Shrinking Nemo article

[JoJosReef]

I found this article interesting. Wonder if temperature in our tanks or other deviations from natural sea water help explain differences in growth maxing out lower than the wild in an aquarium.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c629z4y762xo.amp

 

[BryanM]

In my very small sample size (me), I have a theory.

1). I only fed once a day for the first 7-8 months.
2). My fish grew very little in that time.
3). I got a couple of "reef safe with caution" fish, so I bought an auto feeder and feed 3x a day now
4). My fish are growing and fat.

I kinda think a lot of reefers do not feed their fish enough.... From this story of mine, and also reading a lot of the fishmedic forum here, most of the time its noted that the fish is skinny.

 

[JoJosReef]

In my very small sample size (me), I have a theory.

1). I only fed once a day for the first 7-8 months.
2). My fish grew very little in that time.
3). I got a couple of "reef safe with caution" fish, so I bought an auto feeder and feed 3x a day now
4). My fish are growing and fat.

I kinda think a lot of reefers do not feed their fish enough.... From this story of mine, and also reading a lot of the fishmedic forum here, most of the time its noted that the fish is skinny.

Makes sense. "On the reef" they are essentially foraging or hunting all day long with a food supply orders of magnitude higher than what we provide.

I feed mine upwards of 6 times a day, 3 programmed and at least 2-3 times manually, except weekends when the Plank is their only food. My wrasses are quite chunky. Not sure how they are doing in terms of max growth, though.

 

[BryanM]

I feed mine upwards of 6 times a day, 3 programmed and at least 2-3 times manually, except weekends when the Plank is their only food. My wrasses are quite chunky. Not sure how they are doing in terms of max growth, though.

:o

Maybe I'll get there some day, I'm still trying to get to some normalcy for N and P in my system, and I'm afraid of too much feeding.

But it did not take long for 3x feedings a day to fatten up and increase the size in most of my fish. The clowns are piglets, the Sailfin tang has almost doubled, the hippo 50%, the biota yellows are coloring up and growing, and the gold flake angel has grown as well.... Oh, and my lawnmower is a sausage now.

The two that have not seemed to grow much are the dwarf flame angel, and my 6 line wrasse.... But I think both of these are small fish to begin with. There's a lot more growth potential for the others, and they like the food :)