How much, really, do you feed your fish??

[CHUBAKAH]

I need to weigh in here too...looking for advice / reccos.

 

I have a 350 with about a 60 gallon sump and a 10 gallon fuge with Chaeto. I have about 350 pounds of Alor Live rock (most in tank, some in sump). There is a total of about 40 fish in the tank to include one Diamond / Gold spot Goby that constantly works the sand bed. I do 10% water changes every week. The tank has been up about 14 months and until recently had 0 nitrates. They are now creeping up (within last 2 months). Tested last night and I am at 10 - 15 ppm.

 

What has changed recently?

 

1) I used to vac / siphone my sand bed every week when I did the water change. I stopped that when I got the diamond goby (about 3 months ago).

2) I have recently added about 15 of the 40 fish

 

I feed (probably overfeed) once a day and alternate between Mysis, Rods, and Ocean Nutrition cubes. Example portion size would be 4 O.N. cubes with a 2" x 2" chunk of Rod's or Mysis. I also mix Reef Snow or Tropic Marin SPS food (powder mixed in water) to the food mixture and let it thaw in the fridge over night. The solid food is usualy gone within 5 minutes...the powder SPS food lightly particulates the water column a bit longer.

 

So...what do you think? Too much food...Too many fish...Start vacuuming the sand bed again. Thanks for your help! Dave

Dave,

Did you also pull the Neozeo stones and reactor? That would be my answer for your "sudden" increase of nutrients if so. I think you told me you pulled the plug on the Neozeo method, but not sure which part of it.

 

Mark

[mchippo]

Hey Mark,

 

Yes, I pulled it Stones and all. Coral was bleached and my LPSs/softies were shriveled when I was Neozeoing and my Nitrates were at zero. I may add the reactor back in now that I have a full compliment of fish and increasing nitrates.

 

It also sounds like I am feeding way too much. I will cut back on that as well.

 

Not sure about the Snow and Powder...or the flake food...

 

What do you do?

 

Can anyone tell me a good flake to use?

[lhcorals]

All i feed is frozen, my nitrates are 10 and phosphates undetectable. Every other day a sheet of Nori for the 5 Tangs and 2 Triggers. I do twice a week feeding for my corals ( consist of Mysis, H2O frozen coral food, Oyster eggs by Reef nutrition, and once a week Phyto Pheast. My fish are healthy and corals growing nicely and great color.

[mchippo]

Thanks lhcorals....

 

The challenge and frustration with this hobby is finding what works best for your tank. Of course I mean that in a positive way...

 

I forgot to mention that I feed a sheet of Nori once a week as well...

[dano]

I bought a package of 100 roasted nori sheets to make sushi. Can I use the roasted nori for the tangs? Also, I have never rinsed off the mysis cubes, just defrosted in some water. If I am only feeding once or twice a week should I be rinsing it? thanks. Dano

[Jon Lazar]

I bought a package of 100 roasted nori sheets to make sushi. Can I use the roasted nori for the tangs? Also, I have never rinsed off the mysis cubes, just defrosted in some water. If I am only feeding once or twice a week should I be rinsing it? thanks. Dano

 

My herbivores love the roasted nori.

 

After defrosting mysis shrimp, I drain the sloppy goo and then target feed it to my sps.

[paul b]

If I am only feeding once or twice a week should I be rinsing it? thanks. Dano

 

I would never put any of that stuff that you rinse off frozen food in my tank. Corals eat tiny particles, not that liquid suspension that is a waste produce of frozen food. It all goes to nitrate production. Thats why my nitrates are under five in a 40 year old tank with hardly any water changes.

[lanman]

I have now cut back my feeding to that tank by about half. The fish would like more, I'm sure - but time will tell if they are going to get skinny, develop HLLE, or anything like that.

 

How long would you assume it might take before I will notice a difference??

 

bob

[Jon Lazar]

I would guess that you'd see a change after a couple of weeks. A while back I pulled all of my fish out for about six weeks and put them into quarantine. I had about 10-20ppm nitrate, if I remember correctly, and when I returned the fish the nitrates were zero. I don't know at what point during that six weeks they hit zero though.

[Origami]

How long would you assume it might take before I will notice a difference??

