Bite size: What size of pellets do you use?

[Peace River]

Bite size: What size of pellets do you use?

A common and easy way to feed the livestock in your reef tank is pellets. Whether it is for fish or coral, for broadcast or target feeding, pellets are a commodity for feeding. But what size pellets do you use, or should you use? What types of pellets do you use? Are there any special pellets that you use for unique situations? Tell us about your experience with feeding pellets and share any tips that you may have!

 

[Bucs20fan]

Better question is, What size pellets don't I use.

 

[Slocke]

I have big pellets for big fish, my giant foxface and engineer gobies. It’s mostly because they sink to my gobies who obviously need a lot of food. My fox is crazy for pellets though which is annoying as I have to throw a ton just so the gobies get some.

And tiny pellets for my CB mandarins who of course can be difficult to feed and with several wrasse they need that extra Food.

 

[Shon]

Does dehydrated decapped brine eggs count as pellets?

 

[zoomonster]

New Life Spectrum 1mm occasionally. xsmall or small is debatable. Mostly use prime reef along with spirulina flakes though.

 

[KING KONG]

Depends on fish. If it is small then it can't eat big pellets and if the fish is big, then we can use big pellets. Currently I am using hikari marine A, Marinium slow sinking pellets and Tetra marine xl granules. Sometimes I use flakes also

 

[Bucs20fan]

I have big pellets for big fish- my giant foxface and engineer gobies. It’s mostly because they sink to my gobies who obviously need a lot of food. (My fox is crazy for pellets though which is annoying )

And tiny pellets for my CB mandarins who of course can be difficult to feed and with several wrasse they need that extra Food.

I am so glad someone mentioned how many darn pellets a foxface can eat...My magnificient fox is about 7 inches long, and when I mean this thing eats...oh boy does it eat. It eats more pellets faster than my triggers can, and thats saying something.

 

[fish farmer]

I use Ocean Nutrition Formula One pellets small size for a pair of clowns and a sixline wrasse.

I've also used 3 mm sized pellets, Omega One and Ocean Nutrition for a fowlr tank, along with shrimp pellets and spirulina pellets.

At work for trout we use BioOregon. Mash all the way up to 9mm brood. The most common size currently is 3 mm LP (low phos) for water quality issues.

 

[exnisstech]

I use medium and small but pellets are not a staple. I use them more as treats like the treats I have for my dogs. I feed a frozen raw seafood mash as my staple food. Pellets remind me of dried dogfood which won't feed my dogs. All the good stuff is cooked out and too much crap that isn't nourishing is added in. The list of most ingredients are stuff that is not even available in the ocean. JMO

 

[Jacked Reefer]

Pellets are what I put in my smoker. Most pellets have wheat germ as the first or second ingredient! I don’t remember the last time fish grazed in the wheat fields. I will stick to live or frozen food!!!

 

[pepper89]

Since I don't actually have fish RN, I haven't actually been feeding any food yet. Though I do plan on depending more on frozen and live foods, I do plan on supplementing a few pellets each day as a treat and nutrient supplement. So far I only got 1mm (is that x-small?) since I do plan on starting with juvenile clownfish to start. Eventually, though I plan on getting a few bigger sizes as my fish grow and probably use a mix of sizes depending on the fish I end up putting in the tank.

 

[Petcrazyson]

I don’t use pellets. I’m one of the anti-pellets lol. I will however be trying them out once I get one of the Sleeper Gobies. Going to put it in the sand so they can sift and munch on those.

 

[JoJosReef]

TDO pellets (M and S) for firefish and TSB. nLA thera+ small for clowns. Firefish eats the M pellets and is F-A-T fat!

 

[design.maddie]

I don't know what X-Small means. I feed 0.5mm and my Chromis and Clownfish love that size. My Acans seem to love the size as well.

 

[pepper89]

I don't know what X-Small means. I feed 0.5mm and my Chromis and Clownfish love that size. My Acans seem to love the size as well.

This is my question too. I assumed 1mm was x-small, only cause it's the smallest version of the brand I bought. I didn't realize they made any as small as 0.5mm.

 

[KrisReef]

In biology class we often had discussion upon the subject of feces and the term "Pellet" is a common descriptor used to avoid the harsh realities of the slang. Definitions are important, and I noticed many folks asking, basically; "What's a pellet?"

Does dehydrated decapped brine eggs count as pellets?

