am I under feeding my fish?

[nitrofish]

I feed my fish once a day, but they always seem hungry. im wondering if I should be feeding them more?

heres what I have:

medium blue hippo tang
medium yelow tang
sm. marron clown
phsudochromis
6 line wrass
mandrin
coral banded shrimp
brittle starfish

what Im feeding them:
1/2" x1/2 chunk of fish goo once a day

125 gallon aquarium.

what do you think?

 

[smcnally]

Are you feeding Nori? The tangs should be eating nori all day. My two tangs will eat a 4x8 sheet of nori in a day, and now that I added my angel I have to put a whole sheet in.

 

[meemoo]

I usually feed flake in the morn and frozen at night give them a little variety plus my kids like to feed them so I have the opposite problem am I overfeeding.

 

[Ray]

I feed a bit on the heavy side, less then you but 2-3x a day then skip a day 1x per week

My trigger will eat a 1/2 sheet in 10 sec, the sohal will pick at it all day

 

[Gina McReeferson]

We feed three times daily, but it is probably not neccessary, I would recommend at least twice however. Nori should be fed as well (in addition to the regular feedings) for the tangs, you may even find the wrasse will eventually take an interest in it as well... Plus, Nori will add variety to their diet, and this is key for long term health and happiness I believe.

-Dave

Edit - Keep in mind, in the wild fish eat small amounts all day long, that's all they do other than fighting and mating, eat, eat, eat. It would be best to mimic this as closely as possible (within reason of course) I would think.



Edit again - I should add that we also have a few Anthias in there, and from what we know, they have a faster metabolism then most fish, it is suggested that they eat a few times a day.

-Gina

 

[NateHanson]

Your diet sounds like plenty to me Jeff. I'd add some nori in there for the yellow (maybe the hippo will eat it too).

 

[MarkO]

I'm not convinced on the 3X a day recommendation. Not sure where it originated.
I hate to admit it, but I barely feed my fish. On average, t's about 3-4 times a week. Most of them are grazers, so I see them picking all day long. I also have a mandrin that I've never seen take the food I feed. I've also gone on long vacations 7-10 days without a feeding. Some of my fish are 5 years old.

If I had a fish only tank or a freshwater, I'm sure I'd feed more. But with the reef tank, it's like it has it's own entire self contained food chain.

 

[smcnally]

Your diet sounds like plenty to me Jeff. I'd add some nori in there for the yellow (maybe the hippo will eat it too).

My hippo chows Nori.

 

[Gina McReeferson]

Really Mark? 7-10 days without a feeding, and they're all alive when you come home? Do you only have a few fish?

As David mentioned, we probably overfeed, but I love how excited they get when we go over to the tank with the food. We used to feed twice a day but now with the Anthias in there, we started to feed 3 times.

-Gina

 

[MikeG]

I feed every other day 1-2 cubes of frozen and probably put some nori in about once a week. I agree with Mark that the fish can get a lot of food grazing on the reef all day and eating pods and mysis ect.

I have 1 clown, 1 sailfin tang, 3 female anthias, 1 male anthias, 1 red margin wrasse, 1 scotts wrasse, 1 lineatus wrasse, and 1 laboutei wrasse in a 125.

 

[MarkO]

I'm prolly going to get flamed here, but here goes.
I've lost fish over the years, but I don't think I ever lost one due to starvation. The losses have usually been a result of my carpet anemone (which I removed..... I could have been underfeeding him), and jumpers... but the jumpers were wrasses and a few of my green chromis. Maybe they jumped they were not being fed enough???? But then again, I've heard these fish are known to jump.

Here's my current fish stick:
Purple tang
Powder blue tang
Saddleback clown
Flame Angel
2 green chromis
blue damsel
yellowtail damsel
mandarin.

I also have a few shrimp, crabs, serpent stars, snails, sea cukes.... and a few other grazers.
Now all of this is in a 150 with about 300#'s of LR and a 55 gal sump. I also haven't been runing a skimmer for the past 6 months or so. I'll prolly get flamed for that too
Now by no means amd I saying this is recommended. I think my tank is probably pretty established, so there is probably more natural food to go around than in other tanks. This wouldn't be possible in a FO or a freshwater b/c the lights in my tank generates a lot of algae which is the source of the food chain.

But I like to admit, I really like having a low maintenance tank. Most of the work is my glass scraping, which I do about once every 3 days. Then comes the water changes where I do it about once per month, maybe every 6 weeks (15-20%). Then I'd say semi-annually I clean the pumps and other equip.

 

[Gina McReeferson]

I'm not convinced on the 3X a day recommendation. Not sure where it originated.

I wouldn't say it is required. It is also not always a neccesity to directly feed most LPS, but, by directly feeding regularly, you will see accelerated growth, and most of our LPS look their happiest in the day or two after a good feeding, I can't help but think supplementary feeding will also benifit fish in the same manner.

With a lightly stocked tank it is probably less of an issue as well, as food sources occuring naturally within the tank are'nt as quickly depleted. Our tank is much more heavily stocked than the tanks mentioned in this thread as well, so our circumstances are a bit different.

