snakeblitz33
Well-Known Member
Snake’s Method for Feeding Livestock
This article is a simple guide to feed your livestock and what food to feed. Homemade foods will be discussed in another article. Please feel free to add additional feeding guides for livestock that are not mentioned in this article. The purpose of this article is to suggest some guidelines to follow to prevent nutrient build up in the aquarium as well.
Every fish, coral, and invertebrate is different when it comes to feeding. Some fish eat algae while others eat meaty foods. Some only concentrate on parasites! So, it’s up to you, the aquarist, to know what your new livestock eats before purchasing it.
Overfeeding is a common mistake for many beginner and even seasoned saltwater aquarists. Many people purchase livestock just to feed it. However, you really do have to unlearn this common practice. In saltwater aquariums, our aquariums can only tank so much excess foods. If not dealt with, excessive amounts of foods can cause algae problems, water quality deterioration, fish loss and coral death. Because feeding your livestock is one of the joys of the hobby – it’s absolutely imperative to learn how to properly feed your livestock.
Quality of food:
[list type=decimal]
[*]
There is a difference between the three main types of food: Flake Foods, Pellet foods, and Frozen foods
[list type=decimal]
[*]
Flake foods can be related to potato chips
[*]
Pellet foods can be related to fast food hamburgers
[*]
Frozen foods can be related to a Gourmet meal
[/list type=decimal]
[/list type=decimal]
2. It’s best to feed frozen foods or homemade frozen foods whenever possible for the health of your fish. It does not take much to feed frozen food to feed your fish, and many times a cube of frozen food can be quartered up according to your fishes needs.
3.Flake foods and pellet foods have been linked to causing excessive amounts of nitrates and phosphates in an aquarium, even when all the food is consumed at feeding time.
Guide for feeding fish:
Find out what your fish eats. It might be a carnivore, omnivore or herbivore. You must know this before you can feed it. Some fish, such as cleaner wrasses completely depend on eating parasites out of fishes mouths and gills. Cleaner wrasses are generally only suitable in very large aquariums with a lot of fish and survive much better in the wild.
Feed it a very small pinch of food and make sure the fish eats all of it. If the fish is still darting around looking for more, feed another small pinch. Keep doing this until the fish stops feeding or 2 minutes is up.
When feeding algae sheets such as nori to herbivores such as tangs, a 3x3” sheet is plenty for one small tang per day. Larger tangs need more algae than smaller tangs. If a tang completely eats a piece of nori and there is none left, feed a slightly larger sheet of algae on the next feeding.
Feeding small amounts twice a day is better than feeding a large amount once a day. If possible, feed your fish multiple times during the day but make absolutely sure there is no leftover food. Leftover food can generate algaes and other problems.
Observe your fishes behavior and eating patterns. If your fish stops eating, this can be a multitude of problems, ranging from disease to a bowel obstruction. Once this happens, it needs to be diagnosed and treated as quickly as possible.
[*]
Never feed live fish as food.
Guide for feeding eels
[list type=decimal]
[*]
One half piece of shrimp for an eel per day is generally a good guideline. The bigger the eel is, the more it needs to eat. Keep track of how much the eel eats in one session and make sure there are no leftovers. The more you feed, the faster the eel will grow. If you do not feed enough, an eel will attack fish.
[*]
It’s best to use a feeding stick to entice eels to feed.
Guide to feeding Clean up crew
[list type=decimal]
[*]
Although uncommon, it sometimes in necessary to make sure your clean up crew is getting enough food to eat. Snails are herbivores, and if your tank has plenty of succulent algae, then there is nothing to worry about.
[*]
Hermit crabs eat meaty foods, and if they aren’t getting enough to eat they will attack your snails. To be sure that this doesn’t happen, it is occasionally ok to let some excess food that your fish don’t eat to let it be eaten by your hermit crabs. I highly do not recommend mixing hermit crabs with snails.
[*]
Nassarius snails do a fine job of scavenging meaty foods that have settled on the substrate. Nassarius snails need a sandbed to survive – and they do double duty by stirring the sandbed as needed.
