My Very First Fish

juujji · Jul 17, 2011

Yesterday I went to my LFS and finally got some fish for my tank. I've read and researched and now I have some questions you would think I could answer. The LFS told me to feed these guys twice a day and to change up their food. I bought some flake and some frozen and I fed 1/2 cube frozen last night and some flake this morning (they eat good) - I also have a cleaner shrimp in there that came out to eat at feeding time too. Is this the correct feeding for them? Also I have a question about lights. I have a 28gal Nanocube with Metal Halide lighting and moonlights - how long should my lights stay on???

My tanks has the 2 clownfish, a cleaner shrimp, CUC, mushroom, small zoos and a maze brain coral in it.

florida reef · Jul 17, 2011

Its ok to feed twice a day as long as it is the same amount of food they would regularly eat in one feeding. I would be careful that you don't end up with a nitrate/phosphate problem due to over feeding. A good rule of thumb is only feed as much as the fish can eat in two mins. I feed tank once a day and my clowns are great.
As far at the lights go, are there any power compact actinic supplement or only MH and moonlights? Either way I think the MH should be on around 6 hrs a day. You may want to start at like 4 hrs a day then slowly work up to 6 hrs. Moonlights should be used to supplement the MH if no T5's are available. I hope this helps!

skinz78 · Jul 17, 2011

I agree with Florida reef, I would only feed about 1/4 cube twice per day for just the two fish and shrimp. As you get more fish and inverts bump it up as you see fits.

Twaldo · Jul 17, 2011

florida reef said:
Its ok to feed twice a day as long as it is the same amount of food they would regularly eat in one feeding. I would be careful that you don't end up with a nitrate/phosphate problem due to over feeding. A good rule of thumb is only feed as much as the fish can eat in two mins. I feed tank once a day and my clowns are great.
As far at the lights go, are there any power compact actinic supplement or only MH and moonlights? Either way I think the MH should be on around 6 hrs a day. You may want to start at like 4 hrs a day then slowly work up to 6 hrs. Moonlights should be used to supplement the MH if no T5's are available. I hope this helps!

++1, feed once a day or else there gonna be tons nitrate/phosphate. Btw what kinda clowns did you get :)

BigFeesh · Jul 17, 2011

Twaldo said:
++1, feed once a day or else there gonna be tons nitrate/phosphate. Btw what kinda clowns did you get :)

well depending on how much he feeds twice a day. Bec you can feed 3 times a day and not have a no3 or po4 problem it's just how much you feed. And come on brother they are black and white ocellaris/perculas he posted a pic :snicker: