first fish! ...feeding frequency question!

[gobies]

How often should I feed Muff, my little ocellaris clown with the earmuff stripe?? He's a little guy, smaller than the turbo snail. I've been feeding the corals about three or four times a week, depending on how hungry the hammer is. (I read 'max size and all the sweeping tentacles out' behavior as meaning it's hungry.) I've read of people feeding their clowns on a similar schedule, or more often. Should I feed him every day while he's little? What besides mysis do you recommend? I normally keep the following on hand:

- frozen: bloodworms, mysis, and squid

- freeze-dried: krill, plankton, bloodworms, and tubifex worms

- flake: OSI spirulina flake

- pellets: spirulina (floating and sinking varieties), shrimp (sinking), and a changing variety of other pellet foods, at least one of which is for marine fish.

 

----

Muff is tank-raised and has been at the LFS for over a month without any signs of disease in the system. I floated Muff's bag in the tank for 15 minutes, then put him and the bag in a water mixing jug. I set up a slow drip from the main tank to acclimate him the rest of the way. About a gallon later, I checked the salinities. They were within a point, so I netted Muff and put him in the tank. Just this once, I'm going without a QT period, as I'm fairly certain Muff is healthy and there are no other fish in the system.

 

After Muff had been in the tank about a half hour, I fed the tank some mysis shrimp. Muff took a couple of small pieces, the star polyps took one, and the hammer took a couple. The crabs get the rest.

[chrisblore]

With a little guy like that it's probably best to use the age old rule of thumb when feeding an aquarium. Feed as much as will be eaten in 10 minutes or less. In this way you should avoid excessive polution of your system and your clown should be happy.

With regards to food type, I would suggest that you alternate the food as this will give him a bit of variety and you will find that you'll be OK with the water quality.

Good luck with the little guy:)

Chris Blore

[MKramer]

Unfortuantely, these little guys, when happy and healthy, have an appetite that never ends. You might want to reduce that 10min rule down to 3 for him. I've seen mine eat until their stomachs were three times the width of their bodies, and still beg for more.

 

I feed morning one day, evening the next, and skip the next. Lather, rinse, repeat. If you're having pollution problems in your tank, you can easily go every other day.

 

For frozen, I like Formula One. It's a great mix of a lot of the food items you already mentioned. Mysis, krill, clam, squid, and a variety of caulerpa algaes, plus an array of vatimins and such (but no one's really sure how necessary they are).

 

I really like OSI's flake food. And if your clowns will eat the spirulina stuff, that's great. I have one that's a meatier flake, but with added spirulina.

 

Bascially, the morning feedings are flake, because I'm in a hurry. Evening feedings are the Formula one, or on weekends, I'll mash up fresh seafood for them.

 

Matthew

[lizbeth]

Originally posted by MKramer

Bascially, the morning feedings are flake, because I'm in a hurry.  Evening feedings are the Formula one, or on weekends, I'll mash up fresh seafood for them.

 

Matthew [/b]

 

Matthew, I'm so proud of you! I know how much you hate seafood. Next time we meet I'll bring you a baggie of the home brew. Your tank will love it!

[MKramer]

Haha, I came around, but I'm still not a big fan of preparing it. I've only actually had to make one batch, which is a relief. Thank god it lasts forever.

 

The critters love it, though, and that's what's important here.

[anthony812]

hey Liz..i want some!!! hhahaha...but i would still believe Aquadine is the best flake food! and the hermit/crab/shrimps loves them too!!

so how is my 3 clowns doing..oh..i forgot to warn you Liz..they are verocious eaters!! they eat so much!!! hahaha....

[lizbeth]

Anthony, they are doing fine. The dark perc has fast respiration but he seems to feel ok. He's eating and swimming around like a normal fish. The three of them get along very well, I wonder what will happen when the clarkii gets bigger?