Sometimes ornamental shrimp need to be fed separately from your fish because the fish don’t let enough leftovers go to feed anything else. Shrimp are great scavangers that will eat any leftover food stuffs. It’s easy to use a turkey baster or “Julian’s Thing” to spot feed shrimp and corals.
[/list type=decimal]
Guide to feeding Clams
Clams need three things in order to survive. A. high lighting conditions provided by metal halides, LEDs or multiple T5 bulbs. B. Pristine water conditions and high calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium levels in a mature tank. C. Some form of suspended live organisms such as zooplankton or phytoplankton.
Smaller clams need to be fed more regularly than larger clams. Larger clams have more surface area which provide a greater ability for the clam to produce its own food through the symbiotic photosynthetic zooxanthellae algae that lives within its mantle.
Sometimes it is necessary to remove a small clam from the display tank and place in a large bowl or a small aquarium to feed it heavily with phytoplankton. Gut loading once a week is a great way to ensure that a small clam will live to adulthood. Please take care not to tear a clams byssal gland while trying to remove it from the display tank. If a clam is not budging from its spot, leave it right there where it’s the most happy.
[/list type=decimal]
Guide to feeding Anemones
Keeping an anemone is not as easy as feeding it. Keep in mind that an anemone needs a mature tank, pristine water conditions and high lighting conditions for it to survive long term. Anemones also need to be fed occasionally to make sure they are getting the proper nutritional requirements.
Meaty feedings, mainly shrimp based, are necessary to feed an anemone once or twice a week. The most common feeding tool used is a feeding prong, turkey baster or “Julian’s Thing.”
[*]
A varied diet is also a must for an anemone. Shrimp will only go so far. An anemones nutritional requirement also may dictate that it needs occasional meaty feedings of silversides, oyster meat and clam as well. All of these foods can be found fresh or canned in your local grocery store.
[*]
The average size feeding for an anemone is about the size of one medium sized shrimp.
Guide to feeding Mandarins
[list type=decimal]
[*]
Mandarins are perhaps one of the most beautiful fish in the hobby. They are sought after for many beginner aquarists who don’t realize their strict nutritional requirements. Mandarin fish need many copepods which are small crustaceans to pray upon during the day.
[*]
There are a few ways of producing copepods.
[list type=decimal]
[*]
Make sure the display tank is at least a year old. This will make your water parameters stable and your live rock established.
[*]
Install and run a refugium with macroalgae. Macroalgae reduce nitrates and phosphates and stabilize your pH. The refugium is a “refuge” for critters such as copepods to be free of predation. Copepods will reproduce and crawl around and eventually get sucked into the return pump and pushed into the display tank as food for your mandarin (and other fish).
Drip live cultured phytoplankton in your refugium at a very slow drip rate. The extra phytoplankton in the water column not only lets your corals feed and grow, but it also provides a food source for copepods. Phytoplankton will be regularly skimmed out of the water by foam fractionation (protein skimming) so turning off your skimmer for 12 of the 24 hours of a day will help when you dose phytoplankton.
If you are lucky enough to purchase a mandarin that takes regular frozen food feedings, you are lucky – and you need to exploit this fact. However, many people realize that mandarin fish are more hunters of copepods than scavengers of leftover meaty foods. Therefore, your other fish will most likely eat the Mysis you are trying to feed your Mandarin before it has a chance to feed. There is a way to get around this.
The Olive Oil Bottle Method. This method was originally used by Mark Melev. Take and use/empty a glass olive oil bottle that has a very small opening – just big enough for the Mandarin Goby to enter into. Rinse it out thoroughly of all the oil and soap. Then, put pellet food or Mysis shrimp or enriched brine shrimp in the jar. Tie some fishing line to the jar top and sink it in the tank. The opening is just big enough for the mandarin to come into but none of the other fish. This gives the mandarin an all-it-can eat buffet.
Glass bottle method. Also used by Mark Melev originally, where you take a glass bottle and do the same thing. This method was used before he realized his other fish would do whatever they could to get the food out of it. Mark now suggests using the EVOO method.
