Feeding a forktail blenny

[docjonas]

I am new to the hobby and recently have gotten my first fish. My forktail blenny will always eat if we put pellets in the tank. Will the blenny not eat if its full or is it just a habitual eater. Eventually, they will stop going after pellets. Im sure i am probably overfeeding the fish, but dont want to have it starve.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I am new to the hobby and recently have gotten my first fish. My forktail blenny will always eat if we put pellets in the tank. Will the blenny not eat if its full or is it just a habitual eater. Eventually, they will stop going after pellets. Im sure i am probably overfeeding the fish, but dont want to have it starve.

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Feeding fish can be a bit tricky - you do not want a lot of uneaten food to get into the tank. If the aquarium is new, and your biological filtration is not working well yet, the food going into the tank can create deadly ammonia. you should be testing for that daily.

If you are feeding multiple times a day (2 or 3 times is best) - try feeding the fish just as much as it quickly eats for each time. When it slows down, or stops eating (or eats and spits the food back out) then stop adding food. If it doesn't get enough food at the first feed, it will still be hungry, and more aggressively feed at later times that day. That works out to be a sort of "on demand" feeding schedule - if the fish is really hungry, you'll end up adding more food at that feed.

This species will not overeat.

Jay