What can I feed my tank?

[Be102]

I would like to start a thread that will allow someone like myself to feed their tank healthier.

We all know about mysis and plankton, but I want to know more about food we eat ourselves, that are okay to feed our tanks.

When searching for seafood is there anything to look out for on a package? Should I avoid feeding stuff thats been frozen? avoid fresh? What other foods are acceptable for the tanks? I always read about feeding a sick fish a boiled peeled pea, What other vegetables are okay?

Sorry if this is all over the place, would just love to have basically as many people as possible comment so it could be a large collection of knowledge to feed our tanks. I personally wouldn't have slightest clue what to feed. I heard someone fed their tank cod the other day and thought that was cool... thats what I had for dinner

 

[ahiggins]

I have three tanks- 10g, 25g, 40g.
I feed all a mix of LRS nano reef, reef roids, mysis, phytoplankton (Im still experimenting with this one), and calanus.
My fish gobble up literally anything but the reef responds best to LRS and reef roids.

Ive heard of people preparing their own food from fresh seafood but Ive only even used frozen from the LFS.
Good luck

 

[eatbreakfast]

Avoid anything farm raised. Frozen is fine too. Look out for preservatives.

My boss regularly goes fishing, so I'll add whatever is the recent catch, from menhaden(baitfish), bluefish, tuna, rockfish. I'll also use bluefish eggs. From the supermarket; whole uncooked shrimp, salmon, squid, clams, oysters, cod, and whatever else seems good.

 

[laga77]

Clams, oysters, shrimp, squid, crab, and salmon are all good. Wild salmon is better because of the natural level of oil in its flesh, the orange color. Farmed raised salmon has been fed artificial coloring to achieve this.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Clams, oysters, shrimp, squid, crab, and salmon are all good. Wild salmon is better because of the natural level of oil in its flesh, the orange color. Farmed raised salmon has been fed artificial coloring to achieve this.

In some cases the orange color for farm raised salmon is a dye added after they are slaughtered.

A feed causing the orange is less of a problem because it will be a feed rich in astaxanthn, usually a krill or shrimp based food. This is pretty similar to their natural diet, which is astaxanthin heavy with krill and shrimp.

The problem arises when you aren't sure which method was used in farm raised fish.

 

[themcnertney]

Most of my fish are herbivores. I tend to feed red and green nori daily. Mixture of frozen once weekly.

 

[Be102]

Do you guys chop up everything? Is "bay raised" stuff something to avoid? What can I feed for actual vegetables? Lfs' around me use lettuce and stuff like that.

 

[laga77]

Most of my fish are herbivores. I tend to feed red and green nori daily. Mixture of frozen once weekly.

Actually, they are omnivores, they need a balanced diet. If fed mostly nori they are not receiving the fat they need for energy. As far as lettuce goes. Marine fish eat algae, not plants, they cannot digest terrestrial plants. Blanching does not break down the cellulose, it only breaks the cell wall in the plants and makes them limp. Stick with nori, cheato, and caulerpa.

 

[Be102]

Can I just chop up a piece of cod I was going to have for dinner and give them some? Any risks? It was frozen like last week.

 

[laga77]

Sure

 

[themcnertney]

Actually, they are omnivores, they need a balanced diet. If fed mostly nori they are not receiving the fat they need for energy. As far as lettuce goes. Marine fish eat algae, not plants, they cannot digest terrestrial plants. Blanching does not break down the cellulose, it only breaks the cell wall in the plants and makes them limp. Stick with nori, cheato, and caulerpa.

I literally just looked up all my fish in my tank, most of which are herbivores. A couple are omnivores. Hence I feed mostly Nori with meaty frozen one a week.
Anyway I think once you are stocked, you will need to adjust how and what you feed accordingly.

 

[Coastie Reefer]

I've seen people feed broccoli before. Not sure if it's a good food item, but I have seen it done...

 

[Maritimer]

I think there's actually a little bit of broccoli in some aquarium foods . . . I know I spotted a floret in my tank at feeding time ... about a half-second before my kole tang did. (>__<)

Most fresh wild-sourced seafood in your market should be appropriate for your fish, and some of it may prove to be a relished treat, or even Heaven-sent. Can't tell you how often I've heard tales of difficult angelfish getting started on clams or oysters on the half-shell!

I probably use over a dozen different foods in rotation, from calanus and copepods to angel formulae, Rod's Food and three different varieties of LRS, as well as occasional flakes, pellets, and nori. I figure somewhere in there, everybody's getting what they need!

~Bruce

 

[Valkyrie]

Ok. What is LRS? I'm a vet tech, so to me it means Lactated Ringers Solution and I'm quite sure no one is feeding their fish IV fluids. LOL.

I like to feed my anemones (2 bubbles and a condy) so far I have bought some shrimp, always wild caught and always sourced from the USA. If I won't eat it, then I won't feed it to any of my pets. Besides, living where I do there's no excuse for buying seafood sourced outside of the USA. Today I bought 4 little live manila clams. I only feed the anemones every 2-3 days. Should I freeze these clams? If I do freeze them should I take them out of their shells?

The rest of my inverts and coral are fed reef-roids & mysis. Should I offer more variety? Oh, I do have the frozen "saltwater variety" pack, too, but I haven't fed any to the tank.

 

[Maritimer]

LRS is a series of premium blended frozen foods, made from seafood of the same quality you'd find at your local fishmonger's, with added probiotics. If I recall correctly, it stands for "Larry's Reef Services", and they're a sponsor here on Reef2Reef.

Also ... it's _great_ food.

The "Saltwater Variety Pack" from San Francisco Bay isn't bad - it's included in my rotation - but it is a bit heavy on brine shrimp, which are nutritionally sort of the "iceberg lettuce" of aquarium food. Not a ton of nutrition in brine shrimp . . .

~Bruce

 

[RegalAngel]

Clams, oysters, shrimp, squid, crab, and salmon are all good. Wild salmon is better because of the natural level of oil in its flesh, the orange color. Farmed raised salmon has been fed artificial coloring to achieve this.

I use small clams and shrimp meat from my local store to feed. No preservatives and the fish love the stuff.

The shrimp meat is soft and easy to eat; the clams more for the larger angels.

 

[laga77]

These are wild animals we keep. Even the captive bread are not domesticated . It only makes sense to feed them what they eat in the wild. I always tell people to read the ingredients of pellet and flake food. Marine fish are not meant to eat plants and grains. Good luck.

 

[William Norman]

I relize this a 6 month old thread, but I was looking for this exact info.

Has anyone been concerned with introducing bad things such as ich with fresh clams or muscles ?

 

[Maritimer]

Parasites are a possibility with fresh (live) clams or mussels - so are the sorts of live bacterial colonies that help all life to process foods.

Freezing the clams will kill most, if not all, parasites, and may allow some of the bacteria to survive - and also make the clams much easier to open once they're thawed.

~Bruce

 

[Be102]

Bump