The what, the why and the how of feeding your fish!

[revhtree]

I am always interested to see what and how much food people are feeding their tanks! But in order to get a real understanding of this we need to know some details about your system and inhabitants.

So please help us put the puzzle together and answer all of the questions.

1. How much food are you feeding daily? (one cube, a pinch, etc.)

2. How are you feeding? (Broadcast, Food Clip, Target, etc.)

3. Do you thaw your food, rinse your food, etc?

4. What type(s) of food are you feeding? (list all)

5. Size of your tank in gallons? (total water volume of water including sump, etc.)

6. How many fish do you feed?

7. How many BIG fish are included in your fish number?

8. Anything special about how you feed? (turn off pumps, say a blessing, etc.)

9. How many times a day do you feed?


If I have missed something that I should add please let me know!

image via @jsker

 

[Paul B]

This is easy. Of course I use the New Born Brine shrimp feeder for all the pipefish, ruby red dragonettes, shrimpfish, mandarins and queen anthias
Video



The rest of the fish get live blackworms every day.
Video.


They also get clams that I buy live and freeze, then I slice off paper thin slices.



I supplement that with some frozen Mysis or LRS food.

The rest of the smaller fish eat the new born shrimp that get away.


It's a 100 gallon tank with about 25 fish.

 

[revhtree]

Thanks Paul!

If everyone can try to number your response in order of the questions I asked!

 

[Anirban]

I have some hungry mouth to feed....

1. How much food are you feeding daily?
2 time 2 different pellets and at night a mix of a lot of food

2. How are you feeding? (Broadcast, Food Clip, Target, etc.)
Broadcast

3. Do you thaw your food, rinse your food, etc?
Nope thats extra nutrient for my corals

4. What type(s) of food are you feeding? (list all)
SA hatchery diet and APbreed chroma boost pellet, LRS, PE calanus, nori, fish vitamin, LRS fish eggs all together blended and freezed

5. Size of your tank in gallons? (total water volume of water including sump, etc.)
70G

6. How many fish do you feed?
6 fish

7. How many BIG fish are included in your fish number?
Only one

8. Anything special about how you feed? (turn off pumps, say a blessing, etc.)
Nope, only that they eat dinner from my hand and by 8pm they all come up to the corner where I feed.

 

[revhtree]

I have some hungry mouth to feed....

1. How much food are you feeding daily?
2 time 2 different pellets and at night a mix of a lot of food

2. How are you feeding? (Broadcast, Food Clip, Target, etc.)
Broadcast

3. Do you thaw your food, rinse your food, etc?
Nope thats extra nutrient for my corals

4. What type(s) of food are you feeding? (list all)
SA hatchery diet and APbreed chroma boost pellet, LRS, PE calanus, nori, fish vitamin, LRS fish eggs all together blended and freezed

5. Size of your tank in gallons? (total water volume of water including sump, etc.)
70G

6. How many fish do you feed?
6 fish

7. How many BIG fish are included in your fish number?
Only one

8. Anything special about how you feed? (turn off pumps, say a blessing, etc.)
Nope, only that they eat dinner from my hand and by 8pm they all come up to the corner where I feed.

You feed once per day?

 

[revhtree]

This is easy. Of course I use the New Born Brine shrimp feeder for all the pipefish, ruby red dragonettes, shrimpfish, mandarins and queen anthias
Video



The rest of the fish get live blackworms every day.
Video.


They also get clams that I buy live and freeze, then I slice off paper thin slices.



I supplement that with some frozen Mysis or LRS food.

The rest of the smaller fish eat the new born shrimp that get away.


It's a 100 gallon tank with about 25 fish.

How many times a day do you feed?

 

[Anirban]

You feed once per day?

Lol...3 times or else I will be murdered by my fishes.;Shamefullyembarrased

 

[madducks42]

1. How much food are you feeding daily? (one cube, a pinch, etc.)

About 1/4 of a cube + some pellets. Only the clowns eat the pellets so I put in small amounts like 10 pellets and then add more if they eat all of those.

2. How are you feeding? (Broadcast, Food Clip, Target, etc.)

I thaw the frozen food out in a tube of water, I shake it to break it up and then just dump it in the tank. I drop the pellets wherever the clowns are. The coral and anemone get target fed.

3. Do you thaw your food, rinse your food, etc?

I have a plastic tube from one of the testing kits that I just, I just scoop up some tank water and toss the frozen food in it and shake it until it thaws out and breaks up.

