Really Basic Question - Feeding Flakes

[Streetlamp]

I just got my first fish in the tank. So with flake do you drop it in whole, break it up or hold onto it?

 

[sde1500]

I’ve only fed flakes to my pod tanks but some of them were very large. I’d make sure they are broken down to small sizes.

 

[Paul B]

I would take the flakes and very gently walk over to your garbage can and throw it in.
Then go and get some frozen food, maybe LRS food or something like that.

Flakes IMO are not fit for any animal to eat.

 

[darkrabbit]

I would take the flakes and very gently walk over to your garbage can and throw it in.

For real, lol'd.

But yeah, this. I had flakes when I started until I learned more about a healthy diet. I then switched to frozen mysis or brine. Also a few pellets mixed in here and there.

Just to add, if you really want some entertainment, once every now and then get live brine shrimp. I've never seen my tank so aggressive. Even the corals were active.

 

[Katrina71]

I'll bet someone local can give you some better options to try.

 

[lapin]

I can feed one of my shrimp my hand. It likes pieces of rods food or chopped up mussels/clams.
I have never tried feeding my salt water fish the flakes. I feed flakes to my black worms and then the fish eat the worms.

 

[Salty Lemon]

I mix it up -- I primarily use LRS frozen as @Paul B mentioned above. It is wonderful stuff. But I feed a small amount of flake occasionally so that the fish are used to it. If we go away for the weekend, I have the 8th grader next door feed the fish and it is just easier for her to use flake, so I want my fish to be used to it. I take a pinch, stick my fingers and the food under the water and do a quick swirl. It sinks that way and the fish go for it vs floating on top and getting caught in the filter.

 

[Thales]

Quality Flake food is fine. Breaking it up or not depends on what you are trying to feed. When I feed it to my nps corals I like it small. When I feed to fish I leave it be.

 

[Thales]

If if goes over your overflow if it is floating, get it wet so it doesn’t float.

 

[Thales]

Pellets are just round, pressed flakes.

 

[WVNed]

I take a pinch and submerge it under the water and then let go. For small fish I rub my fingers together to break it up.

 

[Streetlamp]

Thanks All, I've just got 2 juvenile clowns at the moment. They had a feed of flakes last night. I then added half a cube of frozen invert food which they had some of too. I'll add more food to the menu over the next few weeks.

 

[Katrina71]

Try some frozen Mysis.

 

[Katrina71]

If you live close to me, I'll share frozen for you to try with your baby

 

[Streetlamp]

If you live close to me, I'll share frozen for you to try with your baby

Thanks, I'm in Ireland though!!

 

[Katrina71]

Thanks, I'm in Ireland though!!

Not enough frequent flyer miles

 

[blasterman]

I see we have more marketing going on here.

High quality flake / dry foods have given me the best longevity and health in my tanks. Frozen foods are mostly water, and that fluid contains a lot of stuff you typically don't want in your tanks or have no idea what's in it. I'll take a high quality dry food over frozen any day provided my fish like it because the Q/C is much better and I know what's in it. Frozen fish foods have about as much consistency as hot dogs. However, variety is healthy to for fish and, IMO that's when frozen foods work well.

I've trained angels and marine betas to eat freeze dried brine shrimp out of my hand and prefer it over the frozen variety.

 

[Tamberav]

I just got my first fish in the tank. So with flake do you drop it in whole, break it up or hold onto it?

I would get some some good frozen food to rotate and feed.

LRS frozen is great and its not comparable to hot dogs

 

[Thales]

I see we have more marketing going on here.

High quality flake / dry foods have given me the best longevity and health in my tanks. Frozen foods are mostly water, and that fluid contains a lot of stuff you typically don't want in your tanks or have no idea what's in it. I'll take a high quality dry food over frozen any day provided my fish like it because the Q/C is much better and I know what's in it. Frozen fish foods have about as much consistency as hot dogs. However, variety is healthy to for fish and, IMO that's when frozen foods work well.

I've trained angels and marine betas to eat freeze dried brine shrimp out of my hand and prefer it over the frozen variety.

There are good quality flake foods that are great, and there are low quality frozen foods that are terrible. There are also frozen foods that thaw during shipping which helps make them terrible - a problem that makes flake/pellets attractive.

My marine betta eats flake. I feed PE flake, Hikari Mysis, PE calanus and LRS, btw. Along with some powered coral foods and random pellets.

 

[Reefermadness89]

I currently do flakes once a week and then frozen the other feedings. Wana get live brine shrimp but haven’t had time.
I pinch the flake, and hold it under water
And let it get everywhere, with the pumps off. Anything else left in my cuc gets out of the rocks ect. Flakes aren’t the best but aren’t horrible either