How do you feed Beaufortia?

[mikev]

I'm supposed to know this by now, but there is a glitch...

Qtank contains two Beaufortia's and six small juv barbs. Beaufortia's show no interest in food, 3rd day. Don't appear to be sick; the reason is simply that there is no way for them to get to the food: darned dithers eat everything. They are much worse than danios...

I've never seen anything like this: they ate bloodworms, frozen shrimp, a load of flakes, a carnivore pellet, and two algae wafers (this is one meal: I was trying to saturate them). Bottomfeeding seems to be no deterrent, and trying to hide an algae wafer in rocks did not work: they got it out.

Any good ideas?

I really don't want to separate them and use another qtank...
I really don't want to overfeed the barbs, they are already eating much more than they should...
And I really doubt that Beaufortia's can find any leftovers, the barbs are small and constantly searching for food.

There ought to be something simple I can do?

As fish problems go, this one is a funny one, but solution is still needed.

[shari2]

will the barbs feed at night after the lights are out?
will the beaufortia?

[loachmom]

What about a separator that fits inside the tank?

[mikev]

Thanks!

Really unsure about Beaufortia's (this is after 1.5 year of keeping them).

The darn barbs are not supposed to but these do....I just put another algae wafer with flashlight, and these things (pale/miserable/sticking to the bottom as they should) started eating right away...

What about a separator that fits inside the tank?

Hmmm...this may actually work. I'll try to get one tomorrow.

[Vancmann]

I am having trouble getting my beauforti to eat. I have had him for about 14 years now and he has been through seasons where he would just not eat (at least when I am around). A month ago he was getting real fat. He had no trouble chasing down and snatching a large pieces of shrimp from any one of giant Danios and the Danios are swift. For the past few weeks I have been having trouble getting food to him. He seems un stimulated to eat, no appetite. Now, the only way I can get him to eat is by hand feeding him (using a long plastic fork with a piece of raw shrimp attached to the end). He has grown a liking to raw shrimps and find it hard to resist but he only takes one or two pieces now vs 10 pieces+ when he ate a month ago. I am still looking for ways to get him his appetite back. He will be getting some friends soon because I had a big lost a few months ago but as I could find some more. For now he is friends with the clowns, they get along well.

[Graeme Robson]

Wrong species of loach, Vancmann but an interesting read never the less.

Mikev, have you also tried smearing the foods like Bloodworm's/Brine shrimp on a pebble/boulder and placing this on to the substrate after lights out.

The separator also sounds good.

[Martin Thoene]

What Graeme means Vance is that you're talking about Syncrossus beaufortia but the thread is about Beaufortia kweichowensis.

Martin.

[Emma Turner]

What about that gel food stuff from Tetra? I think (correct me if I am wrong) Jim uses it and smears it onto the rocks and then places them into the tank. TetraFreshDelica I think it's called.

Emma

[mikev]

Yeap, will try gel. I doubt it will work, barbs will get it somehow.

(This is strange: not a new kind of fish. The way Beaufortia behave may be normal: barbs are disturbing, I would not feel like eating either. But I had the same barbs in the past, in the same size (<2cm), and the previous group never ate like this. They are also already deeply colored, which took weeks before. The only diff. is a strong powerhead.)

[Vancmann]

Wrong species of loach, Vancmann but an interesting read never the less.

Mikev, have you also tried smearing the foods like Bloodworm's/Brine shrimp on a pebble/boulder and placing this on to the substrate after lights out.

The separator also sounds good.

Oh thanks, I was wondering about the "a" at the end of beaufortia....

[Vancmann]

What Graeme means Vance is that you're talking about Syncrossus beaufortia but the thread is about Beaufortia kweichowensis.

Martin.

I did a search on Beaufortia kweichowensis to see what they look like and I was way off.

[Jim Powers]

The problem with that Tetra delica gel is that it is a discontinued product.
You can still get the bloodworm version, which is the hardest one to smear on rocks, as REPTOTREAT for aquatic amphibians. Petsmart carries it. Its in a dark red/brown box with yellow lettering and a clawed frog on the front. Its certainly worth a try. If you have trouble keeping it on the rocks, you might want to smear it on a rock and let it sit out and air dry for a bit or smear it thinnly on the glass in an area that the beaufortia frequent. Even if this doesn't work for you in this case, just about all your other fish will enjoy this food. Hillstreams love to eat it off glass, rocks or even little clumps of it on the bottom.
One more thing, if you are in any other privately owned pet stores, check out the clearance bins. Sometimes, if you're lucky, you can find the Delica gel brineshrimp or water flea versions. Those are easier to smear on surfaces.

[mikev]

Thanks, Jim.

Tomorrow is the serious Beaufortia-feeding day. I have some powdered gel (a gift from Frank), need to only figure out how to use it.

Incidentally, the barbs are Odessa's: your observation that they actually like strong current was very much on target....but possibly they like it too much. The previous bunch was much less active, colorful or hungry.

--

In re Beauforti vs Beaufortia: these new Laotian loaches appear on the list as Tiger Botia cf. Beaufortia... so when I saw the entry first, I thought they are talking about a new Laotian species of Sewellia (Tiger/1"-2"/Similar to Beaufortia -- what else can it be?) .