how often to feed ?

[slothy]

i have a 40 with a few hermits, 2 cleaners, 1 pepermint, 1 camelback, sally light foot, arrow crab, emerald crab, and star fish, how often to you recommend feeding these ? no fish in tank ( getting QT'd)

 

[jim672]

slothy,
These are all scavengers and you shouldn't have to feed them directly. Under normal circumstances they should be able to feed themselves from the algea and left over food that the fish don't eat.
However.......since you don't have any fish yet.........some questions: is your tank established or is it still cycling? If its established and you're just refreshing your supply of fish, there might be enough food in the tank to support your inverts. If your tank is new and still cycling, your inverts may not survive the cycle. I'd try to return them to your lfs as soon as you can, at least until your cycle is completed.
As scavengers pretty much all these little guys do is eat all day. To keep them happy, and avoid starving them to death, there needs to be enough naturally occurring food available.
Jim

 

[slothy]

tank is established, just had a ich break out so all fish (tang/clown goby) are in qt tank for hypo treatment

 

[jim672]

slothy,
Sorry abou the ick problems......I've lived through that, too!! Glad to hear your tank is established for the good of your inverts. As I mentioned, they should be fine eating what's already in the tank.
Jim

 

[slothy]

reason i asked cause fish will be out the tank 3-4 weeks , i threw a pinch of flakes in there this morning and they went nuts chasing them down... so i thought maybe i was starving them

 

[jim672]

slothy,
I understand. My inverts are well feed but still go nuts when I feed my fish....especially brine shrimp. No harm feeding yours a little flake food occasionally until you move your fish back but they won't starve if you don't.
Jim

 

[sandy]

I use sinking brine shrimp or plankton pellets. It pretty much targets the one's who need to be fed with little or no waste left over.