Oooops

[ineke]

My shrimp were fighting over food this morning with one shrimp -a Tibee of course- sitting on 3 pieces of food fending off all comers. There are some baby Rilis in the tank so thought perhaps I'm not feeding enough now after all my previous overfeeding. I had what I thought was a small amount of ground home made food for them and put it in but unfortunately there was way more than I thought and now there is too much powdered food in the tank. That will teach me to check properly in future. Anyway what is the best way to deal with this / I thought let the food settle and then suction it up off the substrate- not that I will be able to see it - but if I use some airline and just go over the top of the substrate without disturbing it that should work? Of course now there are babies that were born overnight so I need to go carefully. I thought if I did a couple of litres of water change over the next couple of days and keep an eye on the WP's that would be the safest- and may clean half the trickle filter?

[JohnH]

I'd keep an eye on the water parameters and do some water changes if needed. Trying to vac powdered food out of the substrate sounds like mission impossible.

[ineke]

That's what I thought , luckily with me not feeding so much the shrimp are scurrying around having a feast so it may not be as bad as I thought I will do a minor water change later today and do some tests tomorrow to see if I need to change more water.:)

[Garnelchen]

I think because it is a one off it will not cause any trouble. Just don't feed them again for the next one or two days and keep an eye on your WP.

I'm always unsure how much I should be feeding the shrimp. They always seem rather hungry and they will fight over food when I'm feeding bloodworm or fish food flakes. But when it's Kale tablets or even banana, they only seem semi-interested. :confused:

[Squiggle]

Hahaha, woops indeed Ineke. :dejection: I'm with Garny, you should be right with a one off but just leave it a day or two before feeding them again :victorious:

[ineke]

Thanks Guys I will try not to stress and just do a small water change tomorrow and check ammonia and nitrates. It's a well established tank so hopefully enough bacteria to cope. I was so proud of my self for getting the overfeeding under control and all my nitrates down to 5 or 0. :cower:

[Squiggle]

I wouldn't beat yourself up over it, everyone makes mistakes :encouragement: