How often should I be feeding my fish!?

[jessed244]

I always give them (3 chromis, 2 clowns) about a cube of frozen brine and several pellets, everyday (over the course of the day, morning/evening. BUt on here I have read that people only feed them a couple times a week!??!
They eat 95% of the food and what they dont I see the cleaner shrimp scoffing up, i dont see any extra food laying around, What does anyone suggest?? They ALWAYS act hungrey

 

[rcreations]

I have a Foxface, 2 maroon clowns, 2 wrasses, 1 lawnmower blenny and I feed them 1 cube of frozen food every day. Then I put in an algae sheet as well since the foxface loves the stuff. I say if there's no food left uneaten, you're ok.

 

[jessed244]

Thanks for your reply
I hope to get a foxface for my new 56 gal i am setting up - they seem so cool

 

[brad pitt]

feed them once every 2 to 3 days. thats how i feed mine and they are okay. giving less food would give u better water quality.
u feed them too much. =]

 

[m0nk]

It depends on what works for your tank, though I just replied in your Nitrate thread that a common cause of high nitrates is overfeeding. Consider that even if they manage to eat it all (and if you feed with pellets, they likely won't) then you'll likely have lots of detritus. If your cleanup crew can't handle that load, then you'll end up with nitrates as the food breaks down.
Personally, I like my fish to be nicely fed, especially since I have tangs and they are some of the biggest pigs out there, so I do frozen cubes and algae daily. The big catch is that I also have lots of nitrate reducing "features" (DSB, fuge with chaeto, etc) to prevent problems often caused by this feeding regiment.

 

[jessed244]

Thank you, yes i just read your post on my nitrate thread. I guess it is prob the feeding, I have hermits and one cleaner shrimp as the cleanup,
I dont have live sand in this nano, although it may be live by now, its been in there 4 months with LR, I dont have a fug either, as its just a smaller nano. and the sand isnt that deep about 1 inch. Thanks

 

[integral9]

More food = more poop = more to clean up.
I feed my fish once everyday. I find that flakes provide an excellent healthy diet, leave little mess as it floats better in the water column allowing the fish to eat most or all of it. However, not all fish will eat flake food at first or even ever. Your luck may vary. I also feed frozen foods about every 3 days, mostly for my tooth coral and other meat eatering corals.
I have 2 tanks, a 30 gal and a 55 gal. 30gal as the following fish: Green banded goby, stripeless clown, yellow assesor, green chromis, greissengeri goby, 2 spiny head blennys, two-spot blenny. The 55gal has the following fish: pair of adult black percs, scopas tang, coral beauty angel, mandarin dragnet(after 2 years, still only eats pods), purple firefish. I put two pinches of flake food in my 55 and 1 pinch in my 30 when feeding flakes. When I feed frozen, both tanks share a frozen cube of mysis. about 1/3 in the 30 and the rest in the 55. I used to put algea sheets in my 55 for the tang and angel, but I recent aquired a mantis shrimp (unintentially) and he b*tch ate all my hermits and snails. So my tang and angel are on algea patrol and doing well I might add. I just wish they ate more to be honest, things are getting out of control.

 

[rcreations]

That's a good point. It really depends on how your tank is set up. If you have nitrate problems, feed every other day. But in the long run it's good to find a way to reduce the nitrates, naturally with LR, LS and a fuge.

 

[m0nk]

Originally Posted by jessed244
http:///forum/post/2568026
Thank you, yes i just read your post on my nitrate thread. I guess it is prob the feeding, I have hermits and one cleaner shrimp as the cleanup,
I dont have live sand in this nano, although it may be live by now, its been in there 4 months with LR, I dont have a fug either, as its just a smaller nano. and the sand isnt that deep about 1 inch. Thanks
I'm sure your sand will be live at this point, but I think you might want to add more of a cleanup crew. Hermits are good for detritus, but you'll need something to cleanup algae and extra food. You might want to consider getting some Turbo Astrea snails.
I had a similar setup in a 55g for quite some time before upgrading to the setup I have now. My water change regiment was 5g per week, every Saturday. About 1 month after the tank was setup and running I managed to get the nitrates to 0 and keep it there for the duration the tank was in operation. The key is testing, though. Maybe slightly reduce what you feed (I'd start by holding off on the pellets) and change 10 - 15% of your water weekly. Test for nitrates for about a month before and after the water changes and see if it's having a positive impact. Once you get them to 5 or lower just keep that regiment and you can stop testing so frequently, or experiment and see what you can do while keeping your nitrates lower. Hope that helps!

 

[1journeyman]

I'm going to go against the norm here.
From my experience, Chromis will not last very long being fed evey 2-3 days. They are active swimmers and very active planktonic feeders. go for a couple fo days without feeding and you can literally see them getting skinny. Their aggression amongst themselves will also climb dramatically as they get hungry.
Bump up the water changes as needed, but don't cut feeding if you want a healthy school of Chromis.

