Originally Posted by soulsigma
http:///forum/post/3067389
Feed Your Tropical Marine Aquarium Fishes!
Today I’d like to talk a little about a favorite topic of marine aquarists—feeding. As marine aquarists, our hobby requires more consistent care than some other hobbies. If we stop looking after our aquatic charges—even for a relatively short time—their health may well suffer. Toward that end, and despite what you may have heard previously, feeding should be a daily endeavor.
Most Saltwater Tanks Should be Fed Several Times a Day
I’m pretty sick of hearing people recommend that saltwater aquarists underfeed their tanks. I even heard a speaker at a trade show tell a large audience to feed “maybe twice a week—that’s all they really need.” While it is certainly true that some animals commonly kept do not need to be fed daily, it is also true that the vast majority of community FOWLR and reef tanks should be fed at least twice a day.
If it’s true that most tanks should be fed twice a day, why is it that so many people harp on not overfeeding instead of not underfeeding? The answer is simple: Filtration. And, more specifically, insufficient filtration. When you add food to your aquarium, that food, in one form or another, is going to stay in the aquarium until it is filtered out. It follows that if you feed more, you are going to increase the nutrients in your tank, which may lead to decreasing water quality and algae blooms—the bane of many aquarists’ existence.
Filter More Instead of Feeding Less
The solution to excessive nutrients, however, is not to feed less. Instead, the responsible aquarist truly concerned with appropriately caring for his or her animals will ramp us the system’s filtration to be able to handle the nutrients associated with suitable feeding. It’s simple—increasing feeding and increasing filtration is, more often than not, a good thing in the tropical marine aquarium.
Long Term Effects on Health and Behavior
Why is this? I mean you may know someone with a beautiful tank who claims he or she feeds every third day or even less. While it is possible for many marine fishes to go for periods of time without proper nutrition, the long term effect is cumulative and will result in stress and health issues.
On the reef, there is a near constant supply of food in the water column and fishes are nearly always feeding. In our closed systems, especially ones that are less than a year old, this is clearly not the case. While a certain amount of foraging occurs in the tank, the fishes are very dependent on when you—the aquarist—feeds the tank. Feeding infrequently is not natural, and it will affect everything from the health to the behavior of your animals.
An Approriate Feeding Schedule
In a future blog entry, we can talk a little more about what to feed, but, as a general rule of thumb, try to feed a varied diet appropriate to the animals you keep 3-5 times per day. Each feeding can be relatively small (the old trick of feeding as much as is consumed in 5 minutes is an okay metric if you are feeding 3 or more times per day). Be sure to target feed any animals that are not aggressive feeders (e.g., jawfishes) at least twice a day, and be sure to use high quality foods (or even fresh table seafood) that will not unnecessarily increase the nutrient levels in your system.
Feeding more frequently is in the best interest of your animals in terms of their health and behavior—do it! And if you need to increase your filtration capacity, do that too.
Hope this article helps you as much as it has me
Thank you very much. This is great. I think you are right feeding 2 times a day is not too much as long as they can finish the food within 5 minutes and lots of filtration.
I will continue to feed twice a day but since I have no skimmer I will do 10% WC every week.
Any recommend for phosphate remover?
