Feeding Too Much or Just Right?

[Roy 9121]

I usually feed pellets in the morning, then some meaty food in the evening when i get home. My yellow eye tang likes the algae pellets more then the nori, so i throw a few of those in in the morning also.

 

[FirstContact]

Thanks everyone. I've decided to keep my feeding schedule with just dry foods every other day.

 

[ahiggins]

Of all the crazy posts in here I never got to ask to see your tank? How big is it?

 

[hypnoj]

I've been reefing for 9 years now. Larry DuPont (owner of LRS) is a buddy of mine. I feed both my tanks dry pellet food once a day; except my office tank is not fed on the weekends. Both tanks have had clown pairs that have spawned. My dogs have always eaten dry food and lived full lives, my cats have only eaten dry food and lived full lives. I've never felt the need to feed anything but dry food; all animals in question seem pretty happy and healthy to me

 

[Cflip]

Can I keep frozen food I didn't use in the refrigerator?

 

[d2mini]

Can I keep frozen food I didn't use in the refrigerator?

Yes. I defrost a big chunk and use it for 2-3 days.

 

[Cary Hover]

Frozen food should be only a treat once a week unless you have fish that will absolutely only will eat frozen. Eatbreakfast may be very knowledgeable but is definitely not a people person. There are many different ways to feed your tank and I agree that fish can do just fine on pellets and algae on a clip. I have a 450 reef/fish setup with many different tangs, angels, clowns, foxface and inverts all who defeinately enjoy frozen 5in1 but are plenty happy with pellets and algae. If your fish look fat and healthy then they are fine. A sunken head and stomach would be signs of under eating and then maybe frozen is needed to fatten them up but once a day or every other day. Feeding frozen all the time only leads to high phosphates and nitrates. If you don't mind 20% water changes once a week then feed away. Otherwise you will end up with very high levels and unhappy SPS and LPS. Fish can take the higher levels but still not good. And eatbreakfast, I think you have been rather abrasive with your comments and can definitely get your point across in a more friendly manner or just keep your comments to yourself.

 

[fishbox]

Frozen food should be only a treat once a week unless you have fish that will absolutely only will eat frozen. Eatbreakfast may be very knowledgeable but is definitely not a people person. There are many different ways to feed your tank and I agree that fish can do just fine on pellets and algae on a clip. I have a 450 reef/fish setup with many different tangs, angels, clowns, foxface and inverts all who defeinately enjoy frozen 5in1 but are plenty happy with pellets and algae. If your fish look fat and healthy then they are fine. A sunken head and stomach would be signs of under eating and then maybe frozen is needed to fatten them up but once a day or every other day. Feeding frozen all the time only leads to high phosphates and nitrates. If you don't mind 20% water changes once a week then feed away. Otherwise you will end up with very high levels and unhappy SPS and LPS. Fish can take the higher levels but still not good. And eatbreakfast, I think you have been rather abrasive with your comments and can definitely get your point across in a more friendly manner or just keep your comments to yourself.

I'm a noob but can see your point but if you feed just enough for fish to consume in a small amt of time and have proper exportation. Why would excess nutrients be an issue? Just asking...

 

[eatbreakfast]

Proper nutrition is not an opinion. It has been studied to a great extent. It has consistently been shown that diet has a huge role in immunity, growth, and vitality. Specifically with probiotics and the proper fatty content. Most dry foods have no probiotics, this is beginning to change a little, but not much. The fatty content, however, is something that is not nearly enough in dry foods. the reason being if left on a shelf the food would go rancid quickly, so dry food producers take the oils out, and any fats that do remain are broken down enough so that they have very little real value. Look at the back of dry food. Whatever the percentages are after protein, fat, and fiber are completely useless filler. And it's these fillers that all get pooped back out by the fish, adding to PO4 and NO3, whereas frozen or fresh food has a higher content of useable food for energy and growth. Also, in what passes through the fish with the frozen or fresh is more readily taken up by corals, so there is less waste, less PO4 and NO3.

Fish can live on a diet completely of dry food, however the risk for disease goes up, life expectancy goes down, proper conditioning goes down(which also affects coloration and displays). Humans can live on a diet of just dry food too. Think of field rations. You can live quite awhile on them, but your life expectancy is not going to be that of someone eating a well rounded diet of fresh food. Fish's ability to survive on this diet is much more a testament to their durability than to the husbandry they are provided.