[/list type=decimal]
[/list type=decimal]
Guide to feeding Soft Corals
Soft corals are a great way to start getting into corals. Soft corals are very forgiving, easy to frag, easy to keep corals. They do well in tanks that have somewhat dirty water and can take a lot of abuse. Some soft corals don’t accept meaty feedings, while others do. It’s important to research this before you make any coral purchase.
Some soft corals such as protopalythoa and mushroom anemones prefer meaty feedings. The easiest way to feed these types of corals is to thaw and rinse some frozen Mysis or Enriched Brine Shrimp and put it in a turkey baster with a little tank water and then squirt it very slowly and lightly at the coral. They will grab it as if by an invisible force and close around it, consuming it.
[*]
Some soft corals feed on floating particulate organic matter in the water column. It is true that some soft corals prefer “dirty tank water” as opposed to pristine water conditions. Although, most new hobbyists have absolutely no trouble keeping “dirty tank water” and should not worry about this aspect when dealing with soft corals. Floating particulate organic matter is what protein skimmers strip away before it produces nitrate and phosphate in the aquarium. Some soft coral aquariums are much better off using only well maintained, well lit refugiums as their main filtration device between water changes than protein skimming. If a large bioload of fish is present in the system, however, it may be necessary to protein skim at that point.
[*]
Soft corals also require light in order to produce some of their food. All corals have zooxanthellae which is a symbiotic photosynthetic algae that lives within the tissues of all corals. This algae produces glucose some glucose for itself, and most of its glucose goes to the coral. This is the reason why many corals need light in order to survive. If you want a soft coral aquarium, you need to look into lighting solutions that will fit your needs. Please see my other article “Guide to Lighting” to get an idea of acceptable lighting solutions for soft coral tanks.
Guide to feeding Large Polyp Stony Corals
[list type=decimal]
[*]
Almost all Large Polyp Stony corals can benefit from meaty feedings of frozen Mysis, enriched brine shrimp or other meaty foods. Make sure you know what type of foods a LPS coral eats before you purchase the coral.
[*]
The easiest way to feed an LPS coral, such as a frogspawn, hammer, fox, or bubble coral is to thaw and rinse some frozen Mysis, Enriched brine shrimp or other meaty food and insert it into a turkey baster with a little tank water. Then, gently squirt it in the corals direction. It will, by some invisible strands, draw the food into it’s mouths to feed.
Feeding a LPS coral does not guarantee the coral of success. LPS corals also require moderate to pristine water conditions, well balanced calcium and alkalinity levels, and moderate to high lighting conditions in order to thrive. LPS corals also enjoy moderate indirect flow to carry off detritus, debris and of course, the corals poop.
[/list type=decimal]
Guide to feeding SPS corals
SPS corals do not seem to consume any food at all, however, they do consume some particulate organic matter. SPS corals require pristine water conditions, mature tanks, high lighting conditions and high, well balanced calcium and alkalinity levels.
SPS corals benefit from using a protein skimmer as well as algae scrubbing to keep the water column as clean as possible and as algae free as possible.
SPS corals require well balanced calcium, alkalinity and magnesium ranges. They seem to consume light, calcium, and alkalinity in order to grow and survive, rather than food from the water column.
Something can also be said here that SPS corals do require more stable, mature tanks in order to thrive. An aquarium less than a year old can keep some SPS corals, but for some reason, the more sensitive, more rare SPS corals require a tank that is at least 9 months to a year old in order to survive long term.
[*]
SPS corals get most of their energy for survival from zooxanthellae, which is a symbiotic photosynthetic algae that lives within the tissues of the coral that produces glucose for itself and for the coral. In turn, the coral gives the algae permission to live in its tissues.
To get more information on feeding specific fish, corals, and other inverts you can do a simple internet search for many species. Homemade fish food recipes can be found on the internet in many variations. If you would like, please try out my own personal homemade fish food recipe here.
These are just suggestions and observations that aquarists have made over the years. Some of them will work for you, others will not. Experimentation is half the thrill of this hobby. You will have to find what works for your tanks personality.