As far as the origin of the theory I can't say, the way I look at it, if they are hungry, I let them eat (within reason).

On top of this, I enjoy the interaction with our tank inhabitants, it is cool to have them recognize you and follow you about, I can't help but feed a little when I notice one of our fish giving me the eye and following me around the edge of the tank. Many of our fish and inverts will eat directly from our hands after a while of training, the feeding is part of the pleasure of running this reef for us , and it does take a bit to justify what we put into it after all .

Just my thoughts,
-Dave

 

[MarkO]

The best part of having the reef is being able to enjoy it. Feeding time is always enjoyable for all involved (it's the request I get most from guests). The fish like it too .
But you are right, my tank is relatively low stocked and I admit I have a ton of LR and a deep sandbed loaded with natural food sources.
If there is anything I've learned in this hobby is there's a bunch of ways to skin a cat. So if it works for you, who am I to argue?
I guess my point is there are probably greater things to worry about concerning the health of your fish than in the feeding. Power outages, heaters stuck on, calc. reactor problems, RO dillution, natural predatation, etc... have caused more harm and I've lost more fish/corals than by feeding not enough.
One final note. Like I said, I feed minimally, but my fish still display great color and look helthy. Much better than what i've seen at stores, or in the dentists office. Those fish get fed a lot more than mine, but I believe it's the re-creation of a more realistic habitat that bring out my fishes colors... at least that's my theory.

 

[TomD]

Probably correct about the tangs with the nori but as far as other fish, I feed mine every other day and they are all healthy.

I feed a combo rotation of Omega 1 pellets, Mysis, zooplankton, cycloeeze.....

 

[nitrofish]

ok thanks for the suggestions, ill pick up a feeding clip and start giving them some nori to pick at all day.

 

[NateHanson]

I wouldn't say it is required. It is also not always a neccesity to directly feed most LPS, but, by directly feeding regularly, you will see accelerated growth, and most of our LPS look their happiest in the day or two after a good feeding, I can't help but think supplementary feeding will also benifit fish in the same manner.

Not necessarily, if we extrapolate from mammals to fish. Lab animals given much lower-calorie diets generally live up to twice as long as animals on typical diets, and apparently studies of humans have shown a similar trend (although not as dramatic). Certainly you don't want to underfeed your fish to the point of them losing weight, but they may not be healthier with more food.

Regardless of all that though, I'd say the primary consideration for feeding is whether the tank is clean and the fish are healthy. If you don't have algae, detritus on the sand, etc, etc, then you don't have an overfeeding problem. On the other end, if your fish look healthy, then I think it's safe to say you're not underfeeding. Anything in between is just a matter of preference and personal style.

 

[merk1_99]

Now I know I have an extremely light bio-load. But I only feed a 4 x 4 pc of Nori 5 times a week. I only have a YT and a big maroon clown. I did have a LMB but he jumped. Though he grew into the largest LMB I have ever seen. And even sometime this winter when I get a fish or two I am not going to feed. I will make sure that I don't get any wrasse pod-snipers. My two fish are extremely fat. I watch the yellow tang pick off the rocks and glass while the clown eats anything from small bristle worms, to pods, to spaghetti worms, to live mysis.
I used to have algae problems. Now that I have stopped feeding the tank no more algae problems. My snails, crabs, mini star fish and such are all not suffering either....I think if you balance the bioload correctly once the cycle and tank are mature the tank will virtually sustain itself.
I love wrasses but I am worried that if I get one it will disturb my little ecosystem by decimating the pod population. So I will have to think long and hard about it.
I may get flamed for being cruel or something but I'll stack my two fish up against a daily or multiple day feeder same two fish and we will see whose would look healthier. I used to think it was cruel but it has easily been 6 months since I added anything but Nori. And I only add Nori because the Algae growth in the tank could never support my YT.

My next experiment I think will be to use aged tap water instead of RO/DI...I don't buy that a mature tank with a low bioload can't take up the extra nutrients without going all cyano/hair algae....

 

[RichConley]

merk, if you're worried about pods and wrasses, stay away from leopards, lined wrasses, and halichoeres.

Fairy and Flashers are fair game though, as theyre planktivores.

 

[MikeG]

Many of our fish and inverts will eat directly from our hands after a while of training, the feeding is part of the pleasure of running this reef for us , and it does take a bit to justify what we put into it after all .

Just my thoughts,
-Dave

All of my fish and my cleaner shrimp will eat right out of my hand as well, it is pretty neat.

 

[CaptainAndy]

Ive been diving and fishing for over 40 years. Though different types of fish graze all day long, many follow a diurnal eating pattern. Seem to eat mostly at dawn and dusk.

I feed my fish small amounts of goo, mysis, Sprung flakes and pellets 4 times a day. I have a fairly high fish bioload (moorish idol, goldflake and regal angel, along with the LR, SPS, clams, etc and the two morning and two evening feeds seem to do the trick.