NANFA-- Flake food for fussy fish
PGagne2000_at_aol.com
Sat, 7 Apr 2001 19:18:32 EDT
I have found a way to indirectly feed my black-banded sunfish flake food.
I bought a bag of guppies at a recent club auction for one dollar, about
twentyfive fish of different sizes. I knew the seller, so trusted their
health, and didn't quarantine them. For lack of a better place, into the
tank of Enneacanthus chaetodon they went.
The 30 gal. sunfish tank is densely planted with hornwort and
vallisneria. It is unheated, but rarely drops below 65 degrees. The 15
sunfish will not eat flake (perhaps I have to starve them longer that I am
willing to). They are small, about 1 and 3/4" long, wild-caught in October.
I expect they would be bigger if I could feed them more than once a day.
After seeing a couple of guppy fry the next day, I figured I would soon
have more of them than I would know what to do with. Three days later, no
fry could be found, in spite of the heavy plant cover they had. Also, the
smallest of the new guppies were missing. I was thrilled to realize that I
now had an additional food source for the sunfish that was fresh, served
intermittently 24 hours a day, and cost almost nothing!
I realize that this may be an old idea to many of you, but I had never
heard of it and would recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind mixing
disposable livebearers in with their native fish. I suppose in another year
the adult guppies will be dying out and I'll have to buy another bag :-).
Pierre Gagne
Kensington, MD
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association"
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association
/ nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
/ nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead.
/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org