Am I underfeeding my fish?

[xxkenny90xx]

Hi all, I have a moderately stocked 112g DT (7" sailfin tang, 4" yellow tang, 3.5" sailfin blenny, 2.5" clown, 3"clown, large dragonette, tiny yellow watchman and pistol shrimp, cleaner shrimp, orange serpent star, brittle star, few porcelain crabs, small pincushion urchin, a bunch of corals and anemones, and lots of snails) and I've always wondered if I underfeeding them. I feed about half a cube worth of a homemade blend of seafood and supplements on some days and on others half a cube of frozen mysis shrimp. Also half a sheet of seaweed daily and a teaspoon of reef roids weekly. I've always heard it's better to underfeed then to overfeed but lately I've been seeing posts about people feeding multiple cubes a day in smaller systems than mine???

 

[KrisReef]

Do all the fish get something to eat? Do you have algae & pods growing in the tank? Do the fish look thin and sunken in with their bones poking out under their skin? If you answered yes to the first two questions, and no to the last then you are probably ok feeding lightly. I'm not certain how many people will disagree with the light diet, but I think it is fine as long as the fish don't start looking gaunt and start eating each other. I think they can be more healthy in a low feces tank if the cubes provided have good nutritional variety.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Everybody eats and I have tons of amphipods (and probably copapods) and all the fish look healthy. I forgot mention once or twice a week I target feed the nems as well. Thanks for the advice kris

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Do all the fish get something to eat? Do you have algae & pods growing in the tank? Do the fish look thin and sunken in with their bones poking out under their skin? If you answered yes to the first two questions, and no to the last then you are probably ok feeding lightly. I'm not certain how many people will disagree with the light diet, but I think it is fine as long as the fish don't start looking gaunt and start eating each other. I think they can be more healthy in a low feces tank if the cubes provided have good nutritional variety.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

I'm confused mastiff, do I need this book

 

[Mastiffsrule]

I'm confused mastiff, do I need this book

Just being silly, sorry if I threw the thread off. I always like @KrisReef posts.

 

[KrisReef]

Everybody eats and I have tons of amphipods (and probably copapods) and all the fish look healthy. I forgot mention once or twice a week I target feed the nems as well. Thanks for the advice kris

You are welcome. The tank sounds like it's got a lot of natural food for the fish. If they start looking thin you can always increase the rations. My tangs like Nori, and I think that the corals are happier when I feed it to the tanks. No proof, just anecdotal evidence.

If I had to eat out of a tank, I'd pick out the copepods and skip the detritus myself.

Hmm; #410/365 = over 1 pound each day. Makes me want to go on a diet myself.

Thanks @Mastiffsrule

 

[Wrangy]

It depends on a few things, as @KrisReef mentioned, if you've covered those bases then you've got enough food going in and light feeding is certainly much easier to manage but higher nutrients and more food availability in a system is much more important than we once though as well on the flip side.

For instance, my tanks has the following fish in it:
- C. burgessi (Burgessi Butterflyfish)
- C. declivis (Declivis Butterflyfish)
- P. marcellae (French Butterflyfish)
- H. melasmapomus (Black Earmuff Wrasse)
- O. borbonius (Blotch Anthias)
- C. purpurascens (Lavendar Dottyback)
- M. atrodorsalis (Fortail Blenny)
- C. rhomboidalis (Golden Rhomboid Wrasse)
- C. colini (Colini Angelfish)
- A pair of p. biaculeatus (gold nugget maroons)

And my feeding regime is:
- 3x pellets on autofeeder everyday
- 3-5x pinches of flake pretty much everyday

However my frozen feeding varies wildly day to day, most days it involves at least one full cube of mysis, plus some days some clams on the half shell, lobster eggs, fish eggs, ocean nutrition premium mix, dawrf angel mix, Marine Frenzy, baby brine, and a couple other options I forget. I usually soak this with some Aquaforest FishV and/or Garlic Oil plus some fats/omegas lol

I know that's quite a lot of food and fish but I like having chunky fish that get an interesting and varied diet and as I also have multiple coral species in there with the butterflies keeping them well feed is a must! lol

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

"low feces tank" ;Smuggrin