They get a variety of sinking/floating pellets from Ken's, Hikari, and Aquatic Foods. I mix combinations of pellets from protein to green (spirulina) and rotate. They also get crushed insects as a treat. I use a mortar and pestle to grind 'em up. All my tanks have lots of aeration and oxygenation affects growth. I try to provide a jungle type environment they can explore and hide in. They don't like the open! It stresses them and they fight too much. A trick I did with success was stagger plant coverage to get them all off the floor. I would straggle vines from the surface on down. The fish would nest in every little spot and give each other space. If you don't do this they will all stay at the bottom like magnets getting on each other's nerves. I'm going to be doing a minor rescape of the 125 soon anyway.
Adults and even sub adults only get one meal per day, and one skip day. When the tank was too crowded they got fed every 2 days. With these honduran redpoints I notice they don't seem prone to stunting at all. As soon as conditions change they meet their max potential. Or if a fish suppressing another is removed it gets huge size gain in a short time. The giant males all followed the same pattern: steady growth rate then at just over a year an explosion.
I believe my smallest female is Nix...she's barely 2 inches.
