Am I feeding my tank enough?

[be_ninja_pancake]

I have a 15 gal tank with a pair of clowns, 1 yellow goby, 1 pistol shrimp, 2 scarlet leg hermits, 1 Halloween hermit, 2 nessarius snails, 1 fire dart fish, and a variety of corals (1 hammer frag, 6 different varieties of zoa frags, 1 hobgoblin frag, 1 stylocoeniella frag, 1 stylophora frag, 1 sinuleria frag, 1 ricordea mushroom frag, and 1 platygyra frag).

I feed my reef tank once a day with either frozen food or pellets, and I'll sometimes (about 2-3 times a week) spot feed my sand sifting sea star with brine shrimp because it's in the process of regenerating limbs. I also give the corals zoo/phytoplankton/copepods about 3-4 times a week.

I'm seeing others say they feed their tanks twice a day. Should I be feeding the tank more? Or am I good with how often I feed the tank every day?

 

[Ron Reefman]

I have 2 clowns, a sea star, a sea cucumber a small mantis shrimp some snails and hermit crabs and I only feed every second or third day!

If you want to feed twice a day just feed less at each feeding.

 

[danenelsen]

I agree with @Ron Reefman.

I only feed every other day. You can feed as many as two or three times a day, just smaller portions.

 

[be_ninja_pancake]

I have 2 clowns, a sea star, a sea cucumber a small mantis shrimp some snails and hermit crabs and I only feed every second or third day!

If you want to feed twice a day just feed less at each feeding.

Thank you for the input! I asked only because my bigger clownfish, Tom, is an absolute piggy and he eats most of the food in the tank and nibbles the pipette I didn’t know if it was normal or not for clowns to act like they’re always starving or that’s just his personality

 

[xiongsy]

Thank you for the input! I asked only because my bigger clownfish, Tom, is an absolute piggy and he eats most of the food in the tank and nibbles the pipette I didn’t know if it was normal or not for clowns to act like they’re always starving or that’s just his personality

I think clowns are just piggies. I think I am going to cut back on feedings to every other day instead of 1-2x daily.

 

[ilikefish69]

Thank you for the input! I asked only because my bigger clownfish, Tom, is an absolute piggy and he eats most of the food in the tank and nibbles the pipette I didn’t know if it was normal or not for clowns to act like they’re always starving or that’s just his personality

Much like doggies, these animals will pull your heart strings with big sad eyes and swim near the top at even a Whif of getting some food. As long as they are acting healthy and look fat, it is all good.

I have 17 fish so a bit different but they get pellets in the AM, frozen mix at 1, and flakes at 6-8 P.M.

They all act like they’re starving in between, but man do I have some fat fish.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have a 15 gal tank with a pair of clowns, 1 yellow goby, 1 pistol shrimp, 2 scarlet leg hermits, 1 Halloween hermit, 2 nessarius snails, 1 fire dart fish, and a variety of corals (1 hammer frag, 6 different varieties of zoa frags, 1 hobgoblin frag, 1 stylocoeniella frag, 1 stylophora frag, 1 sinuleria frag, 1 ricordea mushroom frag, and 1 platygyra frag).

I feed my reef tank once a day with either frozen food or pellets, and I'll sometimes (about 2-3 times a week) spot feed my sand sifting sea star with brine shrimp because it's in the process of regenerating limbs. I also give the corals zoo/phytoplankton/copepods about 3-4 times a week.

I'm seeing others say they feed their tanks twice a day. Should I be feeding the tank more? Or am I good with how often I feed the tank every day?

feeding will be based on number of occupants, filtration and volume but my best answer is to feed at least 2-3 times daily and offer what they can clean up within a couple of minutes and offer a varied diet.
Its easier to add food to tank than to remove it

 

[Mperry622]

So glad to have seen this post!!
1 nori/garlic seaweed strip clipped to glass(snails eat if fish dont)
4 brine shrimp cubes.
2 Mysis shrimp cubes
pinch of flakes and pinch of pellets
--Twice daily--
red sea AB+ 30ml after lights go out.
reef roids on Saturday


after writing this down it seems I may be over doing it :-(



I have spent the last year feeding the same to my fish. no clue if too much or not enough.
emperor angel 1.2 yrs old
Cowfish 1.3 yrs
pair of clowns 1 yr old
Royal grama 1 yr
coral beauty 1 yr
Niger trigger fish (owned for a year) was a adoption
2x blue hippo tang (1 yr and another adoption @ 1 yr)
long nose butterfly angel
flame angel
yellow tail blue damsel 1.5 yrs (original cycle fish)
10 asteria snails.
6 hermits
1 cleaner shrimp


had 10 turbo snails but they live in sump due to being coral bulldozers lol

 

[Viking_Reefing]

In my opinion all tanks should be feed 4+ times daily to more closely mimic the food intake frequency that fish are designed for.
Basically only predators eats one huge meal daily/every other day.
With that being said, don’t go hog wild with the feeding amounts. Basically take that one feeding a day and split the volume up in to smaller amounts.

 

[vetteguy53081]

So glad to have seen this post!!
1 nori/garlic seaweed strip clipped to glass(snails eat if fish dont)
4 brine shrimp cubes.
2 Mysis shrimp cubes
pinch of flakes and pinch of pellets
--Twice daily--
red sea AB+ 30ml after lights go out.
reef roids on Saturday


after writing this down it seems I may be over doing it :-(



I have spent the last year feeding the same to my fish. no clue if too much or not enough.
emperor angel 1.2 yrs old
Cowfish 1.3 yrs
pair of clowns 1 yr old
Royal grama 1 yr
coral beauty 1 yr
Niger trigger fish (owned for a year) was a adoption
2x blue hippo tang (1 yr and another adoption @ 1 yr)
long nose butterfly angel
flame angel
yellow tail blue damsel 1.5 yrs (original cycle fish)
10 asteria snails.
6 hermits
1 cleaner shrimp


had 10 turbo snails but they live in sump due to being coral bulldozers lol

For that number of fish seems just right.
My fish consume 4-6 oz of food daily

 

[scottj6]

In my opinion all tanks should be feed 4+ times daily to more closely mimic the food intake frequency that fish are designed for.
Basically only predators eats one huge meal daily/every other day.
With that being said, don’t go hog wild with the feeding amounts. Basically take that one feeding a day and split the volume up in to smaller amounts.

While I appreciate what you are saying, who has time for that in normal everyday lives?!

 

[Viking_Reefing]

While I appreciate what you are saying, who has time for that in normal everyday lives?!

Basically everyone. It’s called an auto feeder.

 

[52728299]

3x day minimum for me. 1 frozen cube, a chunk of fish frenzy and sprinkles of 2 different pellets each meal. I have quite a few fish (close to 20), but none are over 4" yet. But it definitely keeps them in a good weight I figure the more prepared foods they have to munch on the less likely they will munch on other inverts, coral