Poll: How much (volume/frequency) do you feed your fish?

[Mr. Microscope]

Let's clarify this:

 

Amount per When per Fish

 

• I always see people say, "don't overfeed your fish", but what the heck does that mean?
  
• I did some research on this topic and found dramatically varied answers.
  
• Granted, we want to avoid algae build up, but we also want happy/healthy fish.
  
• Often, I only see people specify how often to feed, but what is the correct amount?
  

 

Surely, this varies from fish to fish. I'm referring to common nano reef fish (clowns, bangaii, etc.), ignoring fish like anthias that need to be fed multiple times/day or dragonettes that only eat pods.

 

Please specify how you combined your votes in a post.

 

VOTE ON!

 

I do 2-5 1/day. Yes, I have algae issues.

[Spirofucci]

Great question! When I first set up my tank I was very paraniod of over feeding from all that I had read.

 

Ha, now I feed a ton of pellets just to make sure the fish get some and the rest goes to the bottom where the brittle star, hermits and snalis eat the rest. On the days I don't feed just the fish which is 3 -4 time per week, I put a cube of brine shrimp or mysis or oyster eggs along with two capfulls of TLF's marine snow, two pinches of reefcleaners filter feeder stuff and 1/2 cc of selcon in a shot glass and dump it in. I turn off the filter pumps and crank up the MP10 to full blast for 30 - 60 min.

 

Great question, because I'm sure you'll get a lot of different responses. I'm interested to see what you get!

[Rollermonkey]

I figure in the wild, animals don't eat exactly the same amount every day, so I don't feed the same every day, either. I feed different things each day, in no set pattern and in different quantity. I am still in the build-up phase of stocking the tank, so I am also slowly adding more food with each new inhabitant.

 

One day, I may feed twice, the next three days only once. I vary the feeding time(s) as well.

 

I do try to make sure that nothing is going hungry for too long, though.

 

My options so far have been frozen cyclopeeze, frozen Mysis, brine in gel, Hikari marine S pellets, Reef Cleaners filter food, Rod's Food and occasional sinking algae pellets.

 

One day, I might put 1/4 cube of cyclopeeze and 10-15 pellets, the next day might be filter food and half a cube of Mysis, the third day, I might be very busy and toss 25-30 pellets in just before the lights go out.

[jedimasterben]

For my general broadcast feed, once daily (sometimes every other day if I forget):

 

1/8 teaspoon NLS Small Fish pellets

1/8 teaspoon Coral Frenzy

1/8 teaspoon 5 micron Golden Pearls

1/8 teaspoon 300-500 micron Golden Pearls

1/4 teaspoon Reef Cleaners Filter Feeder formula

1x whole cube PE/Hikari mysis

1/2 cube Cyclop-eeze

15mL or so live Phyto

5mL Phycopure Copepod blend

1-2mL Aquavitro Fuel

1-2mL Algagen Decap'd brine eggs

 

 

I do at least two more feedings daily, each one consisting of 1/4 teaspoon of the following:

NLS Small fish pellets

Ocean Nutrition F1 pellets

Ocean Nutrition F2 pellets

 

and sometimes

1x whole cube frozen spirulina-enriched brine shrimp

 

 

And two or three times per week, I spot feed my black sun coral, either an entire cube of mysis or 1/2 teaspoon of Ocean Nutrition F1 or NLS pellets.

[Mr. Microscope]

Great question! When I first set up my tank I was very paraniod of over feeding from all that I had read.

 

Ha, now I feed a ton of pellets just to make sure the fish get some and the rest goes to the bottom where the brittle star, hermits and snalis eat the rest. On the days I don't feed just the fish which is 3 -4 time per week, I put a cube of brine shrimp or mysis or oyster eggs along with two capfulls of TLF's marine snow, two pinches of reefcleaners filter feeder stuff and 1/2 cc of selcon in a shot glass and dump it in. I turn off the filter pumps and crank up the MP10 to full blast for 30 - 60 min.

 

Great question, because I'm sure you'll get a lot of different responses. I'm interested to see what you get!

Wow! A whole cube several times/week?!! Your corals must be happy. Do you have any algae issues? How often and what percentage water changes do you do?

 

I like your 30-60 minute feed. I usually target feed, but when I don't i often don't have the return pump off very long

 

I figure in the wild, animals don't eat exactly the same amount every day, so I don't feed the same every day, either. I feed different things each day, in no set pattern and in different quantity.

Sounds like a great approach! Thanks for your input!