 

Bob, since you've effectively cut your bioload, I would expect that you should begin to see a difference within a week or two.

[paul b]

I have now cut back my feeding to that tank by about half. The fish would like more, I'm sure - but time will tell if they are going to get skinny, develop HLLE, or anything like that.

 

Some of my fish lived to 18 years old. My fireclown is 16 and spawning as many of my fish are. Most of my fish die of old age so I feel their diet is sufficient.

[lanman]

Some of my fish lived to 18 years old. My fireclown is 16 and spawning as many of my fish are. Most of my fish die of old age so I feel their diet is sufficient.

 

Paul - it sounds like you feed yours better quality food; live black worms, salmon eggs, etc. I am not a fish guy - I'm a coral guy. The fish are for decoration, and to supply fish poop to the corals. Nonetheless - while I'm new to the hobby, I've had good luck with fish. I introduced a Kole Tang with Ich a year or so ago, losing him and one other small fish. Other than that, I have had almost all of my fish for the 2.5 years I've been at this, plus those I've picked up as I added tank size. I was being facetious about my fish starving. I'm sure I've been over-feeding them. But it's hard to resist, when they all line up every time I walk into the room. I mean - look at them begging!

 

bob

[paul b]

I am also a coral guy. I feed some of my corals blackworms and some salmon eggs. This 11" cup coral just ate a salmon egg.

 

[Jon Lazar]

paul b,

 

Is that the neck of a beer bottle I see in your tank? That's going pretty far to recreate realistic ocean conditions

 

Are you sure beer isn't the secret ingredient behind your success?

 

Jon

 

 

I am also a coral guy. I feed some of my corals blackworms and some salmon eggs. This 11" cup coral just ate a salmon egg.

 

[Boret]

Paul B,

 

It is really cool having you over here throwing tons of information. I have been following some of your threads on RC.

I am not sure if it had been said before but WELCOME to WAMAS!!!

Are you moving to the DC area?

 

Now, back to the topic at hand.

 

I used to feed very little on my 55 because everyone said "Be careful!! Don't overfeed!!"

 

With very little food, a pinch of flakes every 3 days, my fish survived.... however the corals didn't thrive. I wasn't getting a lot of growth and I was running 500W of 10k MH lights over that tank, topping off with Kalk saturated water and running a Ca Reactor.

 

Now I have a 92 with a 400W 20k MH and I am seeing tremendous growth. My husbandry has improved, sure.... but overall, the big difference is that I feed more and more often. Almost once a day, and a make it a different type of food every time.

 

I made my own concoction (loosely based on online recipes with mussels, calamari, shrimp, nori) and I also have at my disposal Rod's Food, Spirulina, Marine Snow, Garlic Extract, pellets, Nori, spectrum flakes, ChromaPlex, Phytoplankton, Brine Shrimp, Mysis, Formula1, Coral Food cubes, cyclopeeze, etc... all in the freezer in the garage. I just pick one or two, mixed them in a plastic cup with tank water and feed that, or clip a piece of Nori, or throw some flakes. My fish never know what is coming!!

 

The point is, my corals look fantastic now. Great coloration, amazing growth (comparing it to the growth in the 55).

I am over skimming, using a MSX300 (rated for 600gallons) in about 130 gallon system so I don't feel the food I throw in pollutes the water. My Ni are very low and no Phosphate... and I don't even rinse the frozen food. But the livestock is very young, the oldest being probably the yellow tang at 1 and a 1/2 years.

[paul b]

Jon, there are no beer bottles in my tank, only fine Cognac like Grand Marnier and Cauvasier. There are probably 8 or 10 bottles in there many of which I picked up while diving and are antiques.

Maybe that is the secret.

 

Borat, thanks, No I am not moving to DC although I have been to the Viet Nam wall a few times.

It could be the additional food making the corals look better but I doubt it. Now you have a different system and it could be anything like the lighting spectrum, water chemistry, circulation or any number of things. I don't like to feed flakes but I do sometimes if I soak them in fish oil.

