Niger trigger and fish flakes.

[jag2232]

My little niger trigger has been living in a 75 gallon for about a month now and has been primarily eating krill and frozen squid. Today I finally took my maroon clown that I have been quarantining for a while now and put him in with my trigger. The fish are getting along great, but the only problem or what appears to be a problem that I've noticed has to do with the food. I've been feeding my clown fish marine flakes that I got from the store but now that I feed him with my trigger the trigger has been eating the flakes too. There isn't any competition between them but when my trigger eats the flakes he poops almost immediately afterwards. I don't want to give the little guy indigestion so I was wondering if anyone had any feeding techniques I could use to feed my clown or a food that I could feed him that wouldn't be harming my trigger. Thanks.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by jag2232 http:///forum/post/2619243
My little niger trigger has been living in a 75 gallon for about a month now and has been primarily eating krill and frozen squid. Today I finally took my maroon clown that I have been quarantining for a while now and put him in with my trigger. The fish are getting along great, but the only problem or what appears to be a problem that I've noticed has to do with the food. I've been feeding my clown fish marine flakes that I got from the store but now that I feed him with my trigger the trigger has been eating the flakes too. There isn't any competition between them but when my trigger eats the flakes he poops almost immediately afterwards. I don't want to give the little guy indigestion so I was wondering if anyone had any feeding techniques I could use to feed my clown or a food that I could feed him that wouldn't be harming my trigger. Thanks.
Certainly, stop feeding flakes. They are not nutritious enough for SW fish anyway. Pick up some frozen formula foods in a flat package. The cubes have a gel binder that some fish don't like. You can make your own food too. Take a look at this https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/127007/faqs-fish-diseases-treatments-quarantine-health-info#post_914889

 

[el guapo]

My triggers always got to the flakes too . I never depended on it as a food source but more as a daily treat for them . Definatly look into the frozen foods and maybe a quality pellet food . Also try feeding both simultaniously(sp) that way while the trigger is going after the cubes the smaller fish can snag the pellets ? Just an idea . As sep said there is also the option of making your own food. Kind of a hassle if you only have one or two fish .

 

[srfisher17]

IMO, only goldfish should be fed flake food. In addition to the poor nutrition, flakes have a lot of waste. Like the above posters said, there are so many good frozen foods that are much better and easy to feed. Give your trigger some pieces of cut-up raw shrimp, clam, or squid (soaked in a vitamin, like Selcon) once in a while. The clown will eat some too and they both will love it.

 

[jag2232]

I only feed my trigger frozen krill and squid. The problem was that when I am feeding my clown fish he eats it too. The clown has been eating the frozen foods too which is good but i'm going to pick up something with more plant matter in it for him to eat as well since the flakes are apparently unhealthy.

 

[ccampbell57]

My triggers will eat anything I add to the tank. I feed them pellets (spectrum and formula 1 and 2)
I also feed them frozen meat and veggie cubes as well as silversides, frozen krill, and mysis shrimp for a treat twice a week.

 

[srfisher17]

My triggers will eat anything I add to the tank.
Mine too. I never saw anything triggers wouldn't eat, including dried seaweed/algae sheets. Years ago, before this stuff was around, my triggers would eat romaine lettuce. (and it still surprises some folks when their cute little trigger eats their crabs and snails.) I doubt the flakes caused any problem. (probably just went right thru him).

 

[el guapo]

Originally Posted by ccampbell57
http:///forum/post/2620860
My triggers will eat anything I add to the tank.
Mine too. I never saw anything triggers wouldn't eat, including dried seaweed/algae sheets. Years ago, before this stuff was around, my triggers would eat romaine lettuce. (and it still surprises some folks when their cute little trigger eats their crabs and snails.) I doubt the flakes caused any problem. (probably just went right thru him).

When I had my 125 set up . I would put in sheets of nori for the tang and he would basically thumb his nose at it . The triggers would graze on it all afternoon though and the tang would go after the fresh sea food . . .

Funny how in actuality most fish dont fall in to the herbivour canivour catigory that they useusally get grouped with .

 

[salt210]

I know that you guys are referring to triggers but my lion eats the herbivore food too. seems to go right for it when I put it in there

 

[aquaknight]

You can overlap a bit of the diet. Clowns are very "omnivoreristic," in that they will eat whatever they can in the wild. They still should have lots of greens in their diets. Quality pellets like NLS and Formula will work for both triggers and clowns. However carnivores really shouldn't get more then 20% of their diet from greens. They just don't have the digestive tract to do it. Always feed the more aggressive fish first. For triggers there's hundreds of great choices. Just make sure you don't feed just one, constantly vary their diet. Chunk of raw shrimp, jumbo krill, mysis, scallops, clams on the half shelf, chunks of clams, squid, chunks of scallops, silversides, anchovies(fresh, never in oil), all make great choices to choose from.