Feeding my fish -- pump off/pump on

[McGene]

As most do, when I feed my fish I turn off the pumps in order to allow the fish to eat as much as possible without the food ending up in the overflow.
That works just fine....but, I find it most interesting to watch the fish after the pumps come back on.

• All of the fish (clowns, cardinals, etc..) seem to enjoy the "hunt" more than "spoon feeding" them. They just love chasing the remaining food while almost ignoring it after them seem to have had all they want. I guess they just can't resist the temptation to chase their food.

Anyone else notice this behavior?

 

[Crabs McJones]

Same here, I have my return pump and powerheads go into a standby mode for 5 minutes. The fish do eat during that time, but once the pumps kick on and the leftovers start swirling around, the fish go nuts

 

[Tanggy]

I don't use the feed mode on my pumps. Just leave it as it is and the fish goes wild chasing the food. Pretty fun to watch them scatter around hounding the food.

 

[mahindra.dev]

Agreed. My Yellow tang would go crazy after the pumps come back on. Loved watching it. It was the king of my tank.

 

[ScooterV]

My "plan" was to leave my vortechs going to keep things moving in the tank, but stop the return pump and skimmer. Well, having a bean animal the siphon breaking, and then when it starts again after, drove the wife nuts so only the skimmer turns off now. "One day" I'll see how far I can just turn down the return to run lower but not break siphon during at least some short period of time to be sure pellets at least sank.

 

[Gareth elliott]

I leave on but use a IM food defroster allows food to stay suspended, without having to worry if the entire cube or piece go down my overflow.

 

[Jeff Hall]

I feed with all pumps on that way food gets blown all over tank. I think of it as more feeding the tank then feeding the fish inside the tank.

 

[don_chuwish]

My 'Feed A' on the Apex shuts off the return pump and skimmer, but the Tunze 6055s on each side just slow down to 35%. That keeps the food moving. Then the last 5 minutes before the return pump comes back on the 6055s go back to normal power, really stirring up any food the fish missed. Skimmer stays off for 45 minutes longer.