Overfeeding, underfeeding, super special frozen food...

[kmcmurtry]

I keep reading on other forums that members are feeding only maybe 3 days a week. All this time, I have been serving breakfast and dinner every day or spirulina brine shrimp, sometimes mysis and whatever else is in marine cuisine. If I could pare it down to 3 days, that would be awesome, but I don't want anybody to starve either.

How often is everyone feeding and what do you personally think is the easiest and most loved diet by your fish? If you feed frozen, can you just thaw out a week's worth and keep it in liquid form in a container in the fridge for many days or is that a no-no?

 

[chrislorentz]

I feed about every 2 or 3 days

 

[Off The Deep End]

I feed once or twice a week.

 

[coloagro]

I feed lightly every other day. I hand feed thawed mysis to the coral & fish as well as some frozen "reef stew" from Elite that i thaw in tank water for the 2 clowns. They are always beggin for food but I have ZERO Nitrates and .03 Phosphates so my little plan seems to be working great. I stay away from flake food due to the formentioned negatives

 

[Bouncer]

My two Black and White Ocellaris Clownfish are hand feed every other day, Elite Reef Marine Cuisine. I will also supplement some Elos SVM2 pellets. The Emerald Green Crab gets a chunk of nori every other day unless I think he is eyeballing my Maxima Clam. Everyone else does a bang up job keeping the tank clean. H2O parameters are perfect.

 

[Wicked Color]

Nothing is going to starve, unless you have BIG fish, or predators, no need to feed daily.

 

[kmcmurtry]

wow, I'm glad I asked - thanks everyone!

 

[KhensuRa]

I thaw out about three to five worth of feed and keep it in the fridge in a bottle. Sometimes I feed everyday and some times I skip a day. When I am in a hurry I toss in some pellets.

 

[tlsrcs]

i feed brine and a Formula 1 cube and some flake about every 3 days between 2 tanks. By the way any one else use Formula 1? i just started a week or two ago and im not sure how to feed it...I first thought i could throw the whole cube in and it would melt.....i was wrong the maroon clown grabed that thing so fast and hid under a rock(should get some good zoa growth from under there as she/he takes my zoa frags and hides them under the rocks!) so i tried thawing it out and it turns the cup of water red when i thaw it. so i worried about adding that to my tank....anyone got a better way?

 

[kmcmurtry]

I got some of that accidentally the other day and my clowns wouldn't even look at it. It just sat in a glob, but maybe I was supposed to mush it up with a fork or something first? I took it back.

 

[kmcmurtry]

Oh, and the bottle idea sounds cool. I could save the step with the turkey baster, maybe storing it in a squirt bottle instead like one of those ketchup squeeze bottles you buy for the table

 

[Cherub]

I feed once a day a mix of brine and daphnia or pellets. Once in a great while I'll toss in a couple of algae waffers for the CUC but that's very rare. The last couple of times I did my clowns would snatch them up as they sank. Looked like they were playing frisbee lol... shaking around trying to bite it. They eventually let it go.

 

[djkms]

IMO and this is a big IMO because most disagree with me.

Most people starve their fish. In the wild fish eat constantly throughout the day. Just because you can get away with feeding every 2 or 3 days does that mean you should? Imagine if you only ate every 3 days, would you survive? Probably. Would you be happy and healthy? Probably not. Why should we treat our fish any different?

The ONLY reason to underfeed is nutrient control. I can't think of one other good reason to not feed your fish as much as possible. If you have the means to export the nutrients then you should feed your fish as much as possible up to the point your system will allow. At one point when I was lightly stocked with fish and had a ton of macro for nutrient export I was able to feed my fish 5 times a day. Now that I have more fish I only feed 3 times a day but I did have to start vodka/vinegar dosing since my macros alone couldn't keep up and my nutrients starting creeping up. I did get to a point where I could only feed once a day and that is when I started carbon dosing.

Well fed fish will be more active, fight disease better and deal with any adverse situations which may arise better (whatever they may be).

For those wondering I feed small/medium NLS pellets through a auto feeder twice a day and one chunk of PE Mysis and one chunk of Rods Food both soaked in garlic and selcon at night. I also put in a half sheet of Nori daily.

 

[scchase]

What djkms said I go through around 10 pounds of foods a year and still say I underfeed some

 

[hurrafreak]

I feed twice a day when the lights come on and about an hour before they go off. I normally feed a mix of different pellets and different flake foods. Every other day I feed the Elite Reef Food on top of the normal times.

 

[little_fish]

I feed twice a day. I used to feed everyother day, but it really bothered me how skinny my chromis looked. Since feeding more, everyone looks much better and there isnt any of bullying that used to go on between the chromis.

 

[JNG]

I hang nori every day and feed at least once a day, I think along the line mentioned above and keep my fish healthy as possible. I guess if I had a smaller tank or not having a good way of extracting excess nutrients I would probably feed less.

 

[Wicked Color]

Every system is different, I have a lot of grazers and a large pod population, so my fish do eat all day, they just get to be extra piggy when I throw stuff in, you need to gauge and modify your feeding to fit both nutrient control, and nutrition for your animals.

 

[DyM]

Great discussion, I also feed the fish twice a day (agreeing with Kris, Scott, hurrafreak & little fish). Fish love it, are very active, and never have had any sickness.

Main issues is nutrient contol. With 72 gal, 22 fish, and full of coral. I have a sulfur reactor for No3, GFO and drip lanthanum chloride for PO4.

 

[Zooid]

I try to feed mine once a month whether they need it or not.

OK, just kidding I try to feed once a day unless I'm trying to get them to spawn.
I feed them as much as I can when trying to induce spawning (everytime I get near the tank, I throw some food in)