Feeding Questions

[Ursula]

Hi. I have a 180gallon with 150 pounds of LR