How do u know u have feed ur fishes enough

[ckpeh]

Hi pple,

I am feeding my fishes (5 to be exact, 1 to 3 inch) daily with one myosis shrimp cube. Is that sufficient for them? they seems to be looking 4 food everywhere. But after feeding, there is always some food floating ard for me to scoop up. So how do we know that the fishes have enough?

Thanks.

Rgds,

Tom

[B|uEc@rpEt]

Hi CK Peh...

The fact that u have to scoop up remaining food shows that u r overfeeding. For 5 fishes, I think u can try 3/4 of a cube.

If u r afraid they will go hungry (which I very much doubt) then u can feed half a cube twice a day.

Depending on the fish species, a good deal of fishes look for food around the tank all the time.

[bawater]

try to rotate foods- also try frozen brineshrimp & maybe dry foods as well.

To improve diet of your fish- u will see results in health & colours.

Feeding solely on a single type of food does stop them from getting proper nutrients. mysis will be taken but not really fought over. try 1 cube hikari bloodworm & 1 cube brineshrimp & watch for lefovers.

If u thinking BW are freshwater? Btw so are mysis. It actually takes up less energy to digest freshwater foods as they do not have to expel the salt content. But again feeding solely on a single food won't provide them with enough to grow & be happy.

Its a natural instinct of the fish to keep looking for food- dun worry. but i think 1 cube for all of yours a bit too little if its per day.

e.g (my 1 4" tang alone eats 1 cube BW).

In the morning i feed 1 cube brineshrimp with a sprinkle of dry food, in the evening 1 feed 1 cube bloodworm & 1 cube mysis+ 1 cube brineshrimp + any live brineshrimp(seldom) left over from SH tnk.- weekend afternoons i leave either nori or lettuce in tnk for munchies. Total load abt 9 fishes & 2 shrimps.

if u ever seen a 5yr old 5" domino damsel then u know its right nutrition.

If u worried abt uneaten foods then think abt some janitors/clean up crews, like shrimps & small hermits

[chanbi]

Bawater, btw how big is your tank? 4cubes + dry food? Won't that stress your filter system? I am feeding b/w 1-2 cubes plus dry food per day and getting worry at time about algae.

[Achilles Tang]

They say the guide is whatever your fish can finish in 1 or 2 minutes is the max.

I find that hard to believe coz my fish can finish a lot of food in a few seconds...

[chanbi]

Same here. Esp my Sohal Tang. AT, btw how much do u used to feed for your old tank (i remember u have ~20+ fishes)? And did u go down to Reborn to look at the AT?

[Achilles Tang]

Hi Chanbi... yeah I got the AT... but I have a feeling I bought a dud.

He didn't look too good in the LFS already... but I thought I would give him a try.

He's in my refugium alone, so I am providing him all the algae and stress-free environment he needs.

He doesn't move much and I'm quite resigned that I may lose him.

We shall see.

[chanbi]

That is bad.. Is he eating? And wish u best of luck and hopefully we get to see him in your tank warming party.

Oops.. i have side track.

[bawater]

well chanbi, to me my fish welfare comes first & algae comes second(well the battle of it anyways) + none of the food goes to waste or rots cause its gone in seconds...like AT's

its a 4ftx1.5x1.5

i found algae problems getting out of hand when i started using dry foods- i've lowered dry foods to once a week while i deal with this current bloom.

i usually let green algae go9i dun get green blooms)& only battle the reds cause a few snails can wipe out hair algae in a matter of days(thus nutrition for the snails) leave 2 in & its all trimmed daily.

i think the problem was phosphates in the dry stuff- next week i stop dry altogether. Nitrates is something u can deal with by many methods. On the other hand what abt phosphates?? i'm in the midst of using seachem phosguard.

+ the fact that i change 15% water every mth without fail since 1998.

dilute-dilute-dilute! how i wish i stayed next to the ocean.

my feeding now is very much lower than it used to be(u won't belive how much fishes grew in size previously in a FOWLR) cause now i got much more soft corals- which are doing well and i want to keep them that way.

[Tanzy]

The fishes will never get enough to eat. You can keep feeding and they will keep eating until they get really bloated. They stop when they can't swim.

This is a good question since overfeeding is bad for the fish. More active fishes will naturally eat more. Tangs eat a lot and graze the whole day just like anthias which are best fed 3-5 times a day.

I feed my 2 clowns and tang one cube of frozen food per day. Tang gets fibre 2-3 times a week depending on how fast the vegetable is consumed.

[tigershark]

i always believe that under feed your fish would be better than overfeed them..... but is your fish is too aggresive, they might attack each otherif they become too hungry.... my lion fish is the only fish in my 20 gallon tank.... i dun have this problem, i only feed him with 1 pc of small market prawn once every 2 days......

[d88p]

They say the guide is whatever your fish can finish in 1 or 2 minutes is the max.

I find that hard to believe coz my fish can finish a lot of food in a few seconds...

the way my fishes are eating is like the owner....... when owner is hungry, the fishes also get feed

[Firestarz]

Haha! .. same here .. my FW tank is juz beside my dinning table .. so yea .. every dinner the FW fishes will b fed ..

Sry for going off topic: My dad used to get me to feed my FW fishes 3 times a day .. twice with pellets once with blood worm .. n the fishes grew really fast .. Haha .. i noe this is serious over feeding .. but my dad juz doesnt realise that fishes do not need to eat so much .. he even scolds me for not feeding them 3 times a day. Haha!

[d88p]

lunch dinner supper

[Firestarz]

Eh .. nope .. breakfast at 6am (no choice .. got sch), lunch at 3pm, dinner at 7pm.

HAha! .. my angle (FW) grew by more than twice its size in a few months.

[Ah-lim]

My greedy clowns always grab the food first, chiongster, haha, leaving those shy feeders hungry.....no more food...

Therefore , sometimes no choice but to flood the tank with food a bit to let those shy feeders have a chance....

[d88p]

i forgot to feed the fishes this morning..... they look ultra active now, pecking at the live rocks

[Firestarz]

Fishes r fishes .. when they r hungry anything can happen .. i once left on holiday n one goldfish got eaten up by the rest of the gang .. n i think its my sucker fish which started the mess.

Sry guys .. cos my marine tank still cycling so my experiences r all from FW. *paiseh* .. but anyway .. all also fishes .. so shld b de same.