I know you are feeding a variety of things but some of those things are not necessarilly the best thing although they are pretty good. I would just get a little more fish oil into that recipe. The chopped mussels are good and mysis are also but you need some more fish oil. Maybe you could incorporate some saltwater fish eggs or live blackworms in there somewhere. You don't really need the calamari or shrimp but it won't hurt. If you could get whole shrimp with the head and guts that would be better along with whole squid or maybe some small saltwater fish with the guts. The guts in any animal is where the nutrition is, thats where the oil is which is the most important part of a fishes (or coral) diet. A fish could be 1/4 liver and that liver is full of oil. In the sea fish eat whole shrimp, whole squid and while fish not just fillets like we eat.

 

Edited July 5, 2009 by paul b

[lanman]

Love the bottles!!

 

After three water changes of 20-35 gallons in a week, my nitrate crisis is over. Now, with the lower feed, maybe I can KEEP them that way!

 

bob

[Origami]

Keep us posted on how you're faring, Bob.

[paul b]

I just did one of the things that I love to do which I have mentioned before. I removed a bottle that I have not emptied in years and dumped it out in a flask to check out what is living in there. It is an entire eco system. There was a nice strand of seaweed growing right in the center like a mineature garden or bonsai tree. The thing was just teeming with pods, worms and all sorts of other cool little things. This to me is what makes this hobby so interesting. I sometimes get more excited to watch this stuff than my fish.

I had to do some work on the tank because I have a small auto feeder mainly for the hippo tang that puts a few flakes and pellets in the tank in case I don't show up for a couple of days.

I heard the thing cycle and the surface of the water was covered with flakes. The top came off the feeder and about a can of flakes went into the tank. I skimmed a lot of it out but the rest sunk so I had to get out the diatom filter and do a thorough cleaning. As I was doing that I found the coral that I had been looking for that my urchin transported into a cave. It seems fine.

I also did a little aquascaping to re position all the rocks the urchin moved and to re pile anything that had fell.

I also have a problem with corals toppling onto each other so I fixed most of that problem. I also added a few very pregnant grass shrimp. The fish will enjoy that. Tomorrow I will collect some more of those which seem larger this year for some reason.

They are all around my boat along with zillions of amphipods.

That all goes intio the tank.

Have a great day, whats left to it.

[paul b]

My bluestripped pipefish are again very pregnant. If I look close I can see the tiny stringy little babies stuck in his pouch under his belly.

No I can't get a picture. Those things are impossable to photograph. They are always in a cave and usually in the back of the tank chasing the baby brine.

The only thing bad about having spawning fish, is that you can hardly ever see them. I also have 4 large watchman gobies that are also always spawning but they hang around their nest all the time which is also in the back. Fire clowns too.

I am trying to get the bumblebee gobies to spawn and I don't know if they are as they hide too. I see all of these guys when I dump some baby brine in there or put one of those undersea shows on the TV.

[paul b]

Today was an interesting day of boating and collecting. I went to my usual place at low tide, the tide pool goes under a road and on the other side there is a lake that spills over these 20' long walls ibnto this tide pool. At high tide the lake is almost the same height as the sea.

Anyway these walls are about 4 or 5' high with freshwater spilling over into the salt water. The walls look like they are made of barnacles. There are no cement patches, it is all barnacles. As I was checking them out as I always do I noticed the walls loked like they were crawling with something. At first I thought it was just the barnacles which a lot of it was (I didn't have my reading glasses on) Then I noticed it was tiny creatures, different from any amphipods I have ever seen, and I have seen more amphipods then most people, believe me.

These things look like tiny trillobites about 3/16" long. There were billions of them.

I collected a bunch along with sheets of barnacles to put in my reef. I know the barnacles will not live more than a month but I am curious about these "pods". Wierd.

I also collected a few hermit crabs for my local tank.

We tried to get some blue claw crabs for dinner but all we got were two, so we let them go. One of them was the largest blue claw I have ever seen.

I am going back tomorrow then tuesday it is the south shore for tropicals.

 

Barnacles

 

NY hermits

[steveoutlaw]

Can anyone tell me a good flake to use?

 

I use the Ocean Nutrition Formula One flake and the Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef Flake mixed 1/2 and 1/2. The fish seem to love the stuff and I put a lot in for only having 2 clowns and a Yellow Tang.

[capsfan]

For my 55, I feed the fish until my firefish can get some food (Those aggressive clowns ). In the 2.5, I only have one fish so I throw in about 4 pieces of dry food every couple of days.