Feeding strategies for fish (What? When? How?)

[Brakaan]

I’m new to the hobby and I’m struggling to make sense of one of the most important aspects: feeding!

I’m sure I’m not the only one who could benefit from a discussion on this so please reply with your feeding strategies, specifically answering these questions:

• What food do you feed?
• How do you feed it? (Drop in top of tank? Clip feeder? Turkey baster?)
• Where do you get it? (links from online sellers is a plus!).

I started with two clownfish and the guy at the LFS recommended New Life Spectrum Marine Formula pellets ()

The fish love them, but then I added a bicolor blenny and a clown goby. And I can’t get food to them because the clowns gobble up everything!

I believe the blenny is a vegetarian, so he’s grazing on algae and I’ll eventually feed nori on a clip.

But what about the clown goby? I’ve heard mysis shrimp, but how do I get it to him without the clownfish stealing it all? I’ve considered a feeding cube, but what do I put it in?

My tank is a 16g biocube but I don’t want to limit the discussion to just my tank.

I’m interested in WHAT you guys feed and HOW you feed it and WHERE can I get it?

Thank you!

 

[LovesDogs_CatsRokay]

I feed a mix of frozen mysis and reef frenzy twice a day and a large amount enough that even the slow fishes have a chance to get to it. I just thaw it in rodi, give it a little shake to break it up then drop it in. Also put a sheet of nori in once a day. Half in a magnet clip and half rubber banded to a rock.

Get the frozen food from my lfs and the nori from the grocery store.

 

[Brakaan]

I feed a mix of frozen mysis and reef frenzy twice a day and a large amount enough that even the slow fishes have a chance to get to it. I just thaw it in rodi, give it a little shake to break it up then drop it in. Also put a sheet of nori in once a day. Half in a magnet clip and half rubber banded to a rock.

Get the frozen food from my lfs and the nori from the grocery store.

Do you heat the RODI water or does it thaw in room temp?
Can you break up cubes to feed less? I only have 4 small fish in a 16g. Don't want to overfeed.
What brand mysis do you feed? Can you get it on Amazon? I have Prime and it's SUPER convenient to order online with free shipping.
Thanks!

 

[LovesDogs_CatsRokay]

Do you heat the RODI water or does it thaw in room temp?
Can you break up cubes to feed less? I only have 4 small fish in a 16g. Don't want to overfeed.
What brand mysis do you feed? Can you get it on Amazon? I have Prime and it's SUPER convenient to order online with free shipping.
Thanks!

Room temp. I buy the mysis in flat packs and cut them to the size I want. It’s PE brand I think. You can also cut up the frozen cubes though too. I’m not sure about buying frozen food on amazon but I know you can get nori from there.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Good discussion going on!

 

[damselindistress]

I feed a mix of frozen and New Life Spectrum pellets. My fav frozen is LRS nano frenzy - look up a video on YouTube, amazing quality food no fillers. It comes in small flat packs that you can easily break whatever size you need off of. I break small pieces of and put my fingers just in the tank and just kind of rub it between my fingers as it melts, it creates a mini blizzard of food in all areas of the tank so that everyone - including corals and inverts - get plenty to eat. CUC takes care of any leftovers. LRS nano has small bite size pieces all the way down to micro pieces for your filter feeders.

I use cubes of mysis sometimes too - its important to let the mysis thaw in rodi or tank water and then drain that water off before feeding the thawed food - otherwise in a smaller tank you will have some bigtime nutrient (algae) issues. Happened to me in my 13.5 ugh.

 

[Brakaan]

Thanks for the recommendations. I picked up frozen mysis shrimp yesterday from my LFS. I thawed an entire cube in a 1/4 cup of tank water and then fed it using a pipette from my API test kit.

The clownfish gobbled it up and even started eating right out of the syringe (it was cute).

Even the bicolor blenny went crazy for it. Which was interesting because I thought they were vegetarians. I was planning I getting some nori for it.

Sadly, the yellow clown goby still doesn’t seem interested. I’ve only had him 5 days so he may still be nervous. But I’m concerned there’s something wrong with him. I’ll keep trying.

 

[Greg P]

My LFS carries a lot of Hikari product, and PE Mysis.
I partially thaw enough of each to blend them together, then mush them into silicone trays, similar to these.
Then after re-freezing, I feed 1 cube every other dinner.
They get 2 different kinds of flakes alternated between the frozen dinners, and a mix of 3 different kinds of pellets for lunch.
Plus 2 kinds of nori 2x per week.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Make sure you dump out the water you use to thaw the food (maybe run the food through a coffee filter). I make my own food with a bag of frozen seafood medley from winco, some seaweed, some vitamins and some garlic additives all blended together, then frozen.