I'm too lazy to look up the size of a brine shrimp pellet but it's probably a fraction of a mm?

New Life Spectrum 1mm occasionally. xsmall or small is debatable. Mostly use prime reef along with spirulina flakes though.

I like to purchase stuff on line and having an actual size prevents size descriptor sticker shock when you order a small pellet and they send you a bucket of tater tots.

Just a note, @ExtremeCorals is sponsoring a contest here and there website has excellent size descriptions to improve the buyers understanding of how big is that coral in the picture?

Pellets are what I put in my smoker. Most pellets have wheat germ as the first or second ingredient! I don’t remember the last time fish grazed in the wheat fields. I will stick to live or frozen food!!!

I used to think this way almost exactly the same, except I prefer and use Kingsford pellets. Then I was visiting a popular reef store and they were telling me to get a couple of different "pelleted" coral foods to feed corals their own non-vegan foods. I have purchased and my corals enjoy being feed small drifting items which mimic or replicate their wild experience catching planktonic drift items.

Some of these "pellets" are the size of dust particles, while others are more processed chunks of dried food, the wheat is ok for my Koi but a Foxface should never be feed pellets, other than chicken McNuggets imo.

 

[Jacked Reefer]

In biology class we often had discussion upon the subject of feces and the term "Pellet" is a common descriptor used to avoid the harsh realities of the slang. Definitions are important, and I noticed many folks asking, basically; "What's a pellet?"


I'm too lazy to look up the size of a brine shrimp pellet but it's probably a fraction of a mm?

I like to purchase stuff on line and having an actual size prevents size descriptor sticker shock when you order a small pellet and they send you a bucket of tater tots.

Just a note, @ExtremeCorals is sponsoring a contest here and there website has excellent size descriptions to improve the buyers understanding of how big is that coral in the picture?

I used to think this way almost exactly the same, except I prefer and use Kingsford pellets. Then I was visiting a popular reef store and they were telling me to get a couple of different "pelleted" coral foods to feed corals their own non-vegan foods. I have purchased and my corals enjoy being feed small drifting items which mimic or replicate their wild experience catching planktonic drift items.

Some of these "pellets" are the size of dust particles, while others are more processed chunks of dried food, the wheat is ok for my Koi but a Foxface should never be feed pellets, other than chicken McNuggets imo.

Luckily I hatch BBS every single day for the freshwater fish I breed. So I just squirt that in the corals and they go bonkers. My eyphilla also take mysis and brine! Even saw my favia snag a ghost shrimp one night!!!! I agree pellets have their use cases. Auto feeders are one. If I were to use pellets I would go with TDO or Nutramar. But buying frozen and live is still cheaper for now.

 

[Double monti 61]

Hi i use small pellets but I add them to flake food and grind them up a bit so they are smaller or close to powder and then feed my tank.

 

[OrionN]

Pellets are what I put in my smoker. Most pellets have wheat germ as the first or second ingredient! I don’t remember the last time fish grazed in the wheat fields. I will stick to live or frozen food!!!

Well my fishes eat mainly pellets. Some frozen, a variety of frozen for my carnivores. But the proof is in the pudding, not words.
Here are pictures of my fishes. I think they are extremely heathy. There is no way I can feed adequate variety with live and frozen food if that is all I feed my tank.
There is no way the food we feed our tank is “natural”. That is where the science of feed come in. It does not matter the source of the nutrients is terrestrial, just is the nutrients are what the animals needed?

 

[Jacked Reefer]

Well my fishes eat mainly pellets. Some frozen, a variety of frozen for my carnivores. But the proof is in the pudding, not words.
Here are pictures of my fishes. I think they are extremely heathy. There is no way I can feed adequate variety with live and frozen food if that is all I feed my tank.
There is no way the food we feed our tank is “natural”. That is where the science of feed come in. It does not matter the source of the nutrients is terrestrial, just is the nutrients are what the animals needed?

I believe that you definitely can have healthy fish in a mainly pellet diet. Especially with fish like planktivores and omnivores. I believe with specialists it can be a bit more difficult, such as with scorpionfish or tangs. Overall it depends in the fish. My ichtyology professor has done some reasearch on nutrient uptake and some of the land based fibers are not able to be digested, I figure though if you feed enough you should overcome the poor absorption. But I prefer to keep things natural as I have access to a lot of seafood anyways.