This article is a simple guide to feed your livestock and what food to feed. Homemade foods will be discussed in another article. Please feel free to add additional feeding guides for livestock that are not mentioned in this article. The purpose of this article is to suggest some guidelines to follow to prevent nutrient build up in the aquarium as well.
Every fish, coral, and invertebrate is different when it comes to feeding. Some fish eat algae while others eat meaty foods. Some only concentrate on parasites! So, it’s up to you, the aquarist, to know what your new livestock eats before purchasing it.
Overfeeding is a common mistake for many beginner and even seasoned saltwater aquarists. Many people purchase livestock just to feed it. However, you really do have to unlearn this common practice. In saltwater aquariums, our aquariums can only tank so much excess foods. If not dealt with, excessive amounts of foods can cause algae problems, water quality deterioration, fish loss and coral death. Because feeding your livestock is one of the joys of the hobby – it’s absolutely imperative to learn how to properly feed your livestock.
Quality of food:
[list type=decimal]
[*]
There is a difference between the three main types of food: Flake Foods, Pellet foods, and Frozen foods
[list type=decimal]
[*]
Flake foods can be related to potato chips
[*]
Pellet foods can be related to fast food hamburgers
[*]
Frozen foods can be related to a Gourmet meal
[/list type=decimal]
[/list type=decimal]
2. It’s best to feed frozen foods or homemade frozen foods whenever possible for the health of your fish. It does not take much to feed frozen food to feed your fish, and many times a cube of frozen food can be quartered up according to your fishes needs.
3.Flake foods and pellet foods have been linked to causing excessive amounts of nitrates and phosphates in an aquarium, even when all the food is consumed at feeding time.
Guide for feeding fish:
Find out what your fish eats. It might be a carnivore, omnivore or herbivore. You must know this before you can feed it. Some fish, such as cleaner wrasses completely depend on eating parasites out of fishes mouths and gills. Cleaner wrasses are generally only suitable in very large aquariums with a lot of fish and survive much better in the wild.
Feed it a very small pinch of food and make sure the fish eats all of it. If the fish is still darting around looking for more, feed another small pinch. Keep doing this until the fish stops feeding or 2 minutes is up.
When feeding algae sheets such as nori to herbivores such as tangs, a 3x3” sheet is plenty for one small tang per day. Larger tangs need more algae than smaller tangs. If a tang completely eats a piece of nori and there is none left, feed a slightly larger sheet of algae on the next feeding.
Feeding small amounts twice a day is better than feeding a large amount once a day. If possible, feed your fish multiple times during the day but make absolutely sure there is no leftover food. Leftover food can generate algaes and other problems.
Observe your fishes behavior and eating patterns. If your fish stops eating, this can be a multitude of problems, ranging from disease to a bowel obstruction. Once this happens, it needs to be diagnosed and treated as quickly as possible.
[*]
Never feed live fish as food.
Guide for feeding eels
[list type=decimal]
[*]
One half piece of shrimp for an eel per day is generally a good guideline. The bigger the eel is, the more it needs to eat. Keep track of how much the eel eats in one session and make sure there are no leftovers. The more you feed, the faster the eel will grow. If you do not feed enough, an eel will attack fish.
[*]
It’s best to use a feeding stick to entice eels to feed.
Guide to feeding Clean up crew
[list type=decimal]
[*]
Although uncommon, it sometimes in necessary to make sure your clean up crew is getting enough food to eat. Snails are herbivores, and if your tank has plenty of succulent algae, then there is nothing to worry about.
[*]
Hermit crabs eat meaty foods, and if they aren’t getting enough to eat they will attack your snails. To be sure that this doesn’t happen, it is occasionally ok to let some excess food that your fish don’t eat to let it be eaten by your hermit crabs. I highly do not recommend mixing hermit crabs with snails.
[*]
Nassarius snails do a fine job of scavenging meaty foods that have settled on the substrate. Nassarius snails need a sandbed to survive – and they do double duty by stirring the sandbed as needed.
