How Much How Often?

[Laanan]

Hi there,

I am new to loach ownership. My daughter picked out two golden weather loaches for her 5th birthday. She loves their little personalities.

Feeding has been kind of a challenge for us, though. The guy at the aquarium shop suggested that we feed them 1/2 cube of bloodworms, 2 times a day. This turned out to be waaaay too much, causing the water to foul and an emergency water change. I have been hunting around the web for more specific feeding instructions for weather loaches and have come up dry. Most documents will say, feed them enough so that they finish what you feed them, but I am worried now that I may be feeding too little. I cut down to 1/2 cube 1 time per day. The loaches finish it all, and act a bit ravenous. I do have an algae wafer in there for the little sucker fish to nibble on, and I wonder if the loaches might nibble on it, too.

Basically, I am a total newbie at fish ownership, and I really want to do right by these little guys. Please, any advice would be great. Some simple parameters would really help, such as X oz. of food per day is a safe bet, or something like that. Thanks!

[Fishwife]

I feed mine small amounts 3-4 times a day. A lil brine or mysid shrimp here then some cyclopeeze there and then blood worms after lights out. They have done great this way since they were tiny. They are not overweight at all but have grown at a healthy rate.