 

[m0nk]

Originally Posted by RCreations
http:///forum/post/2568032
That's a good point. It really depends on how your tank is set up. If you have nitrate problems, feed every other day. But in the long run it's good to find a way to reduce the nitrates, naturally with LR, LS and a fuge.
BTW, after your suggestions on my tank thread I did more research and found that the people I should have been asking were recommending 4"+ for DSBs so I started slowly adding more sand to the tank. Thanks!

 

[m0nk]

Originally Posted by 1journeyman
http:///forum/post/2568036
I'm going to go against the norm here.
From my experience, Chromis will not last very long being fed evey 2-3 days. They are active swimmers and very active planktonic feeders. go for a couple fo days without feeding and you can literally see them getting skinny. Their aggression amongst themselves will also climb dramatically as they get hungry.
Bump up the water changes as needed, but don't cut feeding if you want a healthy school of Chromis.
This is a great point, and exactly the reason why I feed my tank so much, tangs are the same way with aggression when they're hungry. If they stay well fed, the typically aggressive families are fairly docile.

 

[1journeyman]

Originally Posted by m0nk
http:///forum/post/2568043
This is a great point, and exactly the reason why I feed my tank so much, tangs are the same way with aggression when they're hungry. If they stay well fed, the typically aggressive families are fairly docile.
I really believe this is going to become more the "norm" in our hobby as time goes by- Small, frequent feedings daily. Well fed fish grow so much better, behave better, and genrally have better survival rates (from my observations).
Our hobby swings back and forth on different issues. I believe in a couple of years the pendelum will have swung away from the "feed a couple of times a week" back to a more natural and healthy small amounts daily.

 

[jessed244]

Thank You so much for all your replies, I will try doing a water change, and i will eliminate the pellets for now, but I think i will continue feeding daily as the chromis do get aggresive if i am late haha

 

[1journeyman]

Originally Posted by jessed244
http:///forum/post/2568082
Thank You so much for all your replies, I will try doing a water change, and i will eliminate the pellets for now, but I think i will continue feeding daily as the chromis do get aggresive if i am late haha
You can feed pellets occasionally. Drop a few in for the shrimp and snails every few days; That will be fine. My shrimp loved pellets.
Aggression is a tell-tale sign something is up in the tank. When schooling fish (Chromis) begin wasting precious energy behaving aggressively you know resources (food) are being seen as a scarce commodity.
Few animals typically waste energy. (Some do in the form of "play", but is atypical behavior in the animal kingdom).
Try feeding a small bit morning and evening and let me know how your fish look in a week. I think you will be impressed with the change.

 

[rcreations]

Originally Posted by m0nk
http:///forum/post/2568037
BTW, after your suggestions on my tank thread I did more research and found that the people I should have been asking were recommending 4"+ for DSBs so I started slowly adding more sand to the tank. Thanks!
Happy to hear it! If you find out what sort of sand sifters go with a deep sand bed let me know. Most people I've talked to said that nasarius snails and fighting conchs are the best for DSB, but to stay away from fish like Watchman Gobies and other sand diggers.

 

[1journeyman]

Originally Posted by RCreations
http:///forum/post/2568260
Happy to hear it! If you find out what sort of sand sifters go with a deep sand bed let me know. Most people I've talked to said that nasarius snails and fighting conchs are the best for DSB, but to stay away from fish like Watchman Gobies and other sand diggers.
Sand shifters=Good for deep sand bed
Sand sifters=Bad.
A healthy deep sand bed will have lots of worms, snails, pods, micro stars, etc. keeping the top level stirred.

 

[kikithemermaid]

Hmmm I feed one cube of frozen mysis or spirulina a day. And put some algae in there but no one but the snails seem interested.

 

[m0nk]

Originally Posted by kikithemermaid
http:///forum/post/2569116
Hmmm I feed one cube of frozen mysis or spirulina a day. And put some algae in there but no one but the snails seem interested.
It depends on what types of fish you have as to whether the algae sheets will help or hurt. Tangs, angels, and related fish will usually go after them. In my tank, not only do the tangs like the algae sheets, but my clown and chromis eat it too, though not everyone has that same experience. I'd figure out what food works best for you and go from there. Don't feed food that only the snails will eat because they won't do their "job" if they're eating algae sheets all day.

Also, a food that everyone has great experience with (myself included) is cyclop-eeze. Not only do most fish love it, but coral and clams do too.

 

[aninafish]

Just remember when you stop feeding the pellets that brine, unless stated on the package, have no nutritional value. ( I learned that one the hard way)
Personally I have gone back to feeding daily. I tried every other day for a few months and really didn't notice a difference. After a bout with ich I switched to Rods Fish Food and started feeding small quantities twice a day. Now I see a huge difference.