4. What type(s) of food are you feeding? (list all)

San Franciscio Bay Brand Saltwater Multipack- Rotate each day.
Saki-Hikari Marine Carnivore Pellets (only the clownfish eat these)
Seaweed Pellets (only the clownfish eat these)
Bio-Pure Frozen Coral Gumbo - Hikari - Target feed the corals and anemone

5. Size of your tank in gallons? (total water volume of water including sump, etc.)

Red Sea Reefer 425XL, DT 88 gallons, sump 24 gallons, total 112 gallons

6. How many fish do you feed?

Currently just two ocellaris clowns and 1 royal gramma basslet

7. How many BIG fish are included in your fish number?

None.

8. Anything special about how you feed? (turn off pumps, say a blessing, etc.)

We turn off the return pump and powerbeads for 10 minutes. It's easy to put the tank into feeding mode with the Apex controller.

 

[jmt1030]

1. How much food are you feeding daily? (one cube, a pinch, etc.)

• Some pellets in the morning
• 1/2 sheet of Nori
• homemade frozen fish food

2. How are you feeding? (Broadcast, Food Clip, Target, etc.)

• Broadcast and Nori on a clip

3. Do you thaw your food, rinse your food, etc?

• Thaw the frozen food for about 10 minutes in tank water.

4. What type(s) of food are you feeding? (list all)

• New Life Spectrum pellet
• Nori from grocery store
• Homemade food which has shrimp, squid, scallops, salmon, silversides, nori, vitamins, flake food and brine shrimp)
• View media item 274

5. Size of your tank in gallons? (total water volume of water including sump, etc.

• 180G DT
• appoximately 50g sump

6. How many fish do you feed?

• 15

7. How many BIG fish are included in your fish number?

• 2 (Naso and Yellow Tang)

8. Anything special about how you feed? (turn off pumps, say a blessing, etc.)

• Feed mode on Apex. (Turns off return pump and skimmer) I turn off the powerhead manually for about 2 minutes to let the fish eat, then turn it on to get everything blowing around in the tank.

9. How many times a day do you feed?

• Twice, day and night.

 

[alanbetiger]

1. How much food are you feeding daily? (one cube, a pinch, etc.)
3 frozen cubes and 1 entire sheet of nori, Have an auto feeder for mini pellets Formula Two that feeds twice a day about 1/4 of a teaspoon each feeding

2. How are you feeding? (Broadcast, Food Clip, Target, etc.)
Auto Feeder pellets fall down on one side of tank
Nori is clipped
Frozen cubes are placed in the return pumps intake to broadcast all at once

3. Do you thaw your food, rinse your food, etc?
No

4. What type(s) of food are you feeding? (list all)
1 whole sheet of green nori
1/2 teaspoonish of Ocean Nutrition Formula Two mini pellets
1 cube of Mysis
1 cube of Emerald Entree
1 cube of Brine Shrimp

5. Size of your tank in gallons? (total water volume of water including sump, etc.)
About 450 gallons

6. How many fish do you feed?
17

7. How many BIG fish are included in your fish number?
5 tangs. Regal, Purple, Yellow, Kole, Sailfin all about 5 inchs long or more

8. Anything special about how you feed? (turn off pumps, say a blessing, etc.)
I have a PVC pipe in the sump that I drop the frozen cubes in that keep them contained until they sink right in front of a return pump intake. So the broadcast feeding occurs over about 10-15 minutes

9. How many times a day do you feed?
Nori and Frozen foods once a day around 6:30PM
Pellets in autofeeder twice a day at 3PM and 10PM

 

[Paul B]

How many times a day do you feed?

I feed once a day. But the new born shrimp I put in the feeder lasts a few hours.
I use a baster thing that I build and never just throw food in the tank
I have about 25 fish and they need different foods.
I turn off the pumps.
I rinse the frozen food.
A couple of my fish are 4", some 5" and one 6", the rest are under 2"

 

[jsker]

1. How much food are you feeding daily? (one cube, a pinch, etc.)
2 teaspoons

2. How are you feeding? (Broadcast, Food Clip, Target, etc.)
Broadcast

3. Do you thaw your food, rinse your food, etc?
link

4. What type(s) of food are you feeding? (list all)
See above Link

5. Size of your tank in gallons? (total water volume of water including sump, etc.)
82 gallons

6. How many fish do you feed?
6

7. How many BIG fish are included in your fish number?
2 big fish, 4 medium size

8. Anything special about how you feed? (turn off pumps, say a blessing, etc.)
I shut down all pumps except the return

9. How many times a day do you feed?

twice a day

 

[vlangel]

1. How much food are you feeding daily? (one cube, a pinch, etc.)
I feed 1 and a half cubes of mysis daily

2. How are you feeding? (Broadcast, Food Clip, Target, etc.)
I feed from a feeding dish

3. Do you thaw your food, rinse your food, etc?
Yes, I thaw the frozen mysis in saltwater so it sinks

4. What type(s) of food are you feeding? (list all)
Mostly frozen mysis but occasionally live brine shrimp, amphipods or ghost shrimp.