 

For my general broadcast feed, once daily (sometimes every other day if I forget):

 

1/8 teaspoon NLS Small Fish pellets

1/8 teaspoon Coral Frenzy

1/8 teaspoon 5 micron Golden Pearls

1/8 teaspoon 300-500 micron Golden Pearls

1/4 teaspoon Reef Cleaners Filter Feeder formula

1x whole cube PE/Hikari mysis

1/2 cube Cyclop-eeze

15mL or so live Phyto

5mL Phycopure Copepod blend

1-2mL Aquavitro Fuel

1-2mL Algagen Decap'd brine eggs

 

 

I do at least two more feedings daily, each one consisting of 1/4 teaspoon of the following:

NLS Small fish pellets

Ocean Nutrition F1 pellets

Ocean Nutrition F2 pellets

 

and sometimes

1x whole cube frozen spirulina-enriched brine shrimp

 

 

And two or three times per week, I spot feed my black sun coral, either an entire cube of mysis or 1/2 teaspoon of Ocean Nutrition F1 or NLS pellets.

That's specific. Very nice info here. Same question for you about algae issues and water changes. What's your routine there?

[Mr. Microscope]

BTW, 132 views and 13 votes!!?? Com'on people. Let's gather some good data here!

[flampton]

I voted sir. And don't call me common.

[Mr. Microscope]

I voted sir. And don't call me common.

lolz! Oops. gotta edit that. Thanks for your vote!

 

How much do you give each fish?

[jedimasterben]

That's specific. Very nice info here. Same question for you about algae issues and water changes. What's your routine there?

No water changes, carbon dosing and Phosguard take care of nutrients. My cleanup crew is nearly triple the standard size for my tank, and I'm always adding more. I had nutrient issues when I stopped carbon dosing (to keep more nitrate in the system for my clams) as often and before I ran Phosguard, but those are cleared up now.

 

And I leave my return pump off for 1-3 hours to let everything eat as much as possible, then run my MP10s on Nutrient Transport Mode to clean up.

[Mojorizn]

I have a 65 with sump, skimmer, bio-pellets. I have an open rockscape and shallow sandbed.

 

Currentyl, I have two clowns and a mixed variety of LPS, SPS, etc.

 

I feed, mysis and pellets, both direct and just tossed in.

No set schedule. I may feed twice a day, once, every other day, 3 times a week or less.

[kgoldy]

I feed multiple times per day- mostly Spectrum brand pellets (2mm and smaller) and Reef Cleaner's Filter Feeder Formula. I broadcast feed only, sprinkling pellets everywhere, and dumping the RC FFF into my "waterfall" that gets dispersed by my MP-40's pretty evenly throughout the tank.

 

I'd estimate a total of 2 tablespoons of each, daily.

 

When I'm not being lazy, I'll put together a soupy mix of about 2 tablespoons PE mysis, 2 tablespoons Cyclopeeze, 2 tablespoons Marine Snow, 2 tablespoons Zooplanktos (Brightwell Aquatics), a heavy soaking of Vitamin C (Brightwell), an olive sized portion of chopped clams and two full eyedroppers of garlic concentrate. This happens like once per week, on average. That I mostly broadcast feed, but try to get the bigger stuff directly on my LPS corals.

 

90 gallon display, 30 gallon fuge w/ mixed alga (mostly caulerpa strains), and 14 gallon "mangrove fuge" that acts as a chaeto scrubber with a deep sandbed. Both fuges have 24 hours of high intensity LED lighting. No skimmer, no filter sock, no carbon, no gfo, no water changes.

 

I usually leave all the pumps on when feeding, since there's no filters to suck it up and waste it- all food floats around until it's eaten. I've got a fair amount of nassarius snails to keep the place clean of big meaty chunks that the LPS can't grab.

 

I did have an algae problem- turf algae. After months of frustration with a CUC that wouldn't touch the stuff, the baby foxface rabbitfish I got cleaned up all pest algae in a matter of days.

[Chew_Magna]

10 gallons, one nano ocilaris (sp?) clown. I just got my first fish a couple days back. So far my feeding is frozen brine and forulmula one. Since I'm feeding so little I just take a knife and shave off a couple slivers and let it fall in the tank. Feeding once a day right now and at odd hours.

[Spirofucci]

Wow! A whole cube several times/week?!! Your corals must be happy. Do you have any algae issues? How often and what percentage water changes do you do?

 

I like your 30-60 minute feed. I usually target feed, but when I don't i often don't have the return pump off very long

 

 

Sounds like a great approach! Thanks for your input!

 

 

That's specific. Very nice info here. Same question for you about algae issues and water changes. What's your routine there?

 

I'm suprised that you don't have more responses! Great topic for agrument and discussion!

 

I do about a 25% w/c weekly with Red Sea Pro salt. I do have some algae, all kinds I think, but always under control with the cuc and a tooth brush! I am planning on a display sump with tons of macro algae for nutrient control,

[patback]

Hard to answer this in a poll since there are soo many possibilities.