 

[Greg P]

Make sure you dump out the water you use to thaw the food (maybe run the food through a coffee filter). I make my own food with a bag of frozen seafood medley from winco, some seaweed, some vitamins and some garlic additives all blended together, then frozen.

I stopped rinsing my frozen food years ago, and never saw a change in my NO3 or PO4 levels, but I have lots of SPS
I also have stopped adding garlic to their regular diet as there are new concerns about their long-term health. I now only use garlic to entice QT fish to eat.

 

[Crabby48]

I feed LRS reef frenzy,fish frenzy, fresh clam Hakari mysis. Hakari mysis is smaller pieces. I defrost it add selcon and use tongs to add it to tank with normal flow on so it gets to all fish and coral. Sometimes I hold a frozen chunk in my hands and let the fish eat from my hand. I feed 2 times a day and multiply when I’m home. Not worried about nutrients because the fuge removes all excess.

 

[Brakaan]

Make sure you dump out the water you use to thaw the food (maybe run the food through a coffee filter). I make my own food with a bag of frozen seafood medley from winco, some seaweed, some vitamins and some garlic additives all blended together, then frozen.

What is the reason for dumping out the water used to thaw the food? I thawed it in tank water and figured that would be fine to reintroduce.

 

[piranhaman00]

What is the reason for dumping out the water used to thaw the food? I thawed it in tank water and figured that would be fine to reintroduce.

Phosphates are present in the thaw water.

I feed a cube of frozen hikari with some flakes mixed in three times a day.

 

[S2G]

I try to get everything on nls pellets primary. I'd defrost & strain frozen then use a syringe etc to get down to the bottom. I just feed 2x a day if I'm at work. If im home I'll do several small feedings

 

[rhdoug]

There have been several studies showing that rinsing the food doesn't help with phosphates. I feed a frozen mix and have never rinsed in 20 years of reefing, but like many things in this hobby, everyone has their own way of doing things.

 

[Greg P]

Phosphates are present in the thaw water.

You'll be shocked how little it really is

There have been several studies showing that rinsing the food doesn't help with phosphates

Randy Holmes-Farley wrote a very extensive article on this and it's worth the read.
Here's the link;
Aquarium Chemistry: Phosphate And Math: Yes You Need To Understand Both

And a snippet;
"Rinsing Foods and the Effect on Phosphate
....The first way is as a portion of the total phosphate in that food. A half cup of water at 1 ppm (1 mg/L) phosphate contains a total of 0.12 mg of phosphate. A cube of Formula 2 contains about 11.2 mg of phosphate. So the hypothetical rinsing step has removed about 1 percent of the phosphate in that food...."

 

[danielsmith2]

I tend to feed my fish every other day unless I am going away, in which case I feed them daily for a week then clean up the tank and leave them for upto 4days.
If I'm away any longer I will get someone to drop some food in there for me.
I'm curious what other feeding regimes people have.

 

[piranhaman00]

You'll be shocked how little it really is



Randy Holmes-Farley wrote a very extensive article on this and it's worth the read.
Here's the link;
Aquarium Chemistry: Phosphate And Math: Yes You Need To Understand Both

And a snippet;
"Rinsing Foods and the Effect on Phosphate
....The first way is as a portion of the total phosphate in that food. A half cup of water at 1 ppm (1 mg/L) phosphate contains a total of 0.12 mg of phosphate. A cube of Formula 2 contains about 11.2 mg of phosphate. So the hypothetical rinsing step has removed about 1 percent of the phosphate in that food...."

I was just answering the question. I don’t wash mine and don’t care about those extra small PO4

 

[Brakaan]

I tend to feed my fish every other day unless I am going away, in which case I feed them daily for a week then clean up the tank and leave them for upto 4days.
If I'm away any longer I will get someone to drop some food in there for me.
I'm curious what other feeding regimes people have.

My tank is at work, so I feed twice a day M-F (8 am and 5 pm) and nothing on weekends. If I'll be away from work, I have someone else in the office feed for me.

 

[danielsmith2]

I tend to feed my fish every other day unless I am going away, in which case I feed them daily for a week then clean up the tank and leave them for upto 4days.
If I'm away any longer I will get someone to drop some food in there for me.
I'm curious what other feeding regimes people have.

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