Sometimes ornamental shrimp need to be fed separately from your fish because the fish don’t let enough leftovers go to feed anything else. Shrimp are great scavangers that will eat any leftover food stuffs. It’s easy to use a turkey baster or “Julian’s Thing” to spot feed shrimp and corals.
[/list type=decimal]
Guide to feeding Clams
Clams need three things in order to survive. A. high lighting conditions provided by metal halides, LEDs or multiple T5 bulbs. B. Pristine water conditions and high calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium levels in a mature tank. C. Some form of suspended live organisms such as zooplankton or phytoplankton.
Smaller clams need to be fed more regularly than larger clams. Larger clams have more surface area which provide a greater ability for the clam to produce its own food through the symbiotic photosynthetic zooxanthellae algae that lives within its mantle.
Sometimes it is necessary to remove a small clam from the display tank and place in a large bowl or a small aquarium to feed it heavily with phytoplankton. Gut loading once a week is a great way to ensure that a small clam will live to adulthood. Please take care not to tear a clams byssal gland while trying to remove it from the display tank. If a clam is not budging from its spot, leave it right there where it’s the most happy.
[/list type=decimal]
Guide to feeding Anemones
Keeping an anemone is not as easy as feeding it. Keep in mind that an anemone needs a mature tank, pristine water conditions and high lighting conditions for it to survive long term. Anemones also need to be fed occasionally to make sure they are getting the proper nutritional requirements.
Meaty feedings, mainly shrimp based, are necessary to feed an anemone once or twice a week. The most common feeding tool used is a feeding prong, turkey baster or “Julian’s Thing.”
[*]
A varied diet is also a must for an anemone. Shrimp will only go so far. An anemones nutritional requirement also may dictate that it needs occasional meaty feedings of silversides, oyster meat and clam as well. All of these foods can be found fresh or canned in your local grocery store.
[*]
The average size feeding for an anemone is about the size of one medium sized shrimp.
Guide to feeding Mandarins
[list type=decimal]
[*]
Mandarins are perhaps one of the most beautiful fish in the hobby. They are sought after for many beginner aquarists who don’t realize their strict nutritional requirements. Mandarin fish need many copepods which are small crustaceans to pray upon during the day.
[*]
There are a few ways of producing copepods.
[list type=decimal]
[*]
Make sure the display tank is at least a year old. This will make your water parameters stable and your live rock established.
[*]
Install and run a refugium with macroalgae. Macroalgae reduce nitrates and phosphates and stabilize your pH. The refugium is a “refuge” for critters such as copepods to be free of predation. Copepods will reproduce and crawl around and eventually get sucked into the return pump and pushed into the display tank as food for your mandarin (and other fish).
Drip live cultured phytoplankton in your refugium at a very slow drip rate. The extra phytoplankton in the water column not only lets your corals feed and grow, but it also provides a food source for copepods. Phytoplankton will be regularly skimmed out of the water by foam fractionation (protein skimming) so turning off your skimmer for 12 of the 24 hours of a day will help when you dose phytoplankton.
If you are lucky enough to purchase a mandarin that takes regular frozen food feedings, you are lucky – and you need to exploit this fact. However, many people realize that mandarin fish are more hunters of copepods than scavengers of leftover meaty foods. Therefore, your other fish will most likely eat the Mysis you are trying to feed your Mandarin before it has a chance to feed. There is a way to get around this.
The Olive Oil Bottle Method. This method was originally used by Mark Melev. Take and use/empty a glass olive oil bottle that has a very small opening – just big enough for the Mandarin Goby to enter into. Rinse it out thoroughly of all the oil and soap. Then, put pellet food or Mysis shrimp or enriched brine shrimp in the jar. Tie some fishing line to the jar top and sink it in the tank. The opening is just big enough for the mandarin to come into but none of the other fish. This gives the mandarin an all-it-can eat buffet.
Glass bottle method. Also used by Mark Melev originally, where you take a glass bottle and do the same thing. This method was used before he realized his other fish would do whatever they could to get the food out of it. Mark now suggests using the EVOO method.
[/list type=decimal]
[/list type=decimal]
Guide to feeding Soft Corals
Soft corals are a great way to start getting into corals. Soft corals are very forgiving, easy to frag, easy to keep corals. They do well in tanks that have somewhat dirty water and can take a lot of abuse. Some soft corals don’t accept meaty feedings, while others do. It’s important to research this before you make any coral purchase.
Some soft corals such as protopalythoa and mushroom anemones prefer meaty feedings. The easiest way to feed these types of corals is to thaw and rinse some frozen Mysis or Enriched Brine Shrimp and put it in a turkey baster with a little tank water and then squirt it very slowly and lightly at the coral. They will grab it as if by an invisible force and close around it, consuming it.
[*]
Some soft corals feed on floating particulate organic matter in the water column. It is true that some soft corals prefer “dirty tank water” as opposed to pristine water conditions. Although, most new hobbyists have absolutely no trouble keeping “dirty tank water” and should not worry about this aspect when dealing with soft corals. Floating particulate organic matter is what protein skimmers strip away before it produces nitrate and phosphate in the aquarium. Some soft coral aquariums are much better off using only well maintained, well lit refugiums as their main filtration device between water changes than protein skimming. If a large bioload of fish is present in the system, however, it may be necessary to protein skim at that point.
[*]
Soft corals also require light in order to produce some of their food. All corals have zooxanthellae which is a symbiotic photosynthetic algae that lives within the tissues of all corals. This algae produces glucose some glucose for itself, and most of its glucose goes to the coral. This is the reason why many corals need light in order to survive. If you want a soft coral aquarium, you need to look into lighting solutions that will fit your needs. Please see my other article “Guide to Lighting” to get an idea of acceptable lighting solutions for soft coral tanks.
Guide to feeding Large Polyp Stony Corals
[list type=decimal]
[*]
Almost all Large Polyp Stony corals can benefit from meaty feedings of frozen Mysis, enriched brine shrimp or other meaty foods. Make sure you know what type of foods a LPS coral eats before you purchase the coral.
[*]
The easiest way to feed an LPS coral, such as a frogspawn, hammer, fox, or bubble coral is to thaw and rinse some frozen Mysis, Enriched brine shrimp or other meaty food and insert it into a turkey baster with a little tank water. Then, gently squirt it in the corals direction. It will, by some invisible strands, draw the food into it’s mouths to feed.
Feeding a LPS coral does not guarantee the coral of success. LPS corals also require moderate to pristine water conditions, well balanced calcium and alkalinity levels, and moderate to high lighting conditions in order to thrive. LPS corals also enjoy moderate indirect flow to carry off detritus, debris and of course, the corals poop.
[/list type=decimal]
Guide to feeding SPS corals
SPS corals do not seem to consume any food at all, however, they do consume some particulate organic matter. SPS corals require pristine water conditions, mature tanks, high lighting conditions and high, well balanced calcium and alkalinity levels.
SPS corals benefit from using a protein skimmer as well as algae scrubbing to keep the water column as clean as possible and as algae free as possible.
SPS corals require well balanced calcium, alkalinity and magnesium ranges. They seem to consume light, calcium, and alkalinity in order to grow and survive, rather than food from the water column.
Something can also be said here that SPS corals do require more stable, mature tanks in order to thrive. An aquarium less than a year old can keep some SPS corals, but for some reason, the more sensitive, more rare SPS corals require a tank that is at least 9 months to a year old in order to survive long term.
[*]
SPS corals get most of their energy for survival from zooxanthellae, which is a symbiotic photosynthetic algae that lives within the tissues of the coral that produces glucose for itself and for the coral. In turn, the coral gives the algae permission to live in its tissues.
To get more information on feeding specific fish, corals, and other inverts you can do a simple internet search for many species. Homemade fish food recipes can be found on the internet in many variations. If you would like, please try out my own personal homemade fish food recipe here.
These are just suggestions and observations that aquarists have made over the years. Some of them will work for you, others will not. Experimentation is half the thrill of this hobby. You will have to find what works for your tanks personality.