Jennifer

education

nephelococcygia

I think metabolisable energy is what you are referring to. Metabolisable energy (ME) is a term used to describe the amount of energy available from food once the energy loss (heat and combustible gasses) from the digestive process has been subtracted. ME is an essential tool in determining the nutritional quality of a food in comparison to another but the reality is, the values are relatively similar to the other nutrient values so you really don't need to get caught up in all this if you don't want to. For those who want to: One way to determine energy density is to look at the known energy supplied by fat, protein, or carbohydrates (this is true for human diets as well). Scientists have used the digestibility along with the determined energy value of the nutrients to determine a constant called the Atwater Factor that is used to calculate the ME. It is not a perfect system, but it is the best we have for the moment. Fat: Energy Value 9.4 kcal/g; Atwater factor 8.5 Protein: Energy Value 4.4 kcal/g; Atwater factor 3.5 Carbohydrate*: Energy Value 4.2 kcal/g; Atwater factor 4.2 * Carbohydrate (or Nitrogen Free Extract) is basically what remains after the moisture, protein, fat, fibre, and minerals (ash) have been removed from the food. e.g. Carbohydrate = 100% minus % moisture, % crude protein, % crude fat, % crude fibre and % ash. NB: Since the Atwater Factor is based on an average digestibility, it will slightly underestimate the ME of foods that are highly digestible, and slightly overestimate those than have less than average digestibility. To calculate the ME, multiply each of the dry weight nutrient percentages by its Atwater Factor and then by 10 (to correct for the %); then, add them all up to get the total number of kilocalories per kilogram of food. For each nutrient carry out the following calculation: Nutrient (%) x Atwater factor (based on type of nutrient) x 10. Then, add together all of the individual nutrient results to get the total kcals/kg of food. Can you tell I have been marking a lot of nutrition assignments lately? :roll:

tetracycline

Alan, I bet you are a closet martial arts person. :lol: Anyway, back on topic, now that we are all talking about this, let's calculate it to see what these babies really are... The nutritional profile for this food is here: http://www.seachem.com/Products/product ... arvae.html So... Formula: % dry matter = 100% minus % guaranteed moisture Step 1: Calculate the percentage of total dry matter. This uses the formula: 100% - % guaranteed moisture = % dry matter. This is 100% - 75.7% = 24.3% total dry matter. Step 2: We know that the whole dry weight is 24.3% and part of that is protein so we can find the percentage of protein by dry weight by using the formula PART divided by WHOLE x 100, this is 16.7% / 24.3% x 100 = 68.7% protein by dry weight. Wow! No wonder my fish all spawned after I fed that stuff. :roll:

These are fresh foods so they will be somewhere around 70% moisture - the 16.7% protein reflects this. The dry weight anlaysis is probably somewhere around 45%. Incidentally, if you are looking at a dog or cat food label, the same thing applies. Meaning that you can't compare the protein content in a dry food with that of a moist food. Apples and oranges.

estimate

Well done Sam.

ulcerative

Going back to my marine biology/zoology days in uni here, but I dare say that is not entirely a jellyfish. Jellyfish are cnidarians, there are two forms, the characteristic medusa with tentacles and the imobile polyps - in other words they don't have eyes like that creature does. Looks to me like a crustacean inside a jellyfish house, perhaps a jelly hermit crab (if such things exist)? Who knows though, NZ has some amazing creatures, that's for sure.

confidence

aldosterone

rock (as in the rockstar)

fantasy

:lol:

No.

You only need to cook the pumpkin a tiny bit so it is not hard as a rock. The other things you don't need to cook at all. The otos will like it more as it gets older, after about 12-20 hours soaking in the tank, but there is a fine line before it all turns to mush and soils the tank. :roll:

That description sounds just like the 'fly larvae' that are the new tinned fish food by Seachem (retails for about $17 ) Good for making fish spawn, they are 16.7% protein!

Yes, it is fast growing but those are just sproutlets. you need lots more plants that are actively growing to soak up the nutrients & CO2. Add ferts slowly when you get some plants that can use them and they will keep things balanced until your sproutlets get going strong and large. See the cyclic logic?

I learned from the best Alan. Sam, you could also try adding a little bit of potassium (Seachem Potassum) as that will help the plants utilise Phosphorus however, there currently aren't many plants there to utilise it! :roll:

Those plants are not nearly enough to outcompete the algae. Remember, lights, CO2 and ferts need to be in balance, as you increase one, you need to increase the others or you will be all out of whack. Also, the faster your car goes (increase in CO2, lights, ferts) the bigger the mess if it goes wrong (it will go wrong a lot faster than a low tech tank). If I were you I would throw in a big bunch of fast growing stem plants in the corner (don't panic, you can remove them later). Then you need to start fertilising if you have a 10 hour photperiod and CO2. Not too much all of a sudden - slow and gradual to bring the plants up to speed and discourage the algae. Bring the lights, CO2 and ferts up to the same level.

crack

escape

Theoretically both should be fine, pumpkin is best cooked ever so slightly just to slightly to soften it and make it edible (not too much though, you don't want mush). Some things they like more than others though and some veges really soil the water. :roll:

Brown algae/diatoms will often be eaten by otos if the otos are not over fed for a few days. Green spot is normal and a fact of life in a lighted aquarium. You can slightly reduce the photoperiod to reduce it on slow growing leaves.