# How To Create Competition For Food With Single Serra's



## Blackdude (Feb 28, 2003)

In the wild Serra cohabit with other serra and other fish, so the competition for food changes the way the eat and they never know when they will eat again. So they eat how much they can, when they can. 
In the wild, serra will not only fight for food, they will fight with other serra for territories, but who care if they get bite or lose an eye... The probleme is in home aquarium, we want to prevent stress(there's no escape), fitting, bitting and death. So serra will have a better life without tankmate.

So how can we reproduce the natural feeding and create some competition in a home aquarium.
*Like every human, I perform better in competition









I always try to do competition with my rhom, he's some of my tips: 
1- I always feed small portion, ex: 1 shrimp at the time, if he eat, he get anoter one.
2- I take out food the moment it touch the bottom of the tank and stop feeding for 10 minutes, and give 1 more try and if it sink to the bottom again, I stop feeding.
3- I feed him on a unregular schedule, twice a day to 2 weeks without feeding. So he will never know, if it will be the last time he will eat.
4- I play with the food around the tank before I put it in, and sometime I'm not even feeding him
5- I put food in my big water cleaning siphon and play with him, so he will work for is food (the problem is when i'm cleaning the tank, his looking for food...)

+ when competition is on, it's easier to introduce new food.
But I still got probleme to introduce vegetables...

At first, I realy wanted to handfeed him, so for the 2 first year, I always handfeeding him... but that way, he only eat when he really need to, so it's not good for growing fast, but it's pretty fun  So now I'm doing it only for the first piece.

I grow my rhom from 6inch to almost 11inch

If you guys have other tips for competitive feeding, they are welcome


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## locust (Aug 2, 2005)

To really know if the above is worthwhile surely you have to feed normally ( on a regular basis or whatever) and gauge whether he eats more or less?


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## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

Feeding on an irregular basis is something I have been preaching for years. The other stuff might work....but I think the key is simply that they never know when the next meal is coming...so they eat everything I give them. I do this with all my tank including the multiple Serrasalmus tanks. They go anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks without food.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

Blackdude said:


> I
> 1- I always feed small portion, ex: 1 shrimp at the time, if he eat, he get anoter one.


 This is one of the main points i try to make when feeding. if one p is not gettign food IMO it is best to feed in numerous portions as the agressive p's cannot be in multiple places at once so if you quickly drop food on either side of the tank its alot easier for all p's to eat. I think the main thing with multipel portions is to make sure there isnt more waste being produced as smaller pieces often break apart easier if they arnt eaten in a single bit. If you reverse this, but feeding only a single portion you make all the p's go for the same limited piece. can make for an iteresting feeding but it doesnt increase the chance of things like bit lips.

I also try to feed when i feel like it and don't do any actual schedule. I generally just go by how busy i am so they could eat two days in a row then not eat for a week and be perfectly fine.


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