gold and an Aquaculture pellet.

Keep in mind all of my fish are still juveniles or sub-adults. Feeding 2-3 times per day.

I feed the following vegetables twice a week, alternating depending on what I've got handy, etc. Finely diced.

- Skinned Peas
- Zucchini
- Cucumber

Single serving of each of the following once per week in the middle of the day, if I'm home. So my fish are getting a small serving of frozen food 4, sometimes 5 days a week if they're lucky.

- Hikari Bio-Pure Mysis Shrimp
- Hikari Bio-Pure Spiraluna infused Brine Shrimp
- Hikari Bio-Pure Krill
- Hikari Bio-Pure Bloodworms

I feed the following dried foods in the mornings.

- Crushed Hikari Gold Sinking Mini Pellets
- 1mm Sinking Aquaculture Pellet (High Protein)

I alternate the following 'servings' of dried food in the evenings.

Every evening meal contains these dried foods

- Finely crushed AquaOne Colour Enhancing 1mm
- Crushed and whole Tetra ColorBits

Combined with the one following (alternating).

- Spectrum Thera+A 1mm Sinking
- Spectrum Cichlid Formula 1mm Sinking
- Aquaculture 1mm Sinking + Crushed Spectrum H2O Stable Wafers
- Crushed Hikari Gold Medium Sinking + Crushed Hikari Excel Medium Floating (Sinks when it's crushed anyway - these are leftovers from my Heroines)

Everything is prepared with a Mortar and Pestle and placed into a half-cup full of tank water and left to sit for about a minute. If anything floats in my tank it will go straight down my overflow.

My 5' community tank also gets Hikari Micro Pellets, and judging by the colour of half of these they're quite high in vegetable content. Fantastic size for tetra (much finer than the Community Wafers) and the Geophagus enjoy them as well.

Be careful not to overfeed.


----------



## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

Soaking pellets isn't something I would do unless it's for reasons as Japes mentioned, but in that instance I simply drop the feed on the surface and blow at it - sinks straight away - I don't use any floating pellets though so hikari may be another matter. By soaking you're leeching the nutrition into the water, it's really not a necessary practice - for smaller fish simply crush up for a smaller and more manageable mouthful, remember the pellets will absorb and soften fairly rapidly in the tank anyway, so pre soaking is really giving the good stuff a chance to leech out. 

From Pablo Tepoot - the creator of NLS:


> Another common mistake by some hobbyists is to pre-soak their pellets, in the misguided belief that this will aid in digestion and prevent swelling of the pellets inside the fishes gut. This is nothing more than an urban myth created by those that simply do not understand the amount of enzymes and gastric acids that are released by most fish when they consume food. Those hard pellets turn into soft mush in a very short period of time! If a pellet food causes gastrointestinal issues in a fish, it will usually be due to the use of poorly digestible ingredients, such as excessive amounts of grains and grain by-products, not from the food swelling up inside the fish's stomach. Most importantly, when you pre-soak pellet food, you are allowing nutrients and water-soluble vitamins and minerals to leach out into the water".
> 
> As you can see the food is designed to be fed dry without soaking.


Obviously that is NLS specific, but it will apply to other high quality pellet feeds.


----------



## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

Unless of course you are presoaking in those vitamin solutions that are all the craze now a days.


----------



## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

dwarfpike said:


> Unless of course you are presoaking in those vitamin solutions that are all the craze now a days.


For the love of all that is good, please don't do this with feeds already containing vitamins, especially something like NLS which is already incredibly rich in vits and minerals. Why - read up on vitamintosis, I won't go into it here as it's another topic, but if you want to know more just PM me about it and I'll take you further.


----------



## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

Good thing I haven't used them then. I suppose it might work with of the bargin pellets or flakes, but then if you add the price of the bargin stuff to the liquid vitamin solutions ... it's not so bargin anymore. Better to just buy decent pellets to begin with.


----------



## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

Exactamundo!

If you're adding vits to a feed do you really know what levels you are providing them with, and as it is a blanket approach you will almost inevitably end up giving them too much of one type or another, even if you are careful.

As you say - just buy decent pellets to begin with - not just with NLS, but ANY high quality vitamin and mineral rich food does not need the addition of extra vitamins. If it does then it isn't doing its job. The whole point in the development of these types of feeds is that as the sole diet they are scientifically balanced to meet the entire dietary need.

I will leave it there for now, sorry for deviating but it is important info (and I'm not just campaigning NLS, but advocating sensible use of any high quality feed).


----------



## japes (Jan 10, 2008)

Good thing I exaggerated when I said a minute, had never really though about that. Will tip into water and then stir and pour straight in instead of waiting at all from now on I think.


----------



## Dutch Dude (Sep 14, 2006)

Looking at the long lists some have posted over here I keep it simple.

Tetra wafer mix (small sinking wafers of both vegitable and meat and don't crush them)
Tetra discus pellets (for vitamins and proteins)
Daily some frozen (one cube on 6 Guianacara)) like bloodworms or artemis and once a week some live food.

Thats it and they do realy well!


----------



## klumsyninja (Aug 14, 2008)

Wow thanks for the great responses to this thread, your info's been really helpful.

Japes I wish I was one of your fish! You treat them very well.. I treat all my fish well too but you go that extra mile. Good on you.

I'll stop soaking my food.

So Geo's like Peas and Zuchini? good to know. I've fed that to my Mbuna and my Plecos and they love it!


----------



## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

Back on subject, the _Satanoperca_ I kept in display tanks at doctors and such enjoyed a mix of spurlina flakes, color flakes, 1mm pellets, and small freezed dried krill. They would eat the krill from the top then drop down to sift the pellets and flakes.


----------



## DiscusQueen (Jul 16, 2007)

Hi all.. Not to be left out... I feed my guys.. NLS pellets, crushed shrimp pellets, spirulina flake mixed with color flakes (mostly because the rams and angels are still pretty small), tetra color bits, peas and occasionally frozen brine shrimp. zucchini when I can find it and algae wafers occassionally.. Again mine are all still juveniles and the diet will probably change to include freezedried krill down the line.. right now crushing it just makes to big a mess.. The NLS discus formula is their main staple each day and the others are added to the mix so no one gets bored :lol: :lol: They want to be fed every time I get within 4 feet of the tank but I feed 3 times a day. Sue :lol: :lol:


----------



## HiImSean (Apr 5, 2007)

my jurupari loves omega one shrimp pellets. he'll also eat frozen krill and blood worms. he wont eat from the surface though :roll:


----------



## klumsyninja (Aug 14, 2008)

They've loved the Peas I've been feeding them.. pretty awesome actually.

(green poo)


----------

