malevolentsparkle Posted June 15, 2010 Report Share Posted June 15, 2010 Hi, I have 9 cardinal tetras in my south american tank and I was wondering if they can be trained to eat from the surface? my geophagus tends to eat or scare them away from the food as it sinks but they won't eat from the surface. Is this just a fixed behaviour or is it because there is too much current at the suface? thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted June 15, 2010 Report Share Posted June 15, 2010 They are not surface feeders, more mid - low. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted June 15, 2010 Report Share Posted June 15, 2010 In a species / tetra tank they will feed from the top but otherwise they eat food from the middle region as mentioned... slowly sinking foods like JBL discus and colourbits go down well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted June 15, 2010 Report Share Posted June 15, 2010 I had 7 of them and found that they will dart to the top if it's something they want to eat. They will go for dried worms over flake bits, and live worms over anything. They love worms and their activity increases tremendously if you can get some. I had them chasing each other for white worms and bulging out their bellies (until I found out how fattening they were :oops: ) and later changed to grindal worms which are much easier for them to eat. They aren't too keen on eating processed food if you stay close to the tank either, sneak around the corner out of sight and they may play the game. The other thing they like (or mine did anyway) is if you float a little piece of shrimp pellet on the top - it expands and then slowly sinks to the bottom in tiny pieces, they go after these like live food too. I had a lot of current in my tank so against advice from others on a different forum I had my powerhead filter timed to turn off for an hour or so over feeding time. They will definitely go for live food and food they can see in a current but in my experience it's easier for them when there is less current too. Also once they were accustomed to darting up for their live food, they weren't so scaredy for darting processed stuff floating on the top. 2 or 3 of mine would always go up there. 1 of the smaller ones would rarely go to the top if it wasn't something squiggling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malevolentsparkle Posted June 15, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2010 thanks thats what I thought. they do go nuts for live food so maybe i just need to get more, better all round anyway! how are they with frozen food? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted June 16, 2010 Report Share Posted June 16, 2010 I never tried frozen food on my guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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