Frozen food should be only a treat once a week unless you have fish that will absolutely only will eat frozen.

Dry food should be what supplements the fresh or frozen. People get away with it, but again, dry is not what is best for the fish.

If your fish look fat and healthy then they are fine. A sunken head and stomach would be signs of under eating and then maybe frozen is needed to fatten them up but once a day or every other day.

Looks can be deceiving on this. Again, look at people. Most people that don't look skinny are actually far from healthy and diet has a lot to play with this. Eating too much junk food, fast food, or processed foods leads to high blood pressure, blood sugar problems, low energy, behavioral problems and death. Just because a fish is not emaciated is by no means an indicator of optimal health.

Feeding frozen all the time only leads to high phosphates and nitrates. If you don't mind 20% water changes once a week then feed away. Otherwise you will end up with very high levels and unhappy SPS and LPS.

Dry food has more waste in it than frozen, especially if the frozen gets quickly rinsed before being added to the tank. Where the biggest issues for waste arise is the quantity being fed. All too often, those feeding once a day, or more egregiously, once every other day, feed a larger size meal. By doing this a greater quantity of food is missed and is just left to break down in the tank. Even the food that is eaten has less value. Fish's digestive tracts aren't designed to extract nutrition from these larger meals, so it will pass through without the fish getting the full value of the food.

Whereas using the same quantity of food, but spreading it out over multiple feedings has less waste, as the fish are able to catch more of it, and they are able to digest that quantity with less waste through their digestive tract.

Corals are animals as well, and the single best food for them is fish poop, not ashy fish poop with undigestible filler, but fish poop with useable proteins intact, which in turn actually encourage coral growth.

Nutrient export is essential, though. If feeding properly makes keeping nutrient levels in check difficult, than it is more a case of stocking levels being too high. So instead of cutting down on the fish getting the feedings in a way that will best benefit them, why not cut down on the number of fish being kept. When you take a fish home you are becoming thei r caregiver, their steward. They don't have any other options available. They can't move on to better hunting grounds.

Again, the op's schedule was also in play. Feeding every other day. Just imagine for a minute if something happened to you(anyone still reading this), maybe an emergency came up and you had to go to the hospital for an extended time. If whoever was taking care of your kids(for sake of illustration) only fed them every other day and it was just ramen noodles when they did get fed. How would you feel about that? Or since fish aren"t even close to being as valuable as a person, they did that to your dog, only feeding every other day. This is more acceptable, but would you want it to live the rest of it's life this way? Fish may not be seemingly as valuable or as important as a child or a dog, but they are a living animal, they are a pet. They are not some piece of art to beautify a space in the house, They aren't some recreational activity that can be forgotten about when you lose interest.

 

[ahiggins]

Proper nutrition is not an opinion.

 

[laga77]

My dogs have always eaten dry food and lived full lives, my cats have only eaten dry food and lived full lives. I've never felt the need to feed anything but dry food; all animals in question seem pretty happy and healthy to me

You cannot compare domesticated animals to wild animals. Domesticated animals have survived and evolved by eating humans`s leftovers. The animals we keep are wild and somewhat unique, in the fact that reefs are isolated. They only appear in certain locations and the animals only eat what is available at those locations. Plus, there is a huge difference in the quality of most dry cat and dog food to that of fish food. Fish food is usually made from leftovers from other industries. For example, the fish meal is the crap leftover from fish oil production. They press small oily fish and remove the oil for human and farm animal consumption. Whats left over is sold to the pet food industry.

As far as fish surviving on only dry food, sure they can do it, but it lowers the odds of long term survival. I used to feed dry food just like everyone else. Five years ago after losing a tank to ich or velvet, I got interested in nutrition to boost fish immunity to disease. I switched back then and have not lost a fish to disease, once acclimated into DT, despite running 6 tanks with 54 fish. Those who support this theory tend to feed only live, fresh, and frozen. My 4-5 year old fish have lived this long with minimal QT on top of it.
The people who live in fear of ich are also the ones who tend to feed dry foods. Ich becomes a non issue once your fish get healthy immune systems. I much rather see a little algae in my tank than ich, but that`s me.

