My Fish Are Acting Like They Are Always Hungry?

[Ryan S]

I feel like my fish could eat nonstop all day long... They move around the tank quickly, constantly looking for food, but I think I am OVERfeeding them already not underfeeding them. (the pbt is never full it seems).

 

I have an autofeeder giving them dry food twice per day (formula 1 pellets), and I give them a chunk of diy frozen food when i get home. lately i have also been giving them extra servings at night of frozen mysis, or reef flakes (so that totals 4-5 feedings per day). but i still feel like they are still hungry? is it just in my head?

 

and neither of my tangs (none of the fish for that matter) will touch the nori sheets i put in the tank. is there a way to get them to eat it? i thought tangs love that stuff?

 

fish list (all small)

 

1 powder blue tang

1 sailfin tang

5 lyretail anthias

5 dispar anthias

1 mccoskers flasher wrasse

1 blue head fairy wrasse

3 blue eye cardinals

3 banggai cardinals

[Coral Hind]

Anthias have a very fast metabolism and they require multiple feedings a day. If my tangs have a choice between nori and anything else they will pick anything else.

[Fishie]

Use the dainichi pellets ...they have a lot of green veggies in them and good for tangs...my tangs love it...their color is good ...and it doesn't cloud up the tank at all....the best pellet I've used ever.

[Ryan S]

Anthias have a very fast metabolism and they require multiple feedings a day. If my tangs have a choice between nori and anything else they will pick anything else.

 

Should I increase the feedings on the automatic feeder you think? 4 instead of 2 during the day? (every 2 hours or so)?

 

the anthias dont like the pellets that much. they love the frozen mysis. should i get freeze dried frozen mysis for the autofeeder?

 

Use the dainichi pellets ...they have a lot of green veggies in them and good for tangs...my tangs love it...their color is good ...and it doesn't cloud up the tank at all....the best pellet I've used ever.

 

another weird thing about my PBT.... he doesnt like the formula two flakes (which are more veggie for tangs i believe); but he will go nuts for frozen mysis... i thought tangs were vegetarians? maybe i just have a weird tang...

 

i will try the dainichi pellets. will give anything a shot. going to try Jan's DIY food as well.

Edited March 20, 2012 by Ryan S

[Fishie]

I've never see anything reject frozen my sis...not sure of its nutrional value ...I used to avoid it cause it's messy food.

 

But I plan to go back to some meaty stuff again to treat the once a week...ATM I only use dainichi and nori....what nori are u using ..red or green..

Sometimes they learn from watching...I've had all my tangs eat nori after seeing the wrasse devour it.

[Ryan S]

I've never see anything reject frozen my sis...not sure of its nutrional value ...I used to avoid it cause it's messy food.

 

But I plan to go back to some meaty stuff again to treat the once a week...ATM I only use dainichi and nori....what nori are u using ..red or green..

Sometimes they learn from watching...I've had all my tangs eat nori after seeing the wrasse devour it.

 

i have red green and purple. they dont eat any. maybe i can soak it in garlic, and then they will try it?

[Fishie]

Try sticking it under a rock to make it look more natural to them and have a couple tiny pieces float around to maybe have them taste it while swimming.

[Jan]

Just wait another day or so until they sample my food. No joke. They'll all eat and get fat.

[Coral Hind]

My anthias and cleaner wrasse love the cyclops which Jan puts in her food mixture. What type of auto feeder do you have?

 

 

[Ryan S]

My anthias and cleaner wrasse love the cyclops which Jan puts in her food mixture. What type of auto feeder do you have?

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001F2117I/ref=pe_175190_21431760_cs_sce_dp_1_B

 

this one.

[steveoutlaw]

My anthias and cleaner wrasse love the cyclops which Jan puts in her food mixture. What type of auto feeder do you have?

 

Jan puts a whole cyclops in her food? Where does one actually find a cyclops?

[Ryan S]

For those of you that have anthias, or use an auto feeder, how often do you run it? And what do you put into the feeder? Should I mix various dry foods like Prime Reef Flakes, Formula One Small Pellets, and freeze dried mysis shrimp?

 

(Right now I am using the Formula One Small Pellets. I am not sure I *could* mix that with the freeze dried mysis or pellets, because the eheim auto feeder has a small door that the food falls out of, and if i make it too wide for the bigger foods, the pellets will just pour into the tank. I am not sure it's meant to be used with more than 1 type of food for this reason...)

Edited March 20, 2012 by Ryan S

[Der ABT]

i used to use an auto feeder but after my battery incident i havent used one unless im out of town.

all my fish love jan's or scotts food...with all the stuff they put in there its hard to not like it.

 

like you my tangs didnt know what nori was for a couple of months...seriously...id put a big piece in there and let it sit for as long as it stayed together...tangs wouldnt touch it...finally just started putting long smaller pieces held by a magfloat and they eventually started grazing on the nori...now they attack that stuff.

 

i mix some flakes and pellets (formula two i think it is which is the green bottle, and the free food we get at wamas meetings which is a little more meaty when i do use the auto feeder.

my anthias love the pellets but also eat some flakes, just give them time...they will be hungry always...

and if its freeze dried mysis or somethign you can always break it up/grind it so that its big enough if you feel thats necessary.

 

another way not to waste food is to have the food drop either in a piece of pvc, or a pvc coupler that traps taht food in there till it sinks so it is not just flowing down the overflow...saw ctenophore's set up and made my own out of a 2 inch coupler and a twist tie...works really well.

[ErikS]

For those of you that have anthias, or use an auto feeder, how often do you run it? And what do you put into the feeder?

Heretic alert - what I am about to say goes against the grain.

