How to get enough food to the bottom for Geophagus

[mrPickles]

I have 4 Geophagus Sveni and 6 Silver Dollar (both juvenilles) in a 180 gallon. I don't want to overfeed, but the darn silver dollars steal everything out of the water column before it can hit the bottom. The Geophagus won't come more than a few inches and only want to filter feed, which isn't unexpected. Do I just keep feeding until enough hits the bottom? Do I need to worry much about the silver dollars over eating? I'm eventually going to add a Severum and probably an Oscar, so it's going to be an ongoing problem.

 

[duanes]

Is that a food disc in the middle of the pic?
Although Geos have large mouths, they prefer small pieces of food.
Not large pellets or discs.
If it were me, I'd crunch the discs up a bit, soak them in tank water for a few moments, and then place into the tank in order to sink to the substrate.

In fact, I'd put the SDs in another tank, to allow the pieces of food to get to the substrate, where the Geos can make their living naturally.

 

[Jexnell]

Feed the SD's at one end, while also dropping in food for the bottom feeders at the other. SD's should stay busy with what's in front of them to Chace food clear on the other end of the tank. Also you can supplement the SD's food with leaves of Romaine lettuce, that way they are not so ravenous during feeding. My 9 or so SD's would eat a full leaf everyday.

 

[mrPickles]

Is that a food disc in the middle of the pic?
Although Geos have large mouths, they prefer small pieces of food.
Not large pellets or discs.
If it were me, I'd crunch the discs up a bit, soak them in tank water for a few moments, and then place into the tank in order to sink to the substrate.

In fact, I'd put the SDs in another tank, to allow the pieces of food to get to the substrate, where the Geos can make their living naturally.

I threw in a few algae discs, and they enjoyed munching on them and they stayed around long enough for them to eat. Their normal food is small NLS pellets.

 

[mrPickles]

Thanks Jexnell . I'll give that a shot. I threw in some cuttings from one of my planted tanks, and they loved eating those.

 

[LBDave]

If the Geos are new to the tank they may eventually come up to the top. You may want to try some sinking micro pellets. Harder for the SD's to find (but they may eventually grub them off the bottom). I would feed the micro pellets right after I put some top floating food in for the SD's.
You could also take a top food such as Tetra crisps and introduce into the water with your hand. Crunch them up a bit and swish in the water column.
I have done this with SD's, oscars and earth eaters.
SD's will eventually grub the bottom but smaller pieces of anything are harder for them to find. SD's are gluttons so little chance of any uneaten food remaining especially if you have eartheaters with them.
With the larger cichlids you intend to add the tank will need lots of cleaning and large water changes due to all the poop. The geos may be ok but the oscars will dominate the tank. May want to stick with a severum or 2. Still gonna take quite a bit of cleaning.

 

[mrPickles]

Thanks LBDave . I have a large aquaponic system hooked up to the tank to help handle all the waste. I have another outdoor system with Koi, so I'm confident I can keep the nitrates at or very near zero with all the terrestrial plants (about 40 of them). I'll still have to do some gravel cleaning, but I also have an RO system, so the water changes won't need to be nearly as often as with most tanks.

 

[koltsixx]

A technique I've seen and employed myself is a pvc pipe. Having some cats that are very resistant to leaving their hides or like you having tankmates that outcompete my bottom dwellers I've used a pvc pipe to drop food straight to the bottom. I use floating pellets to keep the top and mid water feeders occupied and drop sinking food down the pipe.

 

[mrPickles]

That's a great idea. Thanks!

 

[Milingu]

A technique I've seen and employed myself is a pvc pipe. Having some cats that are very resistant to leaving their hides or like you having tankmates that outcompete my bottom dwellers I've used a pvc pipe to drop food straight to the bottom. I use floating pellets to keep the top and mid water feeders occupied and drop sinking food down the pipe.

This.
You can also use the pipe to hide food in the sand. The Geophagus will happily search for it.

Should look like this. Not Geophagus but the effect should be the same.