If you feed dry food. Just look at the ingredients on the label, and see how much is found on the reef and how much is found in a farm field. Ever see a school of Tangs feeding on a wheat field?

 

[reefbizkit]

Ok, soooooo.... I only feed frozen cubes and a wide variety from V2O foods. I have 11 small fish in the tank. How many cubes, how many times a day should I feed? Every time I walk up to the tank they swim to the surface looking to grub. Opinions? Fish include clown, leopard wrasse, 3 pajama cardinals, blue spot jawfish, flasher wrasse, 2 small tangs, flame angel and a royal gramma.

 

[jp_75]

i have 6 small fish(fairy wrasse,2 clowns,longnose hawkfish,cave basslet and flagtail dartfish).how much should i feed? i mostly(90%) serve frozen. I usually give 1/2 cube.is it enough? thank you

 

[Roy 9121]

Ok, soooooo.... I only feed frozen cubes and a wide variety from V2O foods. I have 11 small fish in the tank. How many cubes, how many times a day should I feed? Every time I walk up to the tank they swim to the surface looking to grub. Opinions? Fish include clown, leopard wrasse, 3 pajama cardinals, blue spot jawfish, flasher wrasse, 2 small tangs, flame angel and a royal gramma.

From what I've been told, you figure a fishes stomach is about the same size as his eye. Feed as much as they Can eat in about 7-8 minutes.

 

[reefbizkit]

Wow ok. I feed 1 cube 3 times a day. They clean it up in about 30 seconds

 

[Roy 9121]

Wow ok. I feed 1 cube 3 times a day. They clean it up in about 30 seconds

3 times a day may be a bit much, but i don't know what you have. I only feed once or twice a day.

 

[reefbizkit]

See above for my fish load

 

[Roy 9121]

See above for my fish load

You have a lot of different fish, with a lot of different nutritional needs. Just feeding one type of food is not going tho cut it. The tang needs algae for example. And how big is this tank?

 

[eatbreakfast]

Ok, soooooo.... I only feed frozen cubes and a wide variety from V2O foods. I have 11 small fish in the tank. How many cubes, how many times a day should I feed? Every time I walk up to the tank they swim to the surface looking to grub. Opinions? Fish include clown, leopard wrasse, 3 pajama cardinals, blue spot jawfish, flasher wrasse, 2 small tangs, flame angel and a royal gramma.

Each tank varies as far as the quantity of food. When you feed, aim for all the food to be eaten in 30-60 seconds. You can always add a little more if they finish sooner, but if you over feed, it's not really feasible to take food out, and whater isn't eaten just breaks down and pollutes the tank.

Try offering multiple small feedings a day. Most reef fish's digestive system is designed to better handle this type of feeding over one or two bigger meals a day.

i have 6 small fish(fairy wrasse,2 clowns,longnose hawkfish,cave basslet and flagtail dartfish).how much should i feed? i mostly(90%) serve frozen. I usually give 1/2 cube.is it enough? thank you

This sounds pretty good, just try to get multiple feedings in.

From what I've been told, you figure a fishes stomach is about the same size as his eye. Feed as much as they Can eat in about 7-8 minutes.

Their eye and stomach are comparably sized, but they should finixh each meal in about 30-60 seconds, otherwise the uneaten food leads to nutrient issues.

Wow ok. I feed 1 cube 3 times a day. They clean it up in about 30 seconds

This is great.

3 times a day may be a bit much, but i don't know what you have. I only feed once or twice a day.

Most reef fish are better designed for multiple small meals a day.

You have a lot of different fish, with a lot of different nutritional needs. Just feeding one type of food is not going tho cut it. The tang needs algae for example. And how big is this tank?

Variety is key to any diet. Variety off-sets nutritional deficiencies from only offering 1 or 2 food types.

 

[reefbizkit]

Frozen food is packed with a huge variety I thought. I use several different types fromV2O. The tangs are small and I realize they need to be relocated. The tank is a 55 show. Red Sea E260. Every time I feed they wolf it all quick. What is the best coral food? I don't have many. Most LPS but my first acros arrive tomorrow. Any suggestions?