How many mysis per day for CBB?

[JoJosReef]

So far my CBB eats mostly frozen PE Mysis, specifically the tails (spits out the heads). I am feeding him many times a day, one to two mysis at a time to ensure he's eating. He also picks at the rocks, but I haven't seen him eat aiptasia yet.

I am wondering how many mysis would be good for him to eat per day. Does anyone know? He is currently anout as long as my yellow wrasse. You can see him in this vid:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/4u4TG7Sha2TjG2ix7
Thanks!

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

So far my CBB eats mostly frozen PE Mysis, specifically the tails (spits out the heads). I am feeding him many times a day, one to two mysis at a time to ensure he's eating. He also picks at the rocks, but I haven't seen him eat aiptasia yet.

I am wondering how many mysis would be good for him to eat per day. Does anyone know? He is currently anout as long as my yellow wrasse. You can see him in this vid:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/4u4TG7Sha2TjG2ix7
Thanks!

The typical feeding regimen is to feed these fish as much as they will accept, multiple times a day (3+ or more). You cannot really overfeed them. If you are adding too much food, or feeding to fast, they will start spitting the food out, and then stop eating. That is your cue to limit the food. Otherwise, keep feeding them as much as they will accept!

Uneaten food can foul a tank of course....

 

[JoJosReef]

The typical feeding regimen is to feed these fish as much as they will accept, multiple times a day (3+ or more). You cannot really overfeed them. If you are adding too much food, or feeding to fast, they will start spitting the food out, and then stop eating. That is your cue to limit the food. Otherwise, keep feeding them as much as they will accept!

Uneaten food can foul a tank of course....

Thanks Jay. My wrasses have caught on and eagerly wait for the mysis and other food I've been throwing in. I have been feeding the CBB one to two mysis at a time so he gets them, and he eats them quickly. Usually turns around like a cat being indifferent when he's done. But, then he's ready to eat again 10-15 min later. So far I've gone through one cube of PE mysis just for the CBB today--about half of that is waste as it's the heads he won't eat or disintegrated mysis. Just the tails for him. Might be up to 15 or so feedings today. Each time he eats between 5 and 10 mysis tails. I will thaw some more and see how much he will do.

Thanks again!

 

[OrionN]

When I train my CBB once he start eating, everyday he would war more. Make sure you keep the water quality up with water change. In no time he will eat with gusto. It always good to keep him with some sitter fish. As he see them eat, it will stimulate his feeding response.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Thanks Jay. My wrasses have caught on and eagerly wait for the mysis and other food I've been throwing in. I have been feeding the CBB one to two mysis at a time so he gets them, and he eats them quickly. Usually turns around like a cat being indifferent when he's done. But, then he's ready to eat again 10-15 min later. So far I've gone through one cube of PE mysis just for the CBB today--about half of that is waste as it's the heads he won't eat or disintegrated mysis. Just the tails for him. Might be up to 15 or so feedings today. Each time he eats between 5 and 10 mysis tails. I will thaw some more and see how much he will do.

Thanks again!

You can try other foods, like clams on mussels on the half shell. Also, you can use a razor blade to cut the tails and heads off of the mysids.

 

[JoJosReef]

I would still love an idea from someone as to how many mysis (tails) a healthy CBB could eat in a day.

Fed an entire cube of PE mysis to the CBB today, one at a time, and then left the office putting a quarter cube in the CBB feeder for it to continue on.

It certainly likes to eat mysis. I hate that I'm not there to feed it on the weekends though, and the Plank is useless for the CBB.

 

[OrionN]

counting mysis isn't a great way to keep track of how much they eat. Some mysis are small and other can be 3-4 time the mass ( A mysis is about 1.5 times longer have 3.375 times the mass, 1.5X1.5X1.5=3.375). The mysis I used was the smaller ones. When I first got this guy, I counted him eat 5 then 10 then too many to count over about 10 days time. If feed him as much as he can eat, until he bites and spit then you can stop.
Much better way to see if they eat well, is to look at their stomach.
When I first got this guy, he was relatively thin, but not too bad. This stomach was not full at all here.

A few weeks later, after feeding, I can see he gored himself with mysis and has a bulging abdominal girth

 

[Tamberav]

If you can train him to eat out of a mesh feeder and get him on something like frozen LRS, man did that make mine FAT! I always struggle to get enough weight on fish that only want mysis, seems like I need to feed sooo much but I wonder how much of it is shell?

 

[Imrahilwjz]

I would recommend getting a white worm culture and feeding white worms once or twice a week. Started my Klein butterfly eating (full disclosure, he was aquarium quarantined before I got him, but wasn't eating due to stress).

 

[JoJosReef]

counting mysis isn't a great way to keep track of how much they eat. Some mysis are small and other can be 3-4 time the mass ( A mysis is about 1.5 times longer have 3.375 times the mass, 1.5X1.5X1.5=3.375). The mysis I used was the smaller ones. When I first got this guy, I counted him eat 5 then 10 then too many to count over about 10 days time. If feed him as much as he can eat, until he bites and spit then you can stop.
Much better way to see if they eat well, is to look at their stomach.
When I first got this guy, he was relatively thin, but not too bad. This stomach was not full at all here.

