How much do you feed your fish?

[Burrito]

As stated, i'd like to get some opinions on how much everyone feeds fish? i know that there's a huge numbers of factors that affect this but just wanted to get a discussion going.

my tank is a mixed reef with the following fish
yellow tang
kole tang
blue throat trigger
one spot foxface
melarnus wrasse
royal flasher wrasse
2 clowns
3 dartfish
firefish
midas blenny
small goby
male lyretail anthia


so i have 15 fish and no matter what they seem hungry and eat anytime i "sympathy feed" them.

my normal feeding is 3 rotations of pellets per day (spaced every 3 hours), the pellets are a mix of new life spectrum and nyos algae pellets. i put a sheet of nori a day which is only eaten by my yellow tang
and i put cube of frozen mysis(of other frozen) a day

i don't have any algae issues and actual have trouble reading nitrate and phosphate

am i feeding to little? should i stop one pellets and increase frozen? it just seems when i read other threads on feeding people are feeding like 1 cube every other day for a similar stocked tank

 

[CoralNerd]

I'm following along as I often wonder but here's what I do.
I feed 3 cubes a day and a little pellets.
100g with 15 med to small fish. N03 non existent and p04 low.

 

[nereefpat]

Almost all fishes that I've kept will eat any time I feed, so eating doesn't necessarily mean they are hungry. Predators like lions and eels are an exception.

It's hard to quantify how much to feed. Making sure fishes have good weight and are growing is a good sign.

What I do is feed as much as they can eat for a couple minutes, while making sure everyone gets some, a couple times a day.

 

[Kmsutows]

With your stock it sounds about right but I'd use less pellets and more frozen foods.

Personally, I keep a lot of finicky fish so feed quite often. I have maybe 20 fish in my 150gal and feed probably equal to 8 cubes a day maybe more spread out over maybe 5 times a day.

 

[KrisReef]

I feed my fish enough food to keep my nutrient levels (Phosporus & nitrates) up for my corals.

I like to keep the fish slowly growing but not obviously plump.

 

[sfin52]

I feed once a day. I work 12 hours a day so feeding more is no an option and auto feeders I don't trust.
I was using mysis brine and a couple of other frozen foods.

As of Sunday I switched over to my own frozen food. Oysters,clams,flounder,shrimp,fish eggs. I also feed nori for my cb angel,foxface and sailfin

 

[BestMomEver]

I dissolve three cubes of mysis in a cup and split it between 4 tanks (60g, 32g, 15g, 5g). Each gets fed 2-3 times per day. The 60 gets nori as well.

 

[biecacka]

I have the following fish
Yellow tang
Blue tang
Purple tang
Sailfin tang
6 clownfish
Starry Blenny
Rabbitfish
Coral beauty
Black dwarf angel
2 bicolor pseudochromis
2 green damsel
6 line wrasse
Melanurus wrasse

I think that is it.

I have an auto feeder that makes a total of 5 turns a days. The concern I have is the tangs and rabbitfish are all pigs and eat so fast that I feel as if some of the smaller fish don’t stand a chance. The feeder turns and just drops a pinch out, about 20-25 pellets each rotation. So like 1 per fish. But the next opening is almost 3-4 times the amount of food I feel like. Haven’t tested n03 or p04 in awhile but last time they were around 5-10n03 and .o1-.02 hanna for p04. My bubble king skimmer and ATS make short work of excess nutrients usually.

Corey

 

[Reefpuck]

If they look fat and healthy...then you're probably doing it right.

 

[ca1ore]

Fish ALWAYS act like they're hungry (like my dog …. and my teenaged sons) - don't fall for it! 2-3 feedings a day of what they will consume in about 20-30 seconds should suffice for most tanks. I probably do a bit more than that, but OK as long as you have the nutrient export mechanisms to handle it. Metered feeders are generally not a good solution if you have very aggressive, big eaters like tangs. Much better to broadcast feed so everybody gets some.

9 am - 8x8 sheet of nori every other day (grazer ring as a treat on the off days, 1-2 times per week)
12 noon - two sizes of pellets
3 pm - frozen mix
6 pm - frozen mix; maybe some pellets

Eel and spiny lobster get shrimp every week. When I am out of town ….. they starve

 

[biecacka]

Yeah I know they aren’t ideal, but sometimes they are a necessary evil. I work in politics and during any election time the upcoming months are brutal to me and can result in not being home or not being there during the day. Coupled with working in Puerto Rico for a few months last year it was a necessary evil and since then I have sort of just gotten lazy and continued to it. I do occasionally feed outside of the feeder but not enough.

Corey

 

[justjes45]

Geeze I am glad I read this.... I was told to feed my fish once every other day... poor little guys are starving!
I actually thought I was over feeding due to a hair algae outbreak... I thought the food was throwing my numbers off...

 

[ReeferReefer]

Geeze I am glad I read this.... I was told to feed my fish once every other day... poor little guys are starving!
I actually thought I was over feeding due to a hair algae outbreak... I thought the food was throwing my numbers off...

Feeding less if your are having algae problems is common. I just wouldn't feed every other day for their whole lives.

 

[Corey Baker]

Little over 100g tank with 12 or so fish mixed reef. With my work schedule i can only feed once a day. So i do two-three mysis cubes, and a third cube of either krill, spirulina, brine, or eggs of some kind different each day. a sheet of nori every 3-4 days. flake whenever i think about it.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Everyone’s point of agreement: Fish always look hungry! Lol... that being said...

Generally speaking, I feed my fish about every 2-4 hours throughout the day. Of course, it is small portions that are consumed very quickly, to not foul the water. I use flakes, pellets, a variety of frozen items, and recently, Mussels from the supermarket. I buy a pound and freeze them, and each day I crack a hole in one and throw it in. The fish go NUTS for about an hour or more eating from it. (I tried clams, but the shell is much too hard to just crack a single hole; clams basically split wide open into two and the ‘meat’ gets eaten right away, instead of a slow-release like with the Mussel meat.) And I make sure Nori is available most of the day.

 

[EmdeReef]

I’ve always overfed my fish. Currently they get between 14-18 cubes of frozen food a day, some PE mysis, nori, algae wafers, and pellets for my quoyi but that means feeding all fish pellets so the quoyi can catch a few.

Have to dose nitrates (thank you Kessil, cheato and Ulva) Though I dread checking phosphates (0.1-0.15:mad. New reefer 750 running since November, Not overrun by algae yet lol

#fat&happy

 

[ca1ore]

pellets for my quoyi but that means feeding all fish pellets so the quoyi can catch a few.

Funny .... were it not for a quoyi, I wouldn't feed pellets. Mine will eat some nori, and masago roe, but pellets and obsessive grazing make up its principal diet.

 

[EmdeReef]

Funny .... were it not for a quoyi, I wouldn't feed pellets. Mine will eat some nori, and masago roe, but pellets and obsessive grazing make up its principal diet.

I've only had luck with algae wafers and pellets, nothing frozen and won't touch nori.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Having three tanks, not much choice in 2-4 oz of frozen daily + flake and pellets via AFS apex feeders

 

[saltyhog]

72x24x21 tank with:

11 wrasses
Gold Rim Tang
Large Black Cap Basslet
Small Flame angel
yellow watchman goby
2 eyebrow barnacle blennies.

I feed 3 feedings. First is 1 cube Hikari mysis and another cube of frozen (angel mix or blood worms), Second is about 2 cubes worth of LRS, third is similar to first. I also feed 1/2 sheet of nori every other day.

nitrates 0.25-0.5, phosphate 0.05-0.08