# Oops -- fishfood



## Unnr (May 8, 2010)

Ok, so the Two Year Old has struck again (actually since he's trying to drink tylenol right now, I guess I'm behind the times. Anyway, I now have the tylenol.) And has fed the fish ALL thier food.

Asside from a succession of water changes, any suggestions?
I'm going to move some shrimp up to help eat it.
The tank is 10 gal, and has featherfins, phoenix rasboras, and cherry shrimp.

It was about 3 grams of flake food, all told, that went in. I scooped out as much as possible. Not getting much off the bottom with the syphon, though.

-Unnr who really really really likes this tank, and really wants to save em...


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

I would do daily water changes and try to siphon out as much food particle as possible. How much plant mass do you have in there? How big is it? If it's the 10 gal in your signature, then I think that's a lot of food. Maybe even do 2 water changes a day, if you have the time.

Shrimps and snails would definitely help. How many can you move into the tank?

Oh, and don't forget to rinse the filter media at each water change.


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## Unnr (May 8, 2010)

I could prob. move 60 if I really wanted. But that seems a little crazy... Can do, though. There are about 7 in there already, unless any of the pregnant ones have started actually having babies, and then it's anyone's guess. They were very close last time I got a good look, and now hiding, so... I moved about 4 already, but am waiting 'till nap time to do more, 'cause it got a bit hairy.

The tank is almost more plant than water. I have some mats of algae that are well behaved and stable, as well as hygro, bannana plant, and some randomness I'm not sure about. (it's a low-techish tank, with minimal filtration & really runs on the plants.)

I already called my coparent and arranged time for two water changes/day  He was on the hook because part of the reason the kid was under-supervised was that he failed to leave for work on time and I snuck downstairs to have a sip of coffee 

I'm having trouble with the suctioning because of the size of the fish. I usually grind the food for them a little, and this went in full size... which means that if I use a syphon large enough to pick up the food w/out getting hopelessly clogged every 4 seconds, I could get a fish too. That happened once, and I eventually lost the fish to fin damage etc. I think it woudl be virtually impossible to replace the pheonixes. They weren't even labelled that at Menagerie.

Ag.

-Unnr


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

What kind of filtration do you have? If siphoning isn't practical, you could try "storming up" the tank: basically stirring up the water enough to get the food particles to float up and get sucked into the filter. Then you can just rinse the media.

I wouldn't worry too much if your tank is heavily planted. Plants do a wonderful job of maintaining a balanced environment.

What kind of shrimps are those? If they're cherries, I would put 20-30 of them in the tank, and leave them there. It's always good to have a large clean up crew.

If they're bigger shrimps like Amano, then 5-6 is enough.


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

If you're worried about sucking fish into the syphon tube why not get some of the mesh netting from the garlic/ginger net if you have any and rubber band it over the tubing. Before I did that I used to suck some fish/shrimp that just didn't want to move out of the way and instead of moving the other way from the tube then moved into the suction tube  and got inhaled and I had to fish them out later. Since that little net trick only baby shrimps would get sucked up if they do butI've not seen any baby shrimp sucked up yet. 

Hope that helps.


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## Juiceworld (Dec 13, 2010)

Wow, I feel your pain. I cant keep my 2 year old away from my tanks. I now keep all the food and additives locked away.


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## qwerty (Dec 15, 2009)

Curious, I googled "phoenix rasbora" and got tons of related links to boraras brigittae.

These aren't the easiest fish out there to find, but they aren't too hard either, and menagerie gets them in often enough, just thought you'd like to know 

As for the food, I think most useful advice has already been given. I personally wouldn't be too worried, just clear as much of it out as you can and watch your water quality for a bit.


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