Danios Not Eating  1/7/08 Hello WWM, <Hello Jean,> My Danios are not eating; they keep spitting their food out. I tried feeding them frozen blood worms, crushed dried blood worms, crushed flakes and etc. They were recently treated for Ick. They are not showing any signs of Ick anymore, except they are not eating and they are staying at the bottom of the tank. <Hmm... Danios that don't want to eat ANYTHING are usually Danios with a problem. Since you've tried a variety of dried foods, I'd highly recommend springing for some live daphnia or brine shrimps. They SHOULD eat these right away. Use only a small amount at a time, since if you add too many they'll end up in the filter. If they won't even eat the live food, then there may be a serious problem.> I removed them and put them back into the hospital tank with extra aquarium salt. <Whoa... Danios DO NOT need salt, and in fact will do much better without it. Adding "tonic salt" to aquaria is very Old School and essentially obsolete in modern fishkeeping. So you can start by phasing out salt through a series of water changes.> Here are my readings in the hospital tank: Temperature - 79, pH - 7.2, Ammonia - 0. <Mostly fine, but a bit warm for Danios. Danios are SUBTROPICAL fish and prefer cool water relative to most other tropicals. Aim for around 20-22C/68-72F, no higher. Do be warned that other tropical fish might not appreciate this. That's why you want to choose only subtropical/cool-water fish for a Danio aquarium -- peppered and bronze Corydoras, loaches, Golden Barbs, White Cloud Mountain minnows, Neons, and so on. Your tank may be too warm for your Danios, and their lack of appetite and odd behaviour is simply because they are heat-stressed and not getting enough oxygen.> Please give advice. Thanks for your help - Jean <Hope this helps, Neale.>

Tiger Barbs, Fading, Feeding - 12/13/2005 Hey guys, I was searching the FAQ'S for a while and saw nothing on tiger barbs fading.  Do tiger barbs fade with age?   <Some yes.  Many/most fish do.> And is there a way to keep their colors bright without fading? <You can prevent or reduce the normal fading that comes with age by feeding good, high quality foods like frozen/thawed human consumption aquatic meats (shrimp, scallops, etc.), fresh, blanched human consumption green veggies (cucumber, zucchini, etc.), and high quality prepared foods like Spectrum, Ocean Nutrition, and Omega One dry and frozen foods.> Thanks,  -Jay <Wishing you well,  -Sabrina>

Feeding micro rasboras 8/29/05 Hello. I've had the hardest time finding any information on my two most recent fish species. About four days ago, I purchased a small school of Rasbora urophthalmoides and Rasbora axelrodi (blue form). <Gorgeous, peaceful fishes> I have 5 of each species right now (alright, not much of a school, but it's all they had left). They're in a 6 gallon Marineland Eclipse tank with dark river sand, Malaysian driftwood, plenty of java moss, and a couple banana plants to provide some surface cover. They are kept with a small Otocinclus catfish and 'stingray' pleco to help clean up. And I simply cannot get them to eat much of anything. I have tried Hikari micro pellets (loved by my killifish), finely ground Tetra Pro Crisps, Sweetwater freshwater zooplankton, live Tubifex worms, <Too big...> and live brine shrimp. I might get a few to take a couple nibbles at one thing or another, but nothing to even come close to assuring me they're getting enough to eat. Any ideas? <Yes... smaller, meaty foods... Try Cyclop-eeze, some of the many Gamma foods choices (even though marine in origin)... and blend in some high-quality finely ground (with your fingers) dried, flake food> The temperature hangs around the upper 70's, the water is somewhat acidic (about 6.2-6.4) and very soft. I have also added small amounts of coir to the water to slightly stain it with tannins. I scrapped the filter cartridge and instead use half a bag of Cleanwater (made by Penn Plax, I think?) and a pillow of water softener by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate are all good. Any other suggestions to get them to eat? Thank you very much, Anthony <Perhaps raise the temperature a bit... to the low 80's F. Bob Fenner>

Danios Hogging all the Food!!!!!!! Hello Gents, I have a quick question. I have a 20 gallon freshwater setup with Danios (I'm cycling) and Tiger Barbs. The problem is that when I feed my fish, the darn Danios eat up all the food before the Tiger Barbs can get any. Do you think I should pull the tiger barb and put him in a separate bowl for feeding and then put him back? Any help would be greatly appreciated. K-Fletch <I would try just feeding them a bit more and then hopefully the Barb will get to eat too. Catching him to separate him just for feeding is probably going to cause him too much stress and then he won't eat anyway. Ronni>