feeding the clean up crew

[newfishguy]

I turned my qt into a display tank and it has completed its cycle. This tank has 20 lbs of aragalive sand and 5 -7 lbs of lr. I have been reading the boards and it sounds like the clean up crew should go in the tank first. Well that is fine but what exactly are they going to eat? I don't have that much live rock in the tank. Do I need to supplement them with store bought food?

 

[angelsrock]

if your tank is fully cycled i would buy a fish first or both a clean up crew and a fish because if you feed stuff like flake or frozen foods then some of it will go to the bottom and the cleanup crew will eat that. or if you don't and you just get the cleanup crew i'd try sinking pellets like the pellets ocean nutrition makes

 

[newfishguy]

Thanks

Originally Posted by angelsrock
if your tank is fully cycled i would buy a fish first or both a clean up crew and a fish because if you feed stuff like flake or frozen foods then some of it will go to the bottom and the cleanup crew will eat that. or if you don't and you just get the cleanup crew i'd try sinking pellets like the pellets ocean nutrition makes

 

[newfishguy]

So, will the leftover food from a couple of clowns plus whatever algae is available be enough?
Originally Posted by angelsrock
if your tank is fully cycled i would buy a fish first or both a clean up crew and a fish because if you feed stuff like flake or frozen foods then some of it will go to the bottom and the cleanup crew will eat that. or if you don't and you just get the cleanup crew i'd try sinking pellets like the pellets ocean nutrition makes

 

[angelsrock]

it should be ok, make sure to over feed a little bit enough so there is some food for the inverts.

 

[pohtr]

so, how do you know how much to overfeed? I thought we were supposed to underfeed if anything.

 

[sinner's girl]

Just feed your inverts. It's no big deal. I've always fed mine and they stay happy. Of course I don't have any fish...but I'll still feed them when I get fish.
Shrimp for everyone, but the urchins, and seweed for urchins and cc star. I feed less when I have fish. But my fish never let any food fall to the bottom. and my inverts like shirmp (even the shrimps eat shrimp).
I buy raw salad shrimp. The serpent star gets about 1/3 of the shrimp, the brittle about 2/3 of 1/3 (he's still small) the other 1/3+ is divided among the cc star, cbs shrimp, arrow crab and other guys.

 

[pohtr]

Do you feed less when you have fish because the clean up crew eats the fish poop?

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by pohtr
Do you feed less when you have fish because the clean up crew eats the fish poop?
No, it's because you don't want to create more bio-load...Make your nitrate go wayyyy up! :happyfish

 

[sinner's girl]

Do you feed less when you have fish because the clean up crew eats the fish poop?
NO, I feed less when I have fish, because the clean up crew will eat what the fish don't. Though my clown never really left any food behind, sometimes the filter or ph will blow it away/down. I've never (knock on wood) had a problem with nitrates. But I only had two fish in a 55gl tank.

 

[angelsrock]

Originally Posted by pohtr
Do you feed less when you have fish because the clean up crew eats the fish poop?
most inverts don't eat poo. there are some that do though. if you are gonna get inverts you have to make sure they are getting food as well. maybe you should get inverts that eat algae if you're worried about nitrates.