How do you decide how much to feed your fish?

[coralmonsters.judy Verified Sponsor]

Here's my favorite feeding video of the day lol

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

Oh boy... we're bringing up this topic? According to my husband, I'm a chronic overfeeder!

Let me start by saying I spend most of my day in the fish room. Every time I walk by a tank, all the fish stop what they're doing and give me the look. You know the one... like they've never been fed a day in their lives. So I feed them... and then I do it again.

To be completely honest, here's my schedule:

9:00 AM – Pellets and lettuce/algae for the herbivores
12:00 PM – Nori
3:00 PM – More pellets and lettuce
8:00 PM – Fresh scallops

And then there are the completely random feedings throughout the day when customers walk in and say, "Can I see them eat?" Of course the answer is yes... so they get another snack!

My wrasses get pods in between as snacks, and my puffers absolutely love crabs.

I also keep a lot of fish together in the same systems, so the constant availability of food really helps minimize aggression and competition. Fish that aren't constantly worrying about their next meal tend to be much more tolerant of each other.

I also have a massive filtration system to support my bad feeding habits. At the end of the day, I sell fish, so I want them fat, healthy, and in the best possible condition. Well-fed fish are stronger, handle shipping better, and transition into their new homes much more successfully.

And my clownfish? Those spoiled little things get fed about eight times a day... especially the babies!

Judy

yea i mean water changes and removal of waste products can make up for it.

 

[coralmonsters.judy Verified Sponsor]

yea i mean water changes and removal of waste products can make up for it.

For sure :)

 

[vetteguy53081]

some people feed several times a day. some feed several different foods. but how do you decide how much is enough?

I feed what they consume within 3 minutes. It's easier to add food than to remove it

 

[overhead]

I have struggled with this question and do not have an answer. I know I am feeding more than fish so focusing on what the fish can eat in a particular period of time does not seem like the correct metric. Maybe it is, I don't know.

 

[knappe]

Without first listing all the fish in the tank and the size of the fish, the answers don't make sense as has been hinted at by others but not explicitly said.

As an example: I feed crushed flakes 4/5 times a day. Why? Because I'm raising fry and they need to eat with a much higher frequency.

In my display tank, I feed a variety of food 2 times daily. Why? Because they're larger fish and have slower metabolisms.

What is in my display tank?
- Large blue hippo tang
- Medium clownfish
- 1 adult Sapphire damsel
- 1 large yellowtail damsel
- 1 medium chromis
- 1 six-line wrasse
- 1 adult Banggai Cardinal
- 1 adult Pajama Cardinal
- 1 adult pink spotted watchman goby
- 1 Green mandarin

This is a fairly large bio load complicated by the fact that my blue hippo is a piggy and out competes the rest of the fish via speed, agility and size. I broadcast feed smaller pellets to distract the hippo and then pellet feed to the rest of the crew allowing them to sink over time so everyone gets something. This is complicated by the fact that the watchman goby is a bottom dweller and would never get to eat with broadcast feeding and so I toss in some larger pellets that the smaller fish can't eat (though they sure do try) while the hippo is (mostly) distracted that I let sink to the bottom and get pushed around by the powerheads so the watchman gets something to eat as well.

This method would violate the 2 minute rule by a long shot, which I was taught is the correct way to feed. But if I was following that, the watchman would starve. The real trick to knowing how much to feed is to keep an eye on your nutrients. That will tell you when you're overfeeding.

 

[kitti-fish]

I feed twice but my clowns and wrasse are pigs and it goes by fast. Everyone has grown a lot but I just keep feeding because the food gets eaten up quickly! I usually feed pellets but try to incorporate frozen if I have any. They will eat anything.

 

[ReefGeezer]

Simple... I figure it's about right when the Copperband Butterfly isn't skinny and the Tangs are not too fat. I tend to overfeed though. Even the Copperband is fat!

 

[keithIHS]

The response by @knappe is right on target. You're only giving half the answer if you only tell people how much you feed per feeding and how many times per day. The size of your aquarium doesn't really matter at all. What matters is the "bioload". How many fish, what kind of fish (how active), what size/age, how fat do they look, and how much filtration do you have?
I struggled with understanding and controlling how much I was feeding until I started measuring my pellets. You might find the following helpful.
I use a cheap autofeeder in addition to my Neptune AFS. In hindsight, I can't really justify the cost of the AFS. I like having two autofeeders for backup in case one fails (battery, electronics, mechanical, out of food, user error), and increasing the pellets when I'm gone for 2-3 weeks on vacations and can't feed frozen. Most auto feeders feed way too much even when the adjustable gizmo is on the smallest setting. I blocked off most of the gap with tape. To understand how much it was feeding, I loaded the feeder, ran 10 cycles, then weighed the food that was dispensed with a jewelers scale (Jeweler's Scale at Amazon), divide by 10 and you have feed per cycle. I then program the feeder to give the right number of cycles per feeding and number of feedings per day to give the amount of food I want per day, considering of course the other feeders and frozen. Do this again each week or two until the feeder is nearly empty. It will feed less with less food in the hopper.
I wanted a way to compare pellets to frozen, so I came up with what I call Cube Equivalents. A blister pak cube of frozen food is roughly 3 g and very roughly 10% protein, so a CE protein is 300 mg. Pellets are (very) roughly 50% protein (by weight), so you need 5 times as much frozen compared to pellets or 20% pellets compared to frozen. In addition to pellets I feed Rod's and LRS and I cut up the flat packs into chunks that are roughly 1 Cube Equivalent. You don't need to think of Cube Equivalents, you could certainly just think of this as grams of protein, or, including fat, you could convert to calories, or something else. I just found it helpful to have a handle on frozen vs pellet vs flake so I knew how much nutrition was going into the tank. Also, everyone talks about "cubes", and I wanted to be able to relate pellets to "cubes".
Now that I know how much I'm feeding I feed and observe. I know the pigs are getting more than they really need, so I realy watch how much the shy fish, bottom dwellers, and cryptic fish might be getting, and what my filters (roller, skimmer, algae scrubber) and nitrates and phospates are doing. I especially try to keep track of who might be getting skinny. Better to underfeed than overfeed...until someone starves. I think I underfeed. I've lost a few fish, the shy, slow, bottom fish.
OK, now to answer the question! I have the following fish: Tomini Tang, Whitetail Bristletooth Tang, Starry Blenny, Azure damsel, Talbot's damsel, and 2 Oscelaris clowns. I've had them about 5 years. The clowns were small when I got them, but the others were full grown. I feed 4 CE/day. I almost lost the Blenny, but fortunately was able to target feed him, get him fattened back up and now he's fine. Even with the filtration I mentioned, I'm having to dose LaCl to keep phosphates down, and my NO3 is 5-10. I really want to get more fish, so I'm going to have to figure something out about NO3. Another scrubber or anaerobic denitrator perhaps.
BTW, in addition to the Jeweler's scale, I use this higher capacity scale: Kitchen Scale at Amazon. I think both are indispensible for measuring food and chemicals.
Happy Reefing!