 

Nps corals~ 2-5 times a week(depending how lazy I am) and they get a full cube of mysis, full cube of cyclops, ~1- 2tbs of reefcleaners food made into a paste, and pellets at each feeding.

 

Fish eats left overs that float around. Corals do the same.

 

2-3 times a week I feed pellets one by one until my fish show no more interest. ( sounds stupid doing it one by one based on my feeding, but it allows me to interact with my fish)

[Cintax]

I feed my fish a pinch or two of 1mm NLS pellets daily when I get home from work (around 1630 - 1700). My fish also pick at whatever is floating around when I feed my coral. My YWG is hilarious; if you put the tip of the feeding apparatus at his cave entrance he will sit right at the tip of the syringe or turkey baster and take food right out of it. I love feeding my fish live BBS occasionally because they actively swim around hunting them down.

 

I know this thread is about feeding fish but I will expand on my coral feeding as well.

 

Every two to three days I target feed my coral with a random mixture of the following:

Hikari Blood Worms

Hikari Brine Shrimp

H2) Life marine Fusion

PE Mysis

Cyclops

Oyster Eggs

Reef Cleaners coral food

NLS Pellets

NLS Flake

Live Baby Brine Shrimp

SFBB Kril (don't feed since nothing really eats it)

 

I don't really have a specific method of choosing food apart from randomly grabbing the food packets from the freezer. I typically end up using two cubes total though. I like to feed a variety of foods to keep the diet varied. I feel I am pretty lucky because all my coral will take the pellets so I know they are getting nutritionally complete food.

 

I keep mostly LPS but I also have several soft corals, some SPS, three fungia and a Flame tip anemone. The only LPS that I have fed which never seems to actually eat are my Frogspawn. Occasionally I try to give them a shot of meaty food but they seem to just ignore it so I don't feed them directly anymore. They seem healthy and are growing well so I just figure they must get enough from the light and the water column.

[Rollermonkey]

I think the inclusion of what people feed the corals is a good thing. The fish are probably eating any leftovers, and it gives an idea of how much food does or doesn't contribute to algae and the CUC.

[ward827]

I feed M, W, F and weekends off. Helps keep the algae down (which it is, just a few small spots of GHA which I manually remove weekly) and everything is thriving and healthy. Use Spectrum A pellets and sometimes flake. I will do an occasional mysis feeding as well. 10% WC every Friday. Coralife BC14. W-

[chrssprngs]

Broadcast a small pinch of Instant Ocean Marine Chipsdaily when the lights come on at 1:30 or when I get home.

Broadcast a small pinch of Spectrum Thera +A small fish pellots daily.

One cube of frozen Mysis target fed to the Dendros, Acans, Blastos with the smaller bits shot at the Zs and Ps daily.

20 drops of Phytofeast daily.

Cyclop eeze once or twice a week.

 

I do a water change every few months with NSW.

 

I have chaetomorpha in a HOB refugium from Finnex. Had a problem with calerpa for a while but that is gone. A couple of localized places of hair algae that I manually remove weekly.

 

20 gallon tank.

[Mr. Microscope]

For my general broadcast feed, once daily (sometimes every other day if I forget), No water changes

 

I feed multiple times per day- No skimmer, no filter sock, no carbon, no gfo, no water changes.

Wow! You guys are breaking all the rules, writing new ones, and seem to be kicking butt with them.

 

Obi wan, looks like you're compensating with a huge CUC and GFO/Carbon.

 

kgoldy, looks like you're compensating with a huge CUC and a very effective fuge

 

Where did you two learn this technique? Any threads or links?

 

I feed, mysis and pellets, both direct and just tossed in.

No set schedule. I may feed twice a day, once, every other day, 3 times a week or less.

Thanks for sharing your technique Mojo! I like the random easy-going approach.

 

10 gallons, one nano ocilaris (sp?) clown. I just got my first fish a couple days back. So far my feeding is frozen brine and forulmula one. Since I'm feeding so little I just take a knife and shave off a couple slivers and let it fall in the tank. Feeding once a day right now and at odd hours.

Sounds reasonable. Though, you're probably stocked on fish unless you get a small goby or something IMO.

 

 

I'm suprised that you don't have more responses! Great topic for agrument and discussion!

 

I do about a 25% w/c weekly with Red Sea Pro salt. I do have some algae, all kinds I think, but always under control with the cuc and a tooth brush! I am planning on a display sump with tons of macro algae for nutrient control,

Thanks Spiro!

25% WWC and still algae issues. Sounds like my tank. Though, I'm doing closer to 15-20%. I'm not sure how much my CUC does for my algae, but I'm always in there with a toothbrush and tweezers too. I find it kind of therapeutic to though. Kinda a nightly meditation. I really wish I could do a bigger fuge or display fuge. That's the plan with my next tank.