5. Size of your tank in gallons? (total water volume of water including sump, etc.)
The DT is 56 gallons + 20 gallons for sump so with displacement around 70 gallons.

6. How many fish do you feed?
I feed 4 seahorses

7. How many BIG fish are included in your fish number?
1 is quite large, (7"), 1 is medium, (4 and a half") and 2 are smallish, (2 and a half").

8. Anything special about how you feed? (turn off pumps, say a blessing, etc.)
I turn off powerhead and use a turkey baster to fill feeding dish that is held to the side glass with a magnet.

9. How many times a day do you feed?
I feed 2 Xs a day

 

[leahfiish]

1. How much food are you feeding daily? (one cube, a pinch, etc.)

One cube usually, sometimes 2 and sometimes some extra Phytoplankton or other small food mostly for corals

2. How are you feeding? (Broadcast, Food Clip, Target, etc.)

Broadcast, mostly just pouring the food in front of a powerhead

3. Do you thaw your food, rinse your food, etc?

Thaw in a small cup of tank water, no rinse

4. What type(s) of food are you feeding? (list all)

Most often Hikari mysis, occasionally pe mysis, Hikari mega marine, spirulina brine, rotifers, nls marine formula pellets

5. Size of your tank in gallons? (total water volume of water including sump, etc.)

100g

6. How many fish do you feed?

6

7. How many BIG fish are included in your fish number?

0

8. Anything special about how you feed? (turn off pumps, say a blessing, etc.)

Occasionally turn pumps off but not usually

9. How many times a day do you feed?

2-3 times, but more if I'm home all day


I really want to experiment with more frozen foods and live foods, such as rods food, lrs, live Phytoplankton, and various coral foods. I would like to feed more pe mysis as well but its just very expensive.

 

[RussiReef]

1. How much food are you feeding daily? (one cube, a pinch, etc.)
I feed nori every other day. 5 cubes of frozen food alternate with 3 pinches of pellets.
2. How are you feeding? (Broadcast, Food Clip, Target, etc.)
nori on a clip. the rest is broadcast
3. Do you thaw your food, rinse your food, etc?
I rins frozen food with tap water.
4. What type(s) of food are you feeding? (list all)
mysis shrimp and new era pellets. human grade nori.
5. Size of your tank in gallons? (total water volume of water including sump, etc.)
DT 280 gal plus 50 gal in the sump.
6. How many fish do you feed?
18 fish
7. How many BIG fish are included in your fish number?
7 big tangs
8. Anything special about how you feed? (turn off pumps, say a blessing, etc.)
none
9. How many times a day do you feed?
One time a day

 

[Wam]

1. How much food are you feeding daily? (one cube, a pinch, etc.)
One cube in the morning and pellets four time daily. Sea weed once a week
2. How are you feeding? (Broadcast, Food Clip, Target, etc.)
Frozen food feeder and a auto feederveggie clip
3. Do you thaw your food, rinse your food, etc?
In the tank
4. What type(s) of food are you feeding? (list all)
Miys and brine shrimp sea weed and pellets
5. Size of your tank in gallons? (total water volume of water including sump, etc.)
280 gallons
6. How many fish do you feed?
21
7. How many BIG fish are included in yourfish number?
2
8. Anything special about how you feed?(turn off pumps, say a blessing, etc.)
No
9. How many times a day do you feed?
Upto 6 most days 5

 

[jordimex]

1. How much food are you feeding daily? (one cube, a pinch, etc.)
1 cube to 2 cubes a day (1 cube per feeding) this for fish
1 cup full of oyster feast corals

2. How are you feeding? (Broadcast, Food Clip, Target, etc.)
Broadcast for fish
and target feed for corals
3. Do you thaw your food, rinse your food, etc?
thaw the food in a cup of tank water

4. What type(s) of food are you feeding? (list all)
Brine shrimp and mysis shrimp for fish
Oyster feast and reef roids for corals

5. Size of your tank in gallons? (total water volume of water including sump, etc.)
Its a reefer 250 so correct me if I'm wrong 65 total water, 54 display and 11 in the sump
6. How many fish do you feed?
8
7. How many BIG fish are included in your fish number?
0
8. Anything special about how you feed? (turn off pumps, say a blessing, etc.)
Turn of gyre
9. How many times a day do you feed?
once sometimes twice


Im really scared of overfeeding please some advice if I'm doing it good sometimes the fish don't even finish the cubes and ends up on the ground and becomes food for the peppermint shrimp i have and my CUC

 

[atoll]

1. How much food are you feeding daily? (one cube, a pinch, etc.) Hard to quantify but I make up a batch that will last me 2 or 3 days made up of a whole host of differents foods, some frozen cubes but also powered and my DIY foods.