A few weeks later, after feeding, I can see he gored himself with mysis and has a bulging abdominal girth

Thanks, not trying to keep track, just curious because I mostly have experience feeding wrasses, clowns and a few other nano fish. And for all of those I feed other stuff (TDO pellets, ROE, PacPods, mostly). CBB is my first bigger fish and only seems to like mysis tails.

I'm happy that he readily darts across the tank to me when I walk over to the feeding corner. So far he seems to eat 5-8 mysis tails before he turns away. Then I come back 15 min later and repeat.

Did a test run with a couple of white worms. At first he didn't notice them, but once he did he went right after them. Maturing the culture, so I will keep him on mysis till the worms are ready to add.

@Paul B do you grow your own earthworms? Or are earthworms from the bait store safe?

 

[JoJosReef]

I would recommend getting a white worm culture and feeding white worms once or twice a week. Started my Klein butterfly eating (full disclosure, he was aquarium quarantined before I got him, but wasn't eating due to stress).

Just started one on Wednesday:

 

[JoJosReef]

If you can train him to eat out of a mesh feeder and get him on something like frozen LRS, man did that make mine FAT! I always struggle to get enough weight on fish that only want mysis, seems like I need to feed sooo much but I wonder how much of it is shell?

I essentially made a similar mix with PE mysis and three SF Bay frozen packs: carnivore cuisine, angel/butterfly cuisine and bloodworms. He only ate the mysis. Wrasses were thrilled about the leftovers, though!

 

[OrionN]

Thanks, not trying to keep track, just curious because I mostly have experience feeding wrasses, clowns and a few other nano fish. And for all of those I feed other stuff (TDO pellets, ROE, PacPods, mostly). CBB is my first bigger fish and only seems to like mysis tails.

I'm happy that he readily darts across the tank to me when I walk over to the feeding corner. So far he seems to eat 5-8 mysis tails before he turns away. Then I come back 15 min later and repeat.

Did a test run with a couple of white worms. At first he didn't notice them, but once he did he went right after them. Maturing the culture, so I will keep him on mysis till the worms are ready to add.

@Paul B do you grow your own earthworms? Or are earthworms from the bait store safe?

Looks like he will do well if you feed him like that. When I first bring the CBB pair home, I often take time of lunch and go home so I can feed them as soon as I get home and right before I leave to go back to work.

 

[OrionN]

@JoJosReef ,
So, do you have a boy or a girl? Are you going to try to pair them?

 

[JoJosReef]

@JoJosReef ,
So, do you have a boy or a girl? Are you going to try to pair them?

Boy, and no pairing. I will be happy with just the one if I can keep him well fed. Focus is on wrasses, really, but the CBB will be a special fish. The other planned fish is a one spot foxface. And then more wrasses.

My big problem is weekends. I have to figure out a better system for the weekends when I am not in the office. The wrasses benefit from the Plank and the refrigerator doser that pumps in Reef Nutrition ROE/Pods/Phyto/Rotifers. Maybe if he will eat the Reef Nutrition refrigerated mysis I can set up a larger diameter pump to get mysis into the tank, drill a hole in the CBB feeder and run the line into there...

 

[OrionN]

Never fear. CBB will eat roe and pods fine. They are much better at hunting Pods then wrasses with their long snout. My CBB pair decimated the pod population. Their peck will paralyzed the pods and pull it out of the crevices. Then they just swallow them as the pod paralyzed and float. They will really eat aiptasia also. I never have a CBB that does not eat Aiptasia, given a little time.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I would still love an idea from someone as to how many mysis (tails) a healthy CBB could eat in a day.

Fed an entire cube of PE mysis to the CBB today, one at a time, and then left the office putting a quarter cube in the CBB feeder for it to continue on.

It certainly likes to eat mysis. I hate that I'm not there to feed it on the weekends though, and the Plank is useless for the CBB.

Counting mysids to feed a fish is not a good plan. You need to let the fish tell you how much food it needs by feeding on demand. The post I made on Wednesday explains that.

Here is a story for you: I'm a retired aquarium curator. I was doing rounds and I noticed that a tank of fish had some thin ones in it. I watched over time and they got thinner. I went to the aquarist to ask about how the fish were being fed. She said, "I put in one block of food like I have since the tank was set up two years ago, so don't tell me I'm feeding wrong". She did not account for the fish growing larger over time, she just dogmatically stuck to the original food amount.....

 

[JoJosReef]

Counting mysids to feed a fish is not a good plan. You need to let the fish tell you how much food it needs by feeding on demand. The post I made on Wednesday explains that.

Here is a story for you: I'm a retired aquarium curator. I was doing rounds and I noticed that a tank of fish had some thin ones in it. I watched over time and they got thinner. I went to the aquarist to ask about how the fish were being fed. She said, "I put in one block of food like I have since the tank was set up two years ago, so don't tell me I'm feeding wrong". She did not account for the fish growing larger over time, she just dogmatically stuck to the original food amount.....

Jay and all, to be very clear, I am not trying to establish a regimen for any of my fish, especially the CBB. I do not want to count out mysis every day, and I will continue to feed all fish to satiation. My question is pure curiosity, and I realize there is likely variation in what a fish might normally find "satisfying" (as well as mysis size variation).

That said, thanks for all of the replies and for anyone reading this thread to find out how much to feed their CBB, please pay attention to the above comments!