# reducing food size; pepper mill



## josmoloco (Aug 23, 2008)

To feed my smaller fish I have been using a sea salt grinder(pepper mill). It works great, even the large size hikari pellets grind up. There is some powder but fry love it! I have found the best food to grind is hbh cichlid attack pellets.


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## Curator (Feb 18, 2009)

my cichlids are refusing to eat pellets >.< whole or broken up... they went for 3 days still wouldnt eat them, gave them some flake food and they tore it up... I think they may have been raised on flake food be4 I got them, so now its all they will eat,lol... and im stuck with a rather pricey container of pellets...lol...


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## zazz (Apr 5, 2008)

im thinking of throwing in flakes for a while instead of pellets because the latest addition of smaller fish dont get a look in.

when they get bigger i will revert back to pellets and this will reduce the amount of uneaten food left in the tank.


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## josmoloco (Aug 23, 2008)

Flakes suck because the nutrients disintegrate out of them too fast.


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## Curator (Feb 18, 2009)

Exactly why I wish my cichlids would eat the pellets, but they show no interest in them:/...


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## Stickzula (Sep 14, 2007)

keep feeding them the pellets. eventually they will eat them if there is no other option for them. They can go a week without eating easily. Just be careful not to over feed.


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## josmoloco (Aug 23, 2008)

> hey can go a week without eating easily
> 
> 
> > Just think of how long female mouth brooders go hungry, Up to a month in many cases.


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## Curator (Feb 18, 2009)

yeah, only problem is they get really aggressive towards each other when I dont feed them every day... I guess I'll just put the most docile one that they tend to pick on whenever they get pissed off in his own tank... thanks for the advice.


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## KaiserSousay (Nov 2, 2008)

=D>


> a sea salt grinder(pepper mill


 =D> 
Funny how the really simple solutions seem, after someone points them out.


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## cevvin (May 2, 2008)

I use a magic bullet LOL. But I do mine pretty fine for newborn fry, than just crush with a spoon. I use 1mm NLS.


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## kerbchek (Apr 1, 2008)

I know a guy who uses a real inexpensive coffee grinder, but I like the idea of using a pepper grinder... cool... and thanks for sharing!!!


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## remarkosmoc (Oct 19, 2005)

Thats a great idea! Do you put a towel over you arm when feeding them like the waiters at fancy restaurants?


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## Hoosier Tank (May 8, 2007)

+1 to the pepper mill, I've been using it for about a year or more and raised several batches of fry with it. Using Hikari Gold, Hikari Staple and now NLS...


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## Nutty4Mbunas (Mar 27, 2008)

For my acei fry I put my adult pellets thru the Magic Bullet and then I put thru a fine mesh collader/sieve and got the finest powder for them to eat. I also added flakes the same way I have a fine mesh collander and that is what I fed my little fry. They were born Oct. 17, 2008 now they are almost into the small pellet but still prefer the ground up pellet mixture I made from the adult pellets which are the sinking pellets I bought from my LFS, he adds a concoction of something that smells like fish oil for coloring up the Cichlids. This is all I give my fry and Community tank along with some cichlid flake.
ps what ever dosent grind up fine I saved for them for when they got bigger and kept it in an air tight container in the freezer.


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