 

2-3 times a week I feed pellets one by one until my fish show no more interest. ( sounds stupid doing it one by one based on my feeding, but it allows me to interact with my fish)

LOL! This is great. I thought fish were always hungry though. Do you find they just get distracted and some start swimming around other parts of the tank after taking a few pieces or food?

 

My YWG is hilarious; if you put the tip of the feeding apparatus at his cave entrance he will sit right at the tip of the syringe or turkey baster and take food right out of it.

Haha! My fish do that too when I use a pipette. My bangaii snaps at the tip and the clowns seem to suckle at it like a baby.

 

I don't really have a specific method of choosing food apart from randomly grabbing the food packets from the freezer. I typically end up using two cubes total though. I like to feed a variety of foods to keep the diet varied. I feel I am pretty lucky because all my coral will take the pellets so I know they are getting nutritionally complete food.

I've found some of my corals seem to spit out pellets. Especially my fungia and torch for some reason.

 

 

I think the inclusion of what people feed the corals is a good thing. The fish are probably eating any leftovers, and it gives an idea of how much food does or doesn't contribute to algae and the CUC.

Good idea. I think that's a great setup for another thread.

 

 

I feed M, W, F and weekends off. Helps keep the algae down (which it is, just a few small spots of GHA which I manually remove weekly) and everything is thriving and healthy. Use Spectrum A pellets and sometimes flake. I will do an occasional mysis feeding as well. 10% WC every Friday. Coralife BC14. W-

Cool. This seems like a nice schedule. Though, I'd have a hard time following it when my fish give me that look like, "hey man??!!" as I walk past the tank. Heck, I have a hard time walking past the acans when they're open without trying to give them something. Haha!

[jedimasterben]

Wow! You guys are breaking all the rules, writing new ones, and seem to be kicking butt with them.

 

Obi wan, looks like you're compensating with a huge CUC and GFO/Carbon.

 

Where did you two learn this technique? Any threads or links?

 

I've found some of my corals seem to spit out pellets. Especially my fungia and torch for some reason.

Yes, it takes a large cleanup crew, but I love mine - I have such an extreme diversity between the snails, stars, and crabs in the fuge, and more copepods than I could ever care or hope to count! And I have always ran carbon in all my tanks, but since my feeding routine is... ahem... extreme, it takes a bit more than I do to keep phosphate down.

 

I am going to increase my fuge and amounts of macro via a mangrove fuge similar to kgoldy's, but it will be a display nextto my main display, and in my sump/fuge, macro will be collected from the Indian River Lagoon (basically the Atlantic) monthly to seed the tank with fresh copepods, amphipods, isopods, mysids, crabs, etc.

 

And I started feeding like this after reading an article on the importance of feeding corals, and it just exploded from there. I will have to find the article for you.

 

And my corals all love pellets - duncans, frogspawns, black sun coral, zoas, palys, mushrooms, acans, even my anemones scarf them down. I use both New Life Spectrum and Ocean Nutrition (both formulas).

[Mr. Microscope]

I do a water change every few months with NSW.

20 gallon tank.

Interesting. How much water?

 

I am going to increase my fuge and amounts of macro via a mangrove fuge similar to kgoldy's, but it will be a display nextto my main display, and in my sump/fuge, macro will be collected from the Indian River Lagoon (basically the Atlantic) monthly to seed the tank with fresh copepods, amphipods, isopods, mysids, crabs, etc.

So jealous!

 

And I started feeding like this after reading an article on the importance of feeding corals, and it just exploded from there. I will have to find the article for you.

Cool! Thanks!

[MikeTR]

Normally feed every other day or every 3rd.. monthly water changes on a 70g frag system. Not much of a cleanup crew left, skimmer and filter sock changed when it overflows. One type of food per feeding. Switch between mysis, pellets, spirolina flake, cyclopeeze. Tangs get nori a few times a week on a clip.

 

Did have to do a massive cleanup of caulerpa verticillata as my sailfin decided to stop eating it after having a nicer selection of prepared foods.

[Mstefa1]

My firefish don't like pellets. I feed them just a couple of flakes every other day. I only ever put enough flakes in the tank at a time for them to find. I turn my pumps off to ensure that no flakes make it to the bottom. I usually give them treat when I'm feeding my corals mysis.

[Cintax]

I've found some of my corals seem to spit out pellets. Especially my fungia and torch for some reason.

 

Neither of my torches ate anything I tried to feed them either. All three of my Fungia love pellets.

 

I should have added, I have a 30 breeder (sumpless & skimmerless) and I do a five gallon water change on Wednesdays.

[jedimasterben]

So jealous!

I can send you some next time I go out collecting. it's mostly a mix of gracilaria and and a few others that I have not identified yet. Aren't the best to look at, but you can shake the pods loose in your tank and dump the macro.