 

Have an Eheim feeder & use exclusively Formula One & Two (mixed). Small pellet size. I use it so exclusively that I buy it in the 14oz size. Feed 2x a day - all food is gone in under 2 minutes (mostly in 1 minute). All the fish are trained, the know the time & place for food. Covers all the groups - clown, chromis, tang, angels (both Centropyge & Genicanthus)............in fact one is a Genicanthus watanabei - not known as the easiest fish to keep.

 

Longest lived on this diet is the Centropyge, 8+ years (he's also close to 15), same with clown. The purple tang is more like 5 or so, and the two angels are maybe three years old. All are so far healthy.

 

You are correct, the Eheim is not really designed to feed multiple foods - sized for one it will dump a ton of smaller & little of larger.

 

I feel like my fish could eat nonstop all day long...

That's because we do overfeed them. Fish are wired to hunt for food all day - it's much harder to find in the wild, they often go days without food = survival means taking food whenever you can find it.

 

Jan puts a whole cyclops in her food? Where does one actually find a cyclops?

Greek islands, easy to catch (only have the one eye) - lots of work chopping them up into food sized pieces.

Edited March 20, 2012 by ErikS

[hlem]

I have two auto feeders. each goes off 4 times a day. and I think I set 3-4 of those round to spin twice each time it goes off. So my total auto feeder is like 10-12 times a day. And manually feed home made frozen, 2 whole nori sheets, and flakes 3-4 times a week. and my fish are always seems to be looking for food.

 

I think actively looking is a good sign of healthy fish. Would you have that or fish that is always hiding?

[trockafella]

Tangs would be herbivores before vegatarians.

[.OptimusPrime.]

Geez...against everyone else it sounds like im underfeeding my fish...

 

2x/day 4days/wk

 

Maybe its time to feed everyday?

 

At least I don't feel as bad now when my tang doesn't eat the nori i put in the tank since others have had similar situations...but he does spend all day grazing and picking at stuff all over the tank walls/rocks/sand so I guess thats a sign he's happy/healthy?

[ErikS]

Geez...against everyone else it sounds like im underfeeding my fish...

Nah, you're probably closer what we should be doing. In the wild they likely don't eat every day (hence the hard wiring). Less food = less waste = less pollution.

 

Anthromorphic thoughts like "happy" are, well, incorrect - fish don't know from happy.

 

Are they healty & active? Good to go.

[hlem]

In the wild they likely don't eat every day (hence the hard wiring).

 

hmm.... where did you hear this?

[Jan]

Everyday I feed my mix in the AM, half sheet of nori in the afternoon or evening and then another helping of my mix afternoon or evening. All my fish eat NORI; red, green and brown. Every now and then I feed just mysis....oh and forgot clams on a half shell.

Edited March 20, 2012 by Jan

[ErikS]

hmm.... where did you hear this?

Been discussed more than once, only stands to reason - weather, predators, mating/spawning..........may not eat every day. Heck, humans don't need to eat every day

[tightline]

Should I increase the feedings on the automatic feeder you think? 4 instead of 2 during the day? (every 2 hours or so)?

 

the anthias dont like the pellets that much. they love the frozen mysis. should i get freeze dried frozen mysis for the autofeeder?

 

 

 

another weird thing about my PBT.... he doesnt like the formula two flakes (which are more veggie for tangs i believe); but he will go nuts for frozen mysis... i thought tangs were vegetarians? maybe i just have a weird tang...

 

i will try the dainichi pellets. will give anything a shot. going to try Jan's DIY food as well.

 

 

my tangs LOVE sea food (Frozen shrimp chopped in prossesor and any fish IE fresh bass sneakhead ) they would rather eat it than anything else

[tightline]

i used to use an auto feeder but after my battery incident i havent used one unless im out of town.

all my fish love jan's or scotts food...with all the stuff they put in there its hard to not like it.

 

like you my tangs didnt know what nori was for a couple of months...seriously...id put a big piece in there and let it sit for as long as it stayed together...tangs wouldnt touch it...finally just started putting long smaller pieces held by a magfloat and they eventually started grazing on the nori...now they attack that stuff.

 

i mix some flakes and pellets (formula two i think it is which is the green bottle, and the free food we get at wamas meetings which is a little more meaty when i do use the auto feeder.

my anthias love the pellets but also eat some flakes, just give them time...they will be hungry always...

and if its freeze dried mysis or somethign you can always break it up/grind it so that its big enough if you feel thats necessary.

 

another way not to waste food is to have the food drop either in a piece of pvc, or a pvc coupler that traps taht food in there till it sinks so it is not just flowing down the overflow...saw ctenophore's set up and made my own out of a 2 inch coupler and a twist tie...works really well.

 

i added a feeding tube hooked into my returne line with a t 1in pvc added a ball valve (spell check) 6in off the bottom hid in rocks put food in open the valve as little or as much as i want puts food in all places and dont have to kill the pumbs

Edited March 20, 2012 by tightline

[Ryan S]

Have an Eheim feeder & use exclusively Formula One & Two (mixed). Small pellet size. I use it so exclusively that I buy it in the 14oz size. Feed 2x a day - all food is gone in under 2 minutes (mostly in 1 minute). All the fish are trained, the know the time & place for food. Covers all the groups - clown, chromis, tang, angels (both Centropyge & Genicanthus)............in fact one is a Genicanthus watanabei - not known as the easiest fish to keep.

 

Thanks for posting this. I'll get some Formula Two pellets (small) and mix them with my Formula One pellets (small). That should cover everyone in the tank. Then no need to worry about different sized foods in the auto feeder. Plus I like the small pellets because they sink slowly in the tank which allows them to float all over and for everyone to have a shot at eating them.