how often do I feed?

[scary]

I am new to all of this and I have a basic question.
How often do I feed my 2 damsels?
I have a 29 gallon hex tank with 40 pounds of LR and 2 inches of LS
I also have 3 turbo snails and 5 teeny tiny snails.
The tank has been established for 3 weeks , so I am still cycling.
I have been feeding them frozen brine shrimp. But how much and how often should I be doing this. They always seem so hungry!
Thank you!

 

[leona]

First off you shouldn't have any inverts if your still cycling. Your turbo's might not make it.
Fish are always hungry. I would think for two damsels 1/4 a cube (little less) if your using the bigger cubes. 2x a day would be fine. What are your levels at?
Leona

 

[scary]

I'm on way to get my water tested at the lfs.
I'm glad you said 2 times a day 1/4 cube - thats what I've been doing.
It's so hard to find a straight answer at my lfs - the kid told me turbos and snails were needed now to clean the live rock and sand. I'm so grateful for this site - it really has great info on it. Hopefully my water will test out ok today- I started with ocean water from a box , so maybe that helped the level be a little steadier than if I made it from tap and instant ocean.
I'll keep a close eye on the snails. So far so good - but it's only been a few days.
Thanks for the advise

 

[ophiura]

I would disagree with this for a number of reasons -
But first will enquire after your water parameters - not only now but has your ammonia spiked?
Brine is a very poor (and expensive) staple food. I do not recommend that it be used as a primary diet. It doesn't have much nutritional value.
You already have a lot of LR that the damsels will, and should, graze on. This should be taken into account as a source of food.
Though it is not a precise estimate, the stomach of a fish is roughly the size of its eye...so they would need very few shrimp to fill them up - though they will keep trying to eat it...but it is still wasted.
So I would suggest some more diversity - including flake, pellets, or other types of frozen formulations. But with LR I would stick to one time a day, at most what is eaten in a minute. As the tank matures you may even go with less....I had a damsel for 8 years or so that I maybe fed a few times a week - and mostly to feed the brittlestars I had, but he still had a gut. Lots of bugs and algae to chow down on with LR if things are going well.
But this also depends on the stage of the cycle as well.