 

[blkcoral]

I eat twice a day. Once in the morning and once at night. So I started with that same routine for the fish. Then used the 2-3 minute rule. If ever had impact on nitrates/phosphates I would change, but have not had to yet.

 

[Joe.D]

I have 6 fish at the moment: whitetail Bristletooth tang, solar wrasse, a bangaii, 2 clowns and a mandarin. They get nori twice per week (pretty much just the tang and wrasse eat it), pellets in the morning and reef frenzy later in the day. All seem happy and healthy.

 

[Blitheran]

I fear this is an element I don’t know if it’s perfect. I feed 6x a day only from the Plank Auto Feeder. I travel A LOT so by design I wanted to only feed the fish something that I didn’t have to do. Along with if there is something that requires me to do it daily, it will be a chore to me. So automating it is also why.

I strictly use the plank feeder along with reef jerky. I feel as it is well balanced enough but I would love input if I should try and or mix anything else

My plank feeder runs for 12 seconds each time so a total of 72 seconds of run time per day.

 

[keithIHS]

BTW, regarding rinsing food, Randy Holmes-Farley wrote the last word on the topic here: Aquarium Chemistry: Phosphate And Math: Yes You Need To Understand Both
Bottom line: the liquid has 1% of the phosphate in a cube of food. If that's significant to you, then you should rinse.
However, for algae, nitrate may be more of an issue. Check out this article in Coral Magazine: Nutrient Limitations: The good, the bad, and the ugly
Yeah, sorry, it's behind a paywall. Bottom line: to limit algae, might be better to limit nitrogen and iron rather than phosphate.

 

[AUSXMD]

I have frozen chopped seafood, flakes and pellets. I feed a mixture of that usually twice a day. Whatever they can clear it out in 2 to 3 minutes. I also have nori in the feeder at all times. Seems to work well.

 

[Dogeatbird]

A simple trick, aquarium gimmick.

Those floating glass aquarium art.

Does not really ever gets cleaned by the clean up organisms.

Can be an indicator if
pollution has becomed elevated.

Always is floating around, distracting more boisterous feeders.

My line in the sand; is
My aquarium fuzzier than normal.

Are my organisms surviving or thriving?

Has aquarium maintenance superseded my other chores.

Does the added maintenance offset all benefits.

Strive for balance, and all will be rewarded.

 

[fish_collector]

I feed frozen twice a day what they will eat in a minute or two. I also provide nori in the morning, I have a foxface that would prefer to eat only nori lol. I think you have to look at the fish's health to determine if the amount you are feeding is adequate or too much. After a few weeks if none of the fish have pinched bellies and you can't see their rib cages then you are probably feeding just the right amount. If they seem skinny and aren't putting on body mass they probably want a bit more, and vice-versa.

 

[Imrahilwjz]

This was the hardest thing for me starting out. I try to feed twice a day. Flakes with Selcon in the morning, Frozen in the afternoon: Hikari spirulina brine and mysis, Rod's herbivore, and krill. I have 2 gold lined rabbitfish who also get sheets of nori from a rhino reefs feeder (i think). They are biggish fish though and the main reason to feed the bigger krill.

 

[fish_collector]

This was the hardest thing for me starting out. I try to feed twice a day. Flakes with Selcon in the morning, Frozen in the afternoon: Hikari spirulina brine and mysis, Rod's herbivore, and krill. I have 2 gold lined rabbitfish who also get sheets of nori from a rhino reefs feeder (i think). They are biggish fish though and the main reason to feed the bigger krill.

That is an excellent feeding regimen. I use the same except I substituted Hikari Ocean Plankton instead of krill due to fish size. I have been using medium sized Hikari Seaweed Extreme pellets after hours for the foxface, he will almost only eat nori and that doesn't have much food value to it, I feel the Seaweed Extreme helps to balance out his diet. I can tell you that NONE of them hit the sandbed lol.

 

[mumra]

Interested to see some of he responses here.

 

[JumboShrimp]

The of course there is always that 'Clam a day to keep the doctor away!'