Feeding small pellets to big fish

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Wow thank you so much for the help guys, that's exactly what I needed to know. It looks like I've been going about this all wrong and seriously underfeeding my pacu in the process. The other fish all look fat after eating so I'm pretty sure they're getting enough, but the pacu is 5x bigger than any of my previous fish so this is kinda new to me. Leonardo sounds way too familiar but there's nobody around to hold mine back so I feed the other side while she's eating. The fh gets the first mouthful before the pacu pushes him out of the way, and then the catfish and pacu siphon the sand while I sneak the fh another handful lol. Feeding the pacu first with bigger chunks of food makes a lot more sense tho (and the fh wont touch bananas) so I'm thinking about either buying the 3mm nls in bulk and stuffing fruits/veggies/shrimp for the pacu, or using 10mm to make my own food and breaking it up into different sizes for each tank. What all do you mix into those squares Pacu Mom? And do you think smaller fish would make a mess out of them?
 
Here's my thread on jumbo sinking fish food. I made the mistake of buying ten pounds of 3mm NLS and had to use it up.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?509841-Jumbo-sinking-fish-food

The food does not sink very far before it is inhaled. Just bought 8 pounds of 10 mm NLS for when I get too lazy to mix up a batch of jumbo food. I just made up a double batch and froze 2/3s of it.


If your pacu is big enough, it will probably inhale whole grapes without chewing. My pacu do not have a stopping point when it comes to eating. Yours may not either.
 
Thanks pacu mom and sorry for the delayed response, I've been thinking way too hard about this all week and still haven't decided what to do lol.

The agar agar mix sounds like a great way to use up the smaller pellets instead of dropping a hundred of them in at a time or buying 4 different formulas. I was thinking about feeding the 1-5" fish a mix of the growth and small fish formulas, 4.5mm floating for the fh, and 6mm sinking for the pacu and catfish, but maybe it would be easier just buying the 4.5mm in bulk and mixing it with some dried krill for the juvies and two bigger fish... Do you think a gelatin mix would be easier for the fry to pick apart than the agar?
 
Gelatin works, in fact, that's what most people use when making DIY food. Here's Joeys DIY fish food video:

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What I like about agar agar is that it is solid at room temperature. The jumbo food I make is very soft and crumbles easily. I just need something that sinks. If you use a small pellet that the other fish will eat, but the pacu does not consider food...that might be the easiest solution.
 
Joey is actually who I got the idea to use gelatin from lol. Agar agar is supposed to be healthier and cleaner to feed though, it just looked kinda like crunchy granola bars in those pics but if it stays soft that should work perfectly
 
Sounds easy enough, my only concern now is decreasing the nutritional value of the nls by adding another binding agent or mixing in lower quality pellets. It seems like most people who make homemade food eventually switch back to pellets, will you start feeding the mega formula exclusively once the jumbo mix runs out? I almost bought 3 small containers of the smaller formulas last night but it was gonna be like $55 for 1.2kg and you can get twice as much for the same price by buying one size in bulk. I'd like to feed the fry a higher protein formula tho so maybe I'll make two different mixes or just feed pellets to the smaller fish
 
If I could find a giant sinking pellet for omnivores, I would buy it in a flash. I only started making jumbo food out of desperation. In the UK there is some very large giant sinking koi food and sturgeon food available. I have not been able to find any in the US. I even found a source that would ship the food from the UK-- shipping $300+ for about $30 of food. I decided to pass on the deal.

My biggest problem was that floating food enters the overflow box. When we eventually set up the big tank, there are 1/2" grids to the overflow boxes. All the floating food would enter the overflows. Years ago I checked the ingredients of pond pellets versus Hikari pellets. I didn't see much difference. My pacu have thrived on the pond pellets. I wish they sank instead of float.
 
I've found with NLS even with large fish, you often are way better off feeding a pellet much smaller than you think you should. For example, I still feed my nearly 18" umbee 3mm sinking and 4.5mm floating. He swallows these whole sometimes several at a time but will chew the 6mm for a couple of seconds. If you are worried about being able to regulate it more effectively, use a measuring spoon. Unless your fish appear too thin likely you aren't feeding too little. Even big fish need a surprisingly small amount of food to thrive and grow. In fact, over feeding slows growth.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 
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