How and what to feed the scalar?
Due to an improperly selected diet, even such unassuming fish as scalars can get sick and lose their wonderful appearance. It is important that the food is varied, and then you will not have to worry about the health of your pets.
What food does the scalar prefer?
Fish willingly eat any live food, they are especially useful during the period when scalars are spawning. However, this type of feeding has three significant disadvantages:
- it is not always on sale;
- may be spoiled;
- often causes infectious infections.
The microorganisms that fish like to feast on include:
- larvae amphibians and mosquitoes;
- copepods and small planktonic crustaceans;
- corsets - larvae of non-blood-sucking mosquitoes;
- pipe makers - small-bristle filamentous worms;
- mormys - freshwater amphipod crustaceans belonging to the family of arthropods.
But these "dishes" of scalar cannot be served in their natural form - the food is first frozen or bought already frozen, with the exception of the tubifex, since after freezing the bodies of crustaceans turn into a continuous mess. It is also dangerous to feed fish with self-caught bloodworms, since there is always a risk of infection.
You can purchase in specialized stores for mormysh fishermen and freeze yourself. First, the crustaceans are heat treated in the microwave (for 2 minutes), after they turn red, they are placed in the freezer. Before giving food to fish, it must be thawed and kept at room temperature for some time (food cannot be given cold).
Mormysh is more suitable for large specimens, but it is better not to feed your pets with a dried product (like daphnia). This is the opinion of experienced aquarists, who believe that there is nothing useful in them for ornamental fish.
Other types of food
At home, it is customary to feed the scalar with dry plant food, as well as homemade minced meat. This is necessary for the health of adults and for the rapid growth of young fish.
No less than living, scalars love dry food (dried daphnia, brine shrimp, gammarus). They come in the form of flakes and granules, but in the experience of breeders, the fish prefers flakes. In addition, this food does not clog the water in the aquarium. The main advantage of the dried product is balanced composition containing minerals and vitamins necessary for the body of an aquatic animal. You need to give portions dosed, so that they are completely eaten.
It is important to periodically feed the scalar with plant foods that support their immunity and are necessary for normal digestion. To do this, once a week, the fish are given fresh greens of such aquarium plants as:
- liver moss (riccia);
- rootless algae wolfia from the duckweed subfamily;
- flowering aquatic plant - duckweed.
Some aquarists give their wards scalded white cabbage leaves, lettuce. If the scalar refuses the proposed options, the way out will be a special food for herbivorous inhabitants of aquariums, produced in granules.
There are some tricks for feeding scalars: first, they are given less tasty food, for example, plants, and only then frozen live food, which is a delicacy for them. If you do the opposite, after daphnia or koretra, the pet is unlikely to eat grass or moss. Plants supplement the diet once every 7 days.
Meat dressing
Along with dry and frozen food, it is useful to diversify the fish menu with beef heart shavings. To do this, you need to cut off the fat from it, wash it thoroughly and cut it into small pieces. They are taken out of the refrigerator, rubbed on a fine grater, rinsed in a strainer to get rid of blood and small particles that the scalar does not eat, pouncing on large pieces. Food is served warm.
Minced meat is also a nutritious organic feed, which, in addition to the beef heart, includes several other components useful for fish:
- dry pharmacy nettle;
- cabbage leaves;
- Bell pepper;
- seafood (squid, mussel, octopus and shrimp).
For 100 g of meat, the same amount of additional components is taken in equal parts, all products are crushed in a meat grinder or blender, mixed well, 1 raw egg is added to the mixture. Then a pancake is formed, which is baked in the microwave for 1-2 minutes. After cooling down, it must be placed in the freezer.
The indicator of normal freezing is food crumbling into small pieces. This is important, because large pieces of scalar can choke, or even not eat them at all.
By the way, these ingredients can be replaced with others: meat and seafood - with the fillet of sea fish, pepper and cabbage - with zucchini, grains of canned corn or green peas.
With regard to food scalar can be extremely picky - what she did not like, she can spit it out. It is especially difficult to accustom her to new dishes. Experienced aquarists recommend trying again and offering food unfamiliar to fish. - after starving for several days, she will still begin to eat the proposed products.
How to feed properly?
The feeding regimen is important so that the scalars do not feel hungry and at the same time do not overeat. This is due to the fact that a large amount of food is detrimental to the overly small stomach of the fish. Overfeeding leads to a variety of digestive disorders and may even result in the death of the "wards".If the fish is constantly malnourished, then a dystrophic process may begin, so it is important to dose the food. As for the feeding schedule, it should be as follows:
- to feed the fry, you need to give them food 3 times a day, at about 3 months young fish are transferred to two meals a day;
- in the future, adults eat 2 or 1 times a day, it all depends on their size and appetite, but it is important that they eat the food in 2-3 minutes;
- dry and live food must be alternated with herbal supplements, the main thing is that the wards do not overeat, for this they should arrange a fasting day once a week, that is, do not feed at all.
With regard to feeding the babies that have appeared, it is necessary to start with ciliates and boiled yolk - this is the best food for them, from which they quickly develop and grow. The boiled product is kept in the freezer when it is time to eat, they take it out, break off a piece and brush it over it with a brush, which is rinsed in a jar of water.
Then they wait until the yolk particles settle, drain the water and pour in fresh water, as a result, it should get rid of the turbidity and become clean. Then the remaining particles and a small amount of water are poured onto the compressor bubbles, and the fry eat them until they settle to the bottom.
Since the yolk can pollute the water, caring for the fry consists in the constant purification of the water, by the way, ampullia - snails, which perfectly clean the bottom, will be able to help with this. In addition to "live dust" and eggs, you can buy special dry mixes for juveniles, and a week later the fry are transferred to gill-footed crustaceans - brine shrimp.
High-quality nutrition is an important aspect of the maintenance of scalars, allowing you to maintain the health of the fish and increase their life up to 10 years.
Next, watch a video with tips for feeding scalar live food.
Somehow reluctantly they eat this mixture. I feed mine in the morning with ice cream bloodworms and cereals in the evening. And they feel great. Bloodworms are especially fond of very much.