Reef Aquarium Fact #232 Feeding your fish multiple small meals daily is better than feeding one larg

revhtree · Oct 11, 2012

We are going to continue discussing the reef aquarium facts submitted by our members. Do you agree or disagree? What are your thoughts?

Fact #232

Feeding your fish multiple small meals daily is better than feeding one large daily meal.

Truth or False? What else might we need to learn on this subject? Please also share any pictures that may pertain to the subject.

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Gambit · Oct 11, 2012

I agree and disagree to a point. It really in my opinion is about whats in your tank. Corals that catch the food, Fish that require small feedings frequently throughout the day. IE Anthias, Tamarin Wrasses and other wrasses. I feed 3 small meals to my fish a day. And they love it! If i go by a few days without feeding or one slightly larger meal, My red tail starts thinning out a bit.

Trex · Oct 11, 2012

It would also depend on the type of fish. Lion fish (( and similar predators )) have evolved to consume large infrequent meals, so I would err on the side of feeding them that way.

Pappy · Oct 11, 2012

I feed once a day and my fish are fat and happy. I have 2 lyretails and they're color is extremely vibrant.

navila06 · Oct 11, 2012

I feed them all the time cause when I walk by the tank they all look at me like "daddy feed me some more" I just can't resist. so it comes out to about 3-4 times a day.

Shadowsfold · Oct 11, 2012

In the wild fish are used to being able to graze all day long. So in our attempt to mimic their natural habitat best as possible I say multiple times daily.

Aquaph8 · Oct 12, 2012

Shadowsfold said:
In the wild fish are used to being able to graze all day long. So in our attempt to mimic their natural habitat best as possible I say multiple times daily.

Completely agree!

rajkovich207 · Oct 12, 2012

Because of tank parameters I was feeding my fish once every couple of days (my lfs HIGHLY recommends this) and before I knew it my firefish was being outcompeted for food by a clown (that I later lost to a hob filter) and was extremely emaciated. I am in the middle of an upgrade and the firefish is the sole fish in the holding tank, for the last 3 or 4 weeks I have been throwing in a few pellets when I walk past the tank every day, and frozen once every few days. I am happy to report that he has put on a TON of weight and looks better than ever!!!

SeymourDuncan · Oct 12, 2012

I always have "over fed" my water. Frozen brine mixed in my morning top off while i sip my joe, later in the day a cube of mysis, every other day i toss in a clump of tang heaven for the hippo babies, otherwise they spend the day grazing the rocks and sharing the shrimps. I do a small amount of flake food every so often, and i found trigger food (cant think of the exact type) is amazing on dragonets....they kill a thawed cube in about 2 minutes. On top of that i have an almost annoying amount of pods. I give my gorg phyto, but the corals eat when the fish do. As of this last month, i have fragged all my stuff and intentionally halted the growth so i can move with smaller corals, if one or 2the frags die, so be it...beats losing colonies.
But i eat alot, i see fish in rivers jumping (and eating my lures) at a few specific times a day, so scheduled feedings is better than random. You will see an increase in growth, and poop. So be ready to plan to export the waste if this thread makes you alter your feedings.

As for lion type diets, i noticed mine liked to eat 19-27 krill at a time if i let him...only did that a few times to see if hed stop...i got scared at 27 and stopped lol.
The best growth, color, and attitude though were off a varied feeding of anything meaty, and live acclimated mollies that have been fed marine and gut loaded.this gave him vitamins not normally eaten in the aqaurium. Ever see a lion nipping nori? Lol...he was nearly blood red and his brown was a burnt orange...he got huge fast and was sooo happy he didnt eat any tank mates but the one damsel who we all wanted gone, just not that way :/

Eels however will poop so much more though ime....18inch snowflake pooped like a boa...lol..not pretty. Plus he got lazy when he ate too much and would hide for days, probably using the time to work on his people skills.