How often do you feed your fish?

cgrant

cgrant

Active Member
Hi, I am a newbi on the board and had a couple of questions.
The lfs in my area is a saltwater specialty store, they only have saltwater related fish, etc.
He seems to know what he's talking about but from what I am reading on this board I am starting to wonder.
I setup my 55 gallon about 10 weeks ago and I started out with 4 damsels to cycle the tank, tank cycled and everything seemed fine.
- about 7 weeks I then added a puffer, yellow tang, and a hippo tang, owner - lfs said it would be fine, one week after that he said I could add a coral beauty and a trigger, all seems to be going well but nitrates are at about 20ppm.
I am thinking with the new bio-load this is probably normal, was wondering how often you guy's feed your fish, owner - lfs says to feed them as often as i like, he says a fat fish is a hapy fish, I was feeding then flake like 2-3 times a day then brine shrimp for dinner.
but thinking about spot feeding them every other day to try and cut down some of the nitrates, I am also going to do about a 40% water change this weekend.
just wondering if anyone has any suggestions?
55g tank
sump w/bioballs
protein skimmer
mix of 50/50 sand argonite and CC
Thanks!
Chris :happyfish
 
fedukeford

fedukeford

Active Member
first of all get all those fish out of there, every single fish in there (except the damsels) shouldnt be in a 55 gallon tank, you should only feed once a day or once everyother day, i feed frozen everyother day, and on days i dont feed frozen i feed nori and flake food
 
jhebi

jhebi

Member
Hi, welcome......Well I feed my fishes 3 or 4 times a day, from varities of flakes, pellets, home made food, and others......
IMO you are wayyyyy overstock on your fishes.....The hippo will outgrow your tank, the yellow should be ok, but soon will also outgrow it depends on the size you have it now
I believe that you should change your LFS and stop buying anymore fish, that's one of the reason your nitrates are high....
 
cgrant

cgrant

Active Member
I prob should have mentioned, All my fish are about 3" long, Nothing really big.
I have my 210 on order, so I would like to try and stick it out for about a month if possible?
Not sure if thats going to make a difference or not?
so my plans are to put the 4 damsels in the 210 to cycle.
keep puffer, hippo, yellow, coral beauty, and trigger (all about 3" long) in the 55 till 210 is cycled, then take the damsels out of the 210 and put puffer, hippo, yellow, coral beauty, and trigger in 210.
How's that sound?
Chris
 
T

thomas712

Guest
Welcome to the SWF board

I have a 90 gallon tank with only 4 fish, lots of live rock and several corals. I prefer to have a lightly stocked tank, it helps to control what happens. I only feed 2 times per day. I use flake food, frozen foods, and sushi nori sea weed sheets, then I have things that I also feed the tank with for the corals.
I know you only asked about feeding, but I see several things about your tank that I might offer some suggestions on.
1. Your moving way to fast.
2. Your over stocked for that size tank and those sizes of fish.
3. your mixing aggressive with community fish
4. Your mixing crushed coarl with live sand, which in my opinion is a very bad combination that should be corrected very soon.
5. your trusting your LFS who seems to be saying "yeah that will be fine" ...Just remember like any post that we answer your LFS is only giving you an opinion. We make no money off of offering our opinion and giving you the benifit of our wisdom and mistakes. The LFS is for sales and his opinion usually revolves around money.
6. Your cycling method also needs to be examined.
Now this is your tank and as such you will be the expert on your tank, and you can build any kind of tank and community that you want, but from your stocking list I'm not sure that it seems as though you had a plan in mind. By that, what type of tank did you want. A fish only, fish only with live rock, or did you plan to someday go with a reef tank?
A 55 gallon is a great size to start out with, that was my 2nd tank size and I learned tons by having it. You will soon learn what you can keep as most tanks have their limits, and I think perhaps you have exeeded your limit with this tank.
I don't have time to go through all the points right now.
We don't mean to jump you and smack you and your tank down and I hope it doesn't seem like we are attacking you, but we would love to save you some of the misery that we have experienced with years of keeping fish and corals.
I think it's great that you are now researching, that is very key to your knowledge and success of your tank. We here will help all we can, because we love this hobby, and love to share and help.
Let us know how we can help you.
Regards
Thomas
 
cgrant

cgrant

Active Member
Ok, I get it.
I have my 210 on order, ordered it today

what fish should I keep?
Should i put certain fish in the 55 and others in the 210?
If you guys were in my shoes what would you do?
I appreciate the help!
Thanks!
 
saltfan

saltfan

Active Member
Originally Posted by CGRANT
Ok, I get it.
I have my 210 on order, ordered it today

what fish should I keep?
Should i put certain fish in the 55 and others in the 210?
If you guys were in my shoes what would you do?
I appreciate the help!
Thanks!
use your 55gallon as a sump. In the 210, you can keep the fish you have listed. You can also keep the damsels if you wish, but everyone on here would advise you not to, because of their disposition, but its all up to you in the scheme of things. The puffer won't bother the Tangs. Oh, and I feed my Tangs 3 times a day.
 
majakarot

majakarot

Member
This probably isn't highly regarded around here, but I put my damsels in my sump and set it up as a second tank until I could find someone to take them off my hands... just a thought.
 
phixer

phixer

Active Member
I have placed my fish on the Atkins diet and required them to perform 8 count bodybuilders. Just joking I feed them 2 times a day.
 
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