What and how best to feed Antsistrus?

Life in the aquarium is divided into different levels. There are creatures living near the surface, in the upper layer of water. Most decorative fish prefer to occupy the middle floor, occasionally rising to the surface or going down to the lower layers. Well, of course, there are inhabitants of the lowest, bottom level. Among the inhabitants of the aquarium bottom stands out a bright spot a small beautiful fish Antsistrus - fish-cleaner, conscientious orderly of the underwater world.

Blue Catfish Antsistruses - very unpretentious omnivorous fish, which experienced aquarists are happy to contain, and beginners can easily cope with their content.

Possessing a flattened teardrop-shaped body, covered with bone plates, and a round suction mouth, the catfish crawls along the bottom, decorations, glass and leaves of underwater plants, cleaning it from settling debris and algae. But even though the ancistruses eat everything that can be eaten, the aquarist needs to take care about the proper nutrition of the catfish, so that the fish can live a long, full life.

Therefore, knowledgeable people who care about the health of all residents of a pond, It is advised to feed chain catfish using feed containing the necessary substances.

The priority in the catfish menu is given to plant foods. The basis of the diet is algae, followed by carrots, zucchini, lettuce and spinach leaves. I really like the fish cucumber. Can give scalded greens of dandelions, pieces of pumpkin, cabbage leaves, green peas and even small strips of bell pepper.

As a source of cellulose, you can use driftwood from hardwood bought in a pet store or found in a forest. It is good if you find a suitable snag at the bottom of the reservoir. It will already be saturated with water and will not emerge after diving to the bottom of the aquarium. The selected piece of wood must be prepared for use, boiling in slightly salted water.

Eat Antsistruses and live food, preferring to the tubule, artemia and bloodworm. But this should not be a significant part of the diet, as catfish can overeat and die.

If you do not have the opportunity to cook your own food for fish, then you can use prepared foods designed specifically for catfish. Feed is available in the form of tablets, flakes or granules, which quickly sink to the bottom. These feeds already contain all the necessary vitamins and minerals, saving you the time needed for feeding. According to the owners, it’s better to use ready-made feed from companies such as catfish Tetra and Sera.

It is not difficult to feed ancistrus, but it is important to follow some feeding rules.

• All food for catfish should be at the bottom, as this is a bottom fish.
• Before feeding, pieces of plants should be scalded with boiling water to destroy microbes and soften the upper hard crust.
• So that the pieces of plants do not float, they are pricked on a fork or attached to some weights. The uneaten residues are removed.
• Although at home catfish is an omnivorous fish, this does not mean that it will eat up rotting food leftovers from other fish, as well as their metabolic products.
• It is worthwhile to closely monitor the behavior of “sticking”, if the fish begins to eat live leaves of aquatic plants, it means that it lacks food and it is starving.
• Antsistrus easily scrapes green soft algae from the walls of the aquarium, but the catfish can’t cope with the “black beard” or Vietnamese, as it is very stiff and does not lend itself to its teeth. Not every metal tip can cope with this algae.
• The ratio of plant and animal food should be 4 to 1, that is, 80% are plants and 20% is everything else.
• Do not overfeed the fish, filling in excessive amounts of food, as pieces not eaten in time will begin to deteriorate and pollute the environment. Substances released by rotting residues lead to poisoning and death of animals.
• From a large amount of protein food, the catfish may experience indigestion, especially if you run a large amount of bloodworms into the aquarium. Somik with pleasure hunts for this living creature, sucking it from shelters. Therefore, it is better to give protein food in frozen form.
• And also fish feel great when mixed feeding, when the finished feed is diluted with natural additives. The main thing is that the food should be full and varied, then the ancistruses will not only live long, but also reproduce as much as possible.

If you comply with all the conditions for keeping and feeding adult fish, then over time you may have a question about how and how to feed the fry of these cute and healthy fish.

The health of future offspring must be taken care of in advance. Therefore, experienced aquarists advise fish preparing for spawning, planted in a separate aquarium and increase the proportion of protein feed to half the diet. It is better to give food in a frozen state. From vegetable feed suitable slices of cucumber, zucchini, pumpkin, asparagus and bell pepper.

The female is kept in spawning only until the eggs are laid.In the future, it is returned to the general aquarium, and the male, having fertilized the swept eggs, continues to look after the nest, not letting anyone into its territory. Even an attempt to remove uneaten pieces of food causes him great excitement.

The ripening of eggs lasts about a week. All this time the male does not move away from the nest. After hatching the larvae, the father looks after them for another two days, until the little ones begin to feed on their own. After this, the father is returned to the general aquarium, and the fry are given special feeds.

When the little Antsistruses grow up, they begin to offer them small pieces of vegetables, chopped on a fork. You can give lettuce scalded with boiling water 2 times a week.

The older the kids, the greater the capacity required for life.therefore, a week after hatching the fry, you need to move to a more spacious aquarium, at the bottom of which you need to place mangrove driftwood or a piece of vine.

As a daily feed, you can use tablets of finished feed. They feed babies in small portions, but often.

Using these simple tricks, you can grow healthy and beautiful fish, the diet of which will change slightly.

Adult individuals living in a common aquarium feed on algae formed on the glass and decorations, laboriously scraping them. But not only this is included in their diet. Can ancistruses pick up pieces of food thrown to the bottom thrown to other fish.

To prevent this from happening, it is important to follow the norms of feeding, not allowing the fish to overeat.

Well-fed fish do not reduce their activity, continuing to actively clean the aquarium, so you should not keep them in a hungry body. Let your fish eat well and varied, then you can admire these beautiful interesting creatures for a long time.

A video about Antcistrus can be seen below.