Feeding silver hatchet fish

Food, feeding and diet.
LadyDay
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Hi guys. 
I've been feeding my fish a mixture of foods, part of it being flake food for my silver hatchet fish. However I can read that flake food isn't necessarily good for them, that it can make them bloated. I also don't like that parts of the flakes break up into tiny particles, that seem to go uneaten and just settle around the tank, impossible to see. I would like to feed them crisps instead (Tetra Pro Colour), since they don't turn into dust, but the hatchet fish have such small mouths, they can't fit in a whole crisp. Any idea if they are able to bite off pieces? I actually already feed the crisps next to the flakes, for the other fish, but can't tell if the hatchet fish get anything down so that I can cut out the flakes. I am thinking about soaking the food before feeding, but that would cause it to sink and the hatchet fish only eat from the surface. The rest of the food I feed (granulated food, frozen food and a big algae wafer for my ancistrus) all sink, so the hatchet fish won't eat it.
What do you feed your hatchet fish if not flake food?
Thanks
LadyDay
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Hmmm. I guess the obvious solution is to crush some of the crisps. Maybe that won't get too "dusty".
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The last time I had Hatchets, 'Marbled' variety,  they were in a tank with linear flow - i.e. a current that flowed uninterrupted (at least at hatchet level!) across the length of the tank. The idea was to simulate, as far as possible, a river. Their behaviour was quite different from when I'd kept them previously in a tank with a turbulent current, as is common from a conventional filter.  They formed up into a roughly triangular pattern and stayed like that unless there was reason to break the formation ; occasionally the 'lead' fish would drop to the back and his/her place was taken by another. The triangle pointed into the direction of flow.

The formation was really only broken by food : every fish for himself, then! They did take small bits of flake so long as it remained floating on the surface but without too much enthusiasm. Their chief diet was live food.  Whiteworms and Daphnia were chased until they sank too far down the water column ; but their absolute favourite were fruit flies, with springtails coming a very close second. Both of these float, of course, and caused feeding mayhem.

I did culture (wingless!) fruit flies for a while but over time it became too much of a faff for me.  If you have a reptile-type shop near you, they will probably have tubs of fruit flies for sale that you could try.

Springtails are very easy to culture. I have two tubs of them and can provide further details if you like.

[Edit : I forgot to mention microworms. I don't recall whether I tried these with Hatchets or not. Might be worth a go, though. They're dead easy to culture as well - futher details on request!]
LadyDay
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Vale! wrote: The last time I had Hatchets, 'Marbled' variety,  they were in a tank with linear flow - i.e. a current that flowed uninterrupted (at least at hatchet level!) across the length of the tank. The idea was to simulate, as far as possible, a river. Their behaviour was quite different from when I'd kept them previously in a tank with a turbulent current, as is common from a conventional filter.  They formed up into a roughly triangular pattern and stayed like that unless there was reason to break the formation ; occasionally the 'lead' fish would drop to the back and his/her place was taken by another. The triangle pointed into the direction of flow.

The formation was really only broken by food : every fish for himself, then! They did take small bits of flake so long as it remained floating on the surface but without too much enthusiasm. Their chief diet was live food.  Whiteworms and Daphnia were chased until they sank too far down the water column ; but their absolute favourite were fruit flies, with springtails coming a very close second. Both of these float, of course, and caused feeding mayhem.

I did culture (wingless!) fruit flies for a while but over time it became too much of a faff for me.  If you have a reptile-type shop near you, they will probably have tubs of fruit flies for sale that you could try.

Springtails are very easy to culture. I have two tubs of them and can provide further details if you like.

[Edit : I forgot to mention microworms. I don't recall whether I tried these with Hatchets or not. Might be worth a go, though. They're dead easy to culture as well - futher details on request!]
My flow is reasonably, but not entirely, linear. The hatches tend to line up in the direction against the "main current" (a circulation pump/power head - what's the difference between those two?), though they aren't in a triangular formation. 
My hatchet fish do eagerly go for the flake food, but I like the idea of giving them something better!
I do get the yucks (I just invented that term) by the idea of culturing live bugs, but I still think I can do it, as long as I don't end up with them spread over the entire apartment! I'd love to hear about how you do it (except fruitfly faff). I unfortunately don't have a reptile shop near here. Shame since it would also make it easier to get frozen rats for my snakes. 
I wonder if I can get live springtails or microworms sent from the UK if I can't find them in Denmark. To start the colony. I imagine they'd probably be irradiated to death at the airport or refused entry out of fear of spreading disease. Anyway, surely Danes culture insects for fish too. 
Thanks for excellent advice as always.
Last edited by LadyDay on Fri Aug 23, 2019 10:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
LadyDay
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On investigation, springtails are easy to find here. Should I worry about them jumping out and infesting my home?
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I don't know of any significant difference between 'circulation pump' and 'powerhead'.

Fruit flies are easy gettable via mail order in the UK, I'm fairly sure, either as 'one-off' purchases or as weekly standing orders ; I imagine it must be similar in Denmark? Frog-keeping forums might be helpful in identifying potential sources if it appears difficult, maybe.

No - my Springtails tend to run away and hide under something when I open their container, rather than leap around!

I will come back with photos and info at lunchtime in the cricket.
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I love that term, ‘the yucks’, brilliant. Brine shrimp is my limit, I can suck them up in a pipette, couldn’t do that with the worms
LadyDay
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Vale! wrote:
I don't know of any significant difference between 'circulation pump' and 'powerhead'.

Fruit flies are easy gettable via mail order in the UK, I'm fairly sure, either as 'one-off' purchases or as weekly standing orders ; I imagine it must be similar in Denmark? Frog-keeping forums might be helpful in identifying potential sources if it appears difficult, maybe.

No - my Springtails tend to run away and hide under something when I open their container, rather than leap around!

I will come back with photos and info at lunchtime in the cricket.
Ah, he plays cricket, the only sport that involves breaks for tea.  :D
Ah, I found fruit flies that can't fly. That might be the critter I'm most comfortable with. I am scared of springtail infestation! I do shudder at the maggot stage. We actually grew fruit flies in school when I was a teen, for a biology class on genetics. I still have a vivid memory of the squirming maggots!
Do springtails start out life as maggots?
Brine shrimps would be less repulsive, but it seems like they're more involved in making. And I imagine they don't float. I have them frozen at home, along with white and red mosquito larvae. 
Jen1981 wrote:
I love that term, ‘the yucks’, brilliant. Brine shrimp is my limit, I can suck them up in a pipette, couldn’t do that with the worms

Excellent, I've started a new expression!  :D  
I'm debating with myself if I'm able to sleep at night, without nightmares, knowing I have a box of maggots in my home!
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Do the hatchets not go for the frozen? Mine used to. Daphnia and anything smaller (cyclops etc) were taken. I also got some slow-sinking granules, but I can't remember what make they were........maybe Hikari? I used to use their products a lot when I last had a betta.
If at first you don't succeed....
...get someone else to do it! :D

Enjoy your fish, shrimps and snails!
Ian
LadyDay
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plankton wrote: Do the hatchets not go for the frozen? Mine used to. Daphnia and anything smaller (cyclops etc) were taken. I also got some slow-sinking granules, but I can't remember what make they were........maybe Hikari? I used to use their products a lot when I last had a betta.
I've actually only tried brine shrimp  :blush:  I'll try something smaller, then they might also experience less competition from the bigger fish. I'll give it a go today. It would be lovely not to have maggots around! Should I worry about these tiny things disappearing from the fish, into the sand and such, and therefor creating extra waste?
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