Loaches Online Forum

I have a Botia dario and a Garra taeniata in a tank, along with other fish. I often feed pieces of cucumber to the B. dario and Garra. The Botia will sometimes eat the flakes I give my other fish, and also like the brine shrimp and white mosquito larvae. I think the Garra gets enough food from what I feed my other fish and also the algae, so it doesn't really seem necessary to feed the cucumber, but I want to feed them a balanced diet. I put in two slices of about 8mm thick in the tank for the two, and it lasts them about 3 days. I only feed cucumber every week and a half or so.

Now my question is: Can the Botia eat too much? I can see it's belly is really full after about 30min. Nothing ever happened to it eating like this. I'm just worried that it can eat too much and die or get intestine problems.

I might have to add that it is only about 5cm long.

Regards,
Danelle

Fish can indeed eat too much. In nature food does not happen every day, and when food does come by it might be a large volume, so fish have the ability to eat a large amount at one meal.

This is fine as long as there is no next meal to gorge on in a few more hours, and more again the next day, and the next...

Much better to feed very small portions at each meal, and rotate ingredients through the week. I feed my fish once a day, but even then I vary the time of day. If I feed sinking foods (Algae wafers, vegetables) for the nocturnal grazing fish, I will drop these in at lights out. I will feed flakes or dried foods earlier in the day.
Adult fish do not need to be fed daily, and if that is the case, then somewhat larger offerings, and perhaps more varied when you do feed them is appropriate.

That was the kind of answer I was looking for. Thank you very much.

So I feed flakes about 3PM each day, frozen brine shrimp or frozen white mosquito larvae once or twice a week, and then feed a piece of cucumber once a week or two. I'll keep it like this but try to feed a smaller piece of cucumber twice a week. Is there any other veggies that might contain something cucumber doesn't have, which I can feed? I know baby marrows and green peas can also be fed but is there any advantages in varying between those and cucumber?

Fish can eat pretty much all the vegies we eat.
The champion raspers like Plecos can eat any of them raw.
Fish that are not quite so good a rasping will do better if the vegies are a bit softer, without having to rot in the tank.

Slice into thin slices for faster cooking.

Raw: Fruit like melon, banana, strawberry, cucumber, vegies like lettuce, spinach and most tender greens.

Lightly cooked, perhaps blanched for just a minute, or sliced thin and microwaved with a little water: Most tender things like Zucchini (Courgette), broccoli stems (slice to expose the tender inside), and somewhat firmer greens like Kale, garden peas, most green beans (split lengthwise to expose the tender inside), and freshly harvested lima beans. Most frozen vegies are in the group, too, no matter what they are: Defrost, perhaps just by running a little hot water over them, or just put them in the tank frozen. They defrost fast enough.

Better cooked or baked: Pumpkin, Marrow, Winter Squash, Yam, Sweet Potato, and other hard vegetables. These can be boiled, but I find they fall apart faster in the tank. Bake or microwave seems to keep them whole longer.

That's pretty cool.

I'll experiment a but and see what they like best.

Thank you.

I would also suggest if you have one Dario and One garra to get at least a trio if not more. Both of these fish enjoy company.

I have 1 dario, 1 almorhae, and 1 garra. I would like to get more dario and garra's but they're hard to find down here in SA. I will get more almorhae some time as I know loaches are social fish.

I know just how you feel. I had a single Sid for 2 years. I finally found friends today. Cool fish are hard to find. Are you in South Africa? I ask because one of the regular member here is in SA and he may have some suggestions on where to find fish, if you live near one another.

Yes I'm from South Africa. I know where I can find more of them but it will cost me a lot. It has to be shipped +- 1500km.

Who is the member from SA? Azurekoi?

Andrea is one of our members in SA. I'll see if he can pop into loaches.

I have the same option. I can ship fish in. It is too expensive, and I worry about the fish in transit.

You mean Andre? I found him in the members list ans there's another member, Trevor Pleco, which is here in Cape Town which I have seen on other local forums. Seems like Andre is quite a specialist and I might be in touch with him.