2. How are you feeding? (Broadcast, Food Clip, Target, etc.) Broadcast and a gourmet grazer for algae sheets

3. Do you thaw your food, rinse your food, etc? Never

4. What type(s) of food are you feeding? (list all) where do I start, variety, as they say, is the spice of life. I buy cockle, mussel, squid, scallops and shrimp from the fish market to make my own. Frozen I buy like lobster and oyster eggs, mysis, brine shrimp, rotifers, nori, coral foods and some powdered foods for SPS corals etc. I also grow pods outside. I have probably missed a few off.

5. Size of your tank in gallons? (total water volume of water including sump, etc.) 100

6. How many fish do you feed? 22 mainly small fish of a few inches

7. How many BIG fish are included in your fish number? none

8. Anything special about how you feed? (turn off pumps, say a blessing, etc.) none apart from I use a home made feeder from a turkey baster with added stiff tubing to deliver the food into the water column

9. How many times a day do you feed? at least 3 often 4

 

[justingraham]

1. How much food are you feeding daily? (one cube, a pinch, etc.)
three ounces of half lrs reef frenzy and the other half herbivore frenzy mixed with three drops of selcon and a couple black worms at 9:00pm.
Every three hours From 9 am to 9pm one rotation of the afs which has pe mysis neptunes food and coral frenzy.
Pinch of Live Black worms at 6 am 5pm 7pm and 10pm every other day a sheet of nori.

2. How are you feeding? (Broadcast, Food Clip, Target, etc.)
Afs and the rest broadcasted nori on a clip

3. Do you thaw your food, rinse your food, etc?
I use a rubber ice cube tray to make small ice cube balls of lrs when it's time to feed I grab a shoot glass fill it halfway throw the lrs ice cube in and let it thaw while I test my alk.

4. What type(s) of food are you feeding? (list all)
Lrs reef frenzy
Lrs herbivore
Live black worms
Pe mysis grains
Neptune afs food
Coral frenzy
Once a month I buy a clam for the fish
Tlf purple nori
Tlf green nori

5. Size of your tank in gallons? (total water volume of water including sump, etc.)
90 gallon tank 100 gallons total

6. How many fish do you feed?
7

7. How many BIG fish are included in your fish number?
3

8. Anything special about how you feed? (turn off pumps, say a blessing, etc.)
No I make my fish work for there food I did make an acrylic food holder so that the food sinks below the overflow and my fish have time to swim and get there food I think feed mode is silly in the wild flow doesn't stop so fish can get something to eat. I think if u make a fish work for there food they will be healthier inside our glass boxes


9. How many times a day do you feed?
Ten ish?? Sometimes more

If I have missed something that I should add please let me know!
I believe people do not feed fish like they should because they are worried about there nitrates or phosphates or whatever. Fish graze every day in nature we should try to replicate that in our tanks. I would recomend anyone getting into this hobby to read what Paul B has to say about feeding because I think he's 100% correct. Feed ur fish let them poo so they can feed the corals have the right equiptment so u don't have to worry about nitrates and phosphates when u feed.
Imagine u were stuck inside ur house and we're only allowed to eat one granola bar a day how would u feel? Fish are our pets treat them that way

 

[Goby-won]

1. How much food are you feeding daily? (one cube, a pinch, etc.)
1/2 cube LRS, 1/4 cube of frozen blood worms & depending on my mood - flakes or pellets

2. How are you feeding? (Broadcast, Food Clip, Target, etc.)
Broadcast

3. Do you thaw your food, rinse your food, etc?
Yes - in a shot glass of tank water and then dump it in.

4. What type(s) of food are you feeding? (list all)
2-3 sheets of seaweed

5. Size of your tank in gallons? (total water volume of water including sump, etc.)
140 gallons

6. How many fish do you feed?
10

7. How many BIG fish are included in your fish number?
2 - mimic & clown tang

8. Anything special about how you feed? (turn off pumps, say a blessing, etc.)
Turn off return pump

9. How many times a day do you feed?
2 (sometimes more on seaweed). All 3 of my wrasses eat it too.