how much to feed?

Question
I have a 4.5x1x1.3 ft tank with a shark, a blood parrot, two dollars and a gourami. except for the gourami which is just under 2 inches long, the other fish are big, palm sized. i've noticed that when i feed them the parrot, shark and the gourami are the first to come and eat. the dollars come much later and the shark keeps bullying them a bit. so i am not able to follow the 5 minute feed rule (as much as they can eat in 5 minutes). is this ok? because invariably i notice some pellets in some corners and i am sure they just sink without being eaten some time later. at least some of them do. what can i do?

also i have a smaller tank in which i have an angel (under 3 inches) and two small sharks (over 2 inches each). once when the temp dropped i used a manual heater and the temp rose to probably more than 27 C. a couple of days after that one shark behaved freakishly, zipping from one end to the other. then it started gasping and crowding into a corner. soon after it died. no visible spots on its body. (i have experience in successfully treating my angle for white spot.) about 2 weeks later the other shark was darting similarly though not as freakishly and by the time i got back home in the night, it had died. i am alone right now, my wife having gone to her mother's for the coming of the second baby. so there's no one to monitor these fish at home.

now the angel is the only fish in the smaller tank. should i get another angel for company or is it ok for it to be alone? if i do get another angel, should it be of similar size or is smaller ok?


regards,
sricharan

Answer
Dear Sricharan,
The 5 minute feeding rule cannot apply to every situation. Especially if there are a bit more timid fish around. I would try getting some sinking foods and feeding that in combination to the floating pellets. Or depending upon if the pellets are a large size (I would imagine they were) you can crush them by placing a few in the lid of the container and using the bottom of the fish food container on top of it and crunching it to half size or a bit smaller pieces. Then soak this food in an aquarium safe (no chemical or soap reside) cup until they are somewhat absorbed in water, then dump them in different areas of your aquarium and that should insure all your fish get their fair share. As long as everyone gets a few bites, they are good.

~I'm not sure why your Shark passed on like that. that's very sad. Maybe something spooked him and got some head injury from dashing madly around the tank? It's a mystery. Unless he might have felt some eletric current in the water it could have caused the dashing. But I have no experience in determining if the tank equiptment might have an electrical "leak" unlikely so however, your shark may have just gotten spooked badly by a loud vibration or noise. I have had fish get     ly head wounds from becoming spooked and dashing around the aquarium. Fortunately this does not happen very often. Sometimes fish may dart madly if the water quality is not good. Most often by high pollutants.
-But overall. "Spook" prone fish can really injure themselves if something frightens them badly. Spook prone fish also include very large fish like Tinfoil barbs and the massive Pacus which have been reported to crash through the aquarium glass if spooked badly enough! :(
Sometimes it's just a "freak" thing that happens rarely. I hope you never get this problem again.

About your Angelfish. Most likely your single Angelfish will be just fine alone. But they do like being in small groups. I have had just as happy Angelfish living alone in an aquarium with other peaceful fish as those who were living in a large group--and they would often fight then! But if you do decide to add more Angels, it would probably be best to get 2 or more and be sure to get similiar sized or larger ones to your established angel also. That way, if the established angel wants to work out a pecking order in the new arrivals, he/she cannot concentrate on just one Angel which would probably result in that new angel being completely miserable. But when there are two or more, the pecking order aggression that may occur is more evenly spread out.

Well, I really hope this helps! My very best wishes to you!

Best of luck with the new Baby also!!!
Happy fishkeeping!
Karen~