How much to feed fish?

[rooneyj889]

Hey all, I currently have 2 small clowns, a royal gramma, watchman goby, exquisite firefish, carpenters flasher wrasse and a melanarus wrasse in my tank right now, I am currently feeding about a little less than a quater of a cube of PE Mysis and a little less than a quarter of a cube of Hikari frozen brine each morning. Is this enough food for them? I am trying to keep nutrients lower because it is the early stages of my tank and I dont have a protein skimmer quite yet.

EDIT: Also have a few hermits, 2 emerald crabs, a fire shrimp, skunk shrimp, 2 peppermint shrim and a few different types of snails (Nassarius, Cerith and Trochus)

 

[Waters]

That seems a little on the light side to me.....I have roughly the same amount of fish and feed two cubes a day along with some pellets and flake. Have you tested to see what levels your nutrients are at? You can combat high nutrients with other things besides a skimmer, like water changes for example.

 

[rooneyj889]

That seems a little on the light side to me.....I have roughly the same amount of fish and feed two cubes a day along with some pellets and flake. Have you tested to see what levels your nutrients are at? You can combat high nutrients with other things besides a skimmer, like water changes for example.

Tank has only been up for a little more than a month and after the tank cycled I have started doing 20% water changes once a week. Nutrients arent super high, around 10-15 Nitrate. Havent tested Phosphate yet. Just want to make sure to keep them in check before putting corals in.

EDIT: Also, tank is 75 gallons

 

[Halal Hotdog]

You are going to hear a plethora of different opinions on how much to feed fish. I feed a significant amount of frozen sea food, equivalent to 5-8 cubes a night, and that does not include the algae and reef roids I add to a 160-175 gallon system. My system is setup in a way where the byproducts of that food is exported out and keeps the nutrient load controlled. I believe fish should be fed until their hunger response has dissipated (swim by food and don't pick at it). Without appropriate filtration this could easily turn into high levels of nitrate and some ammonia that would kill everything.

One rule of thumb, if you can see the skeletal structure of the fish then you are significantly underfeeding.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Not enough. 2-3 cubes should be adequate

 

[jwyatt22]

I think I have been underfeeding. Good info here.

 

[CavalierReef]

Me too jwyatt22. I have a McCosker's wrasse, a firefish goby and a shrimp goby with his tiger shrimp. I also have a pair of fire shrimp and a CUC consisting of several hermits, an emerald crab and various snails. I currently feed less than a cube per day of Selcon soaked frozen food and occasional flakes. I respect vetteguy's opinion on here and think I'll amp it up a bit and just keep a close eye on nutrient levels.

 

[jwyatt22]

just keep a close eye on nutrient levels.

Me too.

 

[Zionas]

How big’s your tank, just curious?

 

[jwyatt22]

55 gallons

 

[terraincognita]

You could definitely feed more.

I do 1 large feeding though instead of a few smaller. And then skip a day every now and then. As I’m also trying to keep nutrients lower for now.

I definitely think a lot of early tank problems are caused by just over feeding.

the Best way for me to tell if to feed and turn all off pumps except I’ll leave a power head on for flow. I come back 15 minutes later, if there’s still big chunks flowing around it’s too much ime.

If it’s just smaller particles I’ll keep it at that.

 

[Zionas]

Thanks but I was addressing the OP lol. How big is the OP’s tank.

 

[AZReef13]

Flasher Wrasses require two to three feeds per day,