L397 and L134 food suggestion

[faijai]

Hello Guys :hi:
Just after some advice on feeding.
I have L397s and recently aquired some L134's. Up until now i have been feeding the 397s Hikari Algae discs and fresh veges and they seem to like the drift wood quiet alot. I placed the 134s into the same tank until they all grow up (currently 4-5cm).

What is a good food to feed the 134s as i read they are also meat eaters and will it affect the 397s if i feed food such as bloodworms into the same tank? I also keep Cichlids and have NLS available if its ok to feed them those.



Thanks!

Dave

 

[MIX02u]

Hi Dave
397s are wood eaters. They love driftwood, algae wafers and fresh veg - so you have been doing well with their diet.
134s on the other hand, love high protein foods such as carnivore pellets. The problem you have with the two in the same tank is that the 397s will jump all over the food intended for the 134s and more than likely will become bloated. I would highly recommend seperating them. Either a seperate tank or a divider in the tank you have will do the trick.

HTH

 

[bigbird]

agree 100% with Mix. You will be better off with seperate tanks. They just have different food requirements. cheers jk :thumbup:

 

[faijai]

Awesome!
Thanks for advice guys
will look into it this weekend!

 

[Brengun]

As juvies the L134 will eat quite a bit of veg and algae wafers so thats ok for now.
You could also pop in a sparing amount of shrimp pellets as they are a more natural meat protein which L397 would also eat in the wild to some extent.

You will need to move the L134 to bring them up to maturity as they will need a more meaty diet then.

 

[faijai]

Thank Brengun.

I have some tetras and shrimp in there so they are getting fed the fluval branded shrimp pellets aswell.

Thanks for the help guys.
Have already started to look for a tank to seperate the 2 but for now ill just keep a close eye on them.

 

[Jamez]

Hey guys what wood would you recommend for an L397 to eat? I have pieces of aquarium quality driftwood and I'm finding it hard to know whether it's soft enough for them to eat.

Thanks

 

[Brengun]

If you get a dirty fingernail when you scratch it, its soft enough.

 

[Jamez]

Ok well I do get a dirty fingernail so it should be ok. Thanks Brengun.

 

[Jamez]

Also, in this same tank I am finding that snails are getting to the food I leave out for my L397s and I don't think the L397s are getting enough food. Do you know any ways of getting rid of the snails?

Thanks.

 

[Jamez]

Any tips for getting rid of snails brengun?

 

[Brengun]

Depends on what sort of snails you want to get rid of. If its trumpet snails, ditch the gravel and keep bare bottom.

 

[Jamez]

Yeah they are trumpet snails. I added the gravel earlier in the year to try and bring out the colours of my L397s in the tank but I can get rid of it if need be. Will it effect their colours getting rid of it and having a black bottom?
I'm also having problems with this tank keeping the KH and Ph stable because there is quite a few pieces of driftwood in the tank and I'm thinking that that is the reason the KH is around 2 degrees. I do add KH generator but it ends up dropping fairly quickly. I was thinking of adding some artificial tank decorations that wont alter the hardness and Ph. What do you guys do with your tanks with lots of driftwood in it?

Thanks again.

Hey guys do you think I should move this post to the 'Aquarium and set up/issues' area? Because I'm not really talking about feeding.

 

[Brengun]

In the same way you can put a backing on your tank for decor, there is nothing to say you can't put it under the tank as well if you desire.

Lots of dw does pull pH down over time. KH of two should last you about 3 or 4 days before it runs out and you either have to rebuffer or do a water change. Atm I just sling a 1/4 spoon of buffer in after 3 to 4 days. Not enough to send the ph sailing too high but enough to hold the KH until my weekly wc.
You could add a chunk of coral to the tank in an out of the eyeshot area or hide it in the canister. Shell grit in a bag can do the same buffering.

 

[Jamez]

Cheers for the reply I will keep the gravel removal option in my mind over the next little while. The bottom of my tank is actually naturally black so if I removed the light coloured gravel it would leave it black. It doesn't bother me at all but would it discourage my L397s from looking their best?

I have increased my KH on this tank over the last couple of days and it's been sitting at 5 degrees for 2 days in a row now which is good and my Ph has also been stable at 6.9 which is good. After I do my water changes I will monitor the KH and Ph as the week goes on and adjust if need be. I have mainly been looking at the nitrate level on this tank and have taken my eyes of the other important parmaters lately which isn't the best.

 

[Jamez]

Bump.

 

[Jamez]

Do you think it would effect their colours and appearance at all having the black bottom?

Cheers

 

[Jamez]

I'll go with no.

 

[bigbird]

black bottom is fine.
Snails come also from overfeeding, so look at your feeding regime and reduce this.
What and how much are you feeding ?
cheers jk :thumbup:

 

[Jamez]

I don't think I am overfeeding. This tank has 2 L397s and some tetras so I feed the tank 1-2 Hikari Algae Wafers 4 times a week and the occasional piece of zuccini and some flake food each night for the tetras.

Thanks for your reply.