scubachris
Member
How often should I be feeding my fish? Now I feed them some flake in the am and some frozen brine shrimp in the pm. To much?
How often do you feed?
- Thread starter scubachris
- Start date
m0nk
Active Member
I feed once every day but mix up what I feed, though I'd recommend against feeding flake or brine. Neither of these have the nutritional makeup for most fish. Try a high quality frozen food, or even pellets if you'd prefer. Many hobbyists make their own, as do I, but I don't use that every day either.
scubachris
Member
Ok now that I know to cut down on feeding, when is the best time to feed them. AM OR PM?
onyx
Member
I feed twice a day with an auto-feeder (mix of different flake/pellet foods). Also, I usually feed mysis/brine shrimp soaked in Selcon every couple days just to mix things up. My feeder goes off every 12 hours but I have seen people feed more than twice a day for various reasons.
Feeding twice a day isn't necessarily a bad thing. It really depends on your bioload and how much you feed at a time. Also, some picky or slow fish may benefit from multiple feedings as they will get more chances to eat. My friend has reported high nitrates from feeding twice daily but I do it and my nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia levels are always at 0.
Even feeding more but in smaller amounts may work if you are concerned about over-feeding. However, if you do choose to feed once a day, almost any time would be okay IMO as long as it isn't right after the lights go on (When the fish are still "adjusting" to the lights) and as long as you can set the feedings to a certain time every day.
Anyways, hope this helps,
Mike.
Feeding twice a day isn't necessarily a bad thing. It really depends on your bioload and how much you feed at a time. Also, some picky or slow fish may benefit from multiple feedings as they will get more chances to eat. My friend has reported high nitrates from feeding twice daily but I do it and my nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia levels are always at 0.
Even feeding more but in smaller amounts may work if you are concerned about over-feeding. However, if you do choose to feed once a day, almost any time would be okay IMO as long as it isn't right after the lights go on (When the fish are still "adjusting" to the lights) and as long as you can set the feedings to a certain time every day.
Anyways, hope this helps,
Mike.
scubachris
Member
ok well if frozen brine is the fish equivelant of candy, what would you recommend I feed them?
johnpauljrfan
New Member
I also feed twice a day. Flakes and pellets in the AM along with some seaweed and then frozen food in the PM. I also do not have any problems with nitrates. Fish seem very happy to be eating twice a day. I think its all a matter of preference.
C
calvertbill
Guest
I've always had the attitude that feeding in the wild is pretty random so why shouldn't mine be? The ocean dwelling fish doesn't say "Oh! It's 2 o'clock! A meal is about to swim by."
Always mindful of total quantities of total food offered, I feed whenever I want a show. I enjoy seeing who's eating like a pig and who's last fish at the trough. It tells me when a potential problem might be looming if a normally good eater goes off his feed.
I've got 10 large Tangs in my tank and I love to see the feeding frenzy when they get a hold of a good-sized piece of seaweed. When I'm target feeding my corals I leave the PHs on, but turn the main system pump off so the excess can be offered to all the critters before the skimmer nukes 'em.
I see no problem adapting feeding times to <I>your</I> schedule.
Always mindful of total quantities of total food offered, I feed whenever I want a show. I enjoy seeing who's eating like a pig and who's last fish at the trough. It tells me when a potential problem might be looming if a normally good eater goes off his feed.
I've got 10 large Tangs in my tank and I love to see the feeding frenzy when they get a hold of a good-sized piece of seaweed. When I'm target feeding my corals I leave the PHs on, but turn the main system pump off so the excess can be offered to all the critters before the skimmer nukes 'em.
I see no problem adapting feeding times to <I>your</I> schedule.
m0nk
Active Member
Some good food suggestions are:
Formula 1 or 2 (frozen)
Cyclop-eeze (frozen or freeze dried)
Emerald Entree (frozen)
Marine Cuisine (frozen)
Mysis (frozen)
Also, here's my recipe for homemade food: raw shrimp, scallops, squid, clams from the local grocery store seafood section. Throw these (shrimp and clams without shells) into a blender with some algae sheets, cyclop-eeze, and mysis shrimp. Chop well. Freeze. When I freeze, personally, I pack it into 5"x7" pieces of egg-crate so that it can easily be broken out into cubes. This recipe is far less expensive and far more nutritious than any other food you can buy processed.
So each time I feed, I choose something different from my freezer. Every other day I clip an algae sheet in for the tangs.
Formula 1 or 2 (frozen)
Cyclop-eeze (frozen or freeze dried)
Emerald Entree (frozen)
Marine Cuisine (frozen)
Mysis (frozen)
Also, here's my recipe for homemade food: raw shrimp, scallops, squid, clams from the local grocery store seafood section. Throw these (shrimp and clams without shells) into a blender with some algae sheets, cyclop-eeze, and mysis shrimp. Chop well. Freeze. When I freeze, personally, I pack it into 5"x7" pieces of egg-crate so that it can easily be broken out into cubes. This recipe is far less expensive and far more nutritious than any other food you can buy processed.
So each time I feed, I choose something different from my freezer. Every other day I clip an algae sheet in for the tangs.
C
calvertbill
Guest
Perhaps off topic, but I noticed m0nk's nickname...Tangmaster...I'm certainly not a Master, yet, but I am a Tang junkie...Hi!
m0nk
Active Member
Originally Posted by Calvertbill
http:///forum/post/2844783
Perhaps off topic, but I noticed m0nk's nickname...Tangmaster...I'm certainly not a Master, yet, but I am a Tang junkie...Hi!
Heh, well, I've thought at times that perhaps I'm not exactly a master of tangs, but I've certainly learned a lot about them in the past year and a half of having them. One of these days I'll get a rare one instead of the same boring ones everyone else has. I wish I could handle more in my tank, too... there's a guy on -- that has a huge tank with a school of yellow tangs... that would be awesome to see daily.
http:///forum/post/2844783
Perhaps off topic, but I noticed m0nk's nickname...Tangmaster...I'm certainly not a Master, yet, but I am a Tang junkie...Hi!
Heh, well, I've thought at times that perhaps I'm not exactly a master of tangs, but I've certainly learned a lot about them in the past year and a half of having them. One of these days I'll get a rare one instead of the same boring ones everyone else has. I wish I could handle more in my tank, too... there's a guy on -- that has a huge tank with a school of yellow tangs... that would be awesome to see daily.
C
calvertbill
Guest
Originally Posted by m0nk
http:///forum/post/2844871
... tank with a school of yellow tangs... that would be awesome to see daily.
I've got four Yellows, does that constitute a school? My entire list includes:
4 Zebrasoma flavescens 4-5" (Yellow tang)
1 Zebrasoma xanthurum 3" (Purple tang)
1 Zebrasoma desjardinii 6" (desjardinii tang)
2 Paracanthurus hepatus 4-5" (Blue Hippo tang)
1 Acanthurus sohal 3" (zebra tang)
1 Acanthurus bariene 8" (black spot tang)
1 Zebrasoma veliferum 1.5" (Sailfin tang...different tank)
http:///forum/post/2844871
... tank with a school of yellow tangs... that would be awesome to see daily.
I've got four Yellows, does that constitute a school? My entire list includes:
4 Zebrasoma flavescens 4-5" (Yellow tang)
1 Zebrasoma xanthurum 3" (Purple tang)
1 Zebrasoma desjardinii 6" (desjardinii tang)
2 Paracanthurus hepatus 4-5" (Blue Hippo tang)
1 Acanthurus sohal 3" (zebra tang)
1 Acanthurus bariene 8" (black spot tang)
1 Zebrasoma veliferum 1.5" (Sailfin tang...different tank)