Whats wrong with flake food?

[nasukan]

I've only had a tank for about a year, but I have always used flake food. I started on Sera Marine, then I got some Formula 1 flake and alternate each feeding period. The only fish I have lost are a mimic tang(when they put vinyl siding on my apartment in the winter a nail punctured my a/c hose and I couldn't keep any freon in the system: 96 degrees in my tank) and a Copper Banded Butterfly. I guess the guy at the lfs forgot to mention I may have been way in over my head with the butterfly. Is there anything wrong with feeding flake food to a Coral Beauty, who has gotten fat on flake food the past eight months, or should I use some kind of prepared food occasionally.
2 oscellaris clowns
1 Lrg Tomato Clown
1 Lrg Coral Beauty

 

[b_ball12_99]

There is nothing wrong with feeding flake food. Just rotate the food from every day or 2. Flake food has more protein for your fish than most other foods anyways. I'd keep using it some if I was you. Fish will chose what tastes better for them if given the choice.

 

[amphiprion]

It's always best to feed a variety of foods to your fish. It improves their coloring, helps them ward off disease.
The person at the LFS should have told you that Copperbanded Butterflies will very rarely eat flake food. Did this one ever eat for you?
You also should be feeding your pygmy angel some sort of greens - Seaweed Selects or Dried Nori from the grocery store.
Flake foods also contain alot of phosphate which can screw up your water and cause algae blooms.

 

[kingklowntrigguh]

B ball is right, flake is good for the fish, but you should try to use a variety of foods, also you can get a liquid called zoen, I use it many times for my fish. It increases your fish's immune system. But, you can't use it on flake only on frozen meats, and live food.

 

[dugan]

I have had pretty good luck feeding a diet of flake food, frozen brine shrimp, and Nori to my fish.

Katie

 

[nasukan]

My Copper Banded Butterfly picked at the rocks for about a month and a half. Then he got skinnier and one morning I woke up and he was trapped against the filter, and I cut off the filter and he swam away. Later I cut the filter back on and within five minutes he was back on it. So I was finally merciful. I've learned my lfs is a joke. I bought some seaweed selects for the cbf, but he wouldn't eat that either, I give it to my baby, the coral beauty, about twice a week. I didn't know what to feed him until I got marine fishes, and found this board, and by that time it was too late. The lfs said seaweed selects. I'll probably get some brine shrimp when I get a Longnose.

 

[uel]

I have always been very leery of flake food. If you read the ingredients you will see many that don't come from the ocean and won't break down in saltwater. When I did use them years ago, my filter media was nasty! Now it would take months of neglect for it to look like it used to after only 3 weeks. I feed my tanks brine shrimp, plankton, and Seaweed Selects. My Tangs (2) and pygmy angels (2, including a CB) tear it up. I don't feed anything else when I put in the S.S. I feed the other fish after the Tangs and Angels have eaten the S.S.. I am looking for a good frozen food that contains some greens that the fish need. If anyone uses a product like that, please pass it along.

 

[denisec]

I use flake when I'm in a hurry about once every day or so but only a tiny pinch so the greedy little guys eat it all up and it doesn't make it to the filter media. I am one of the people that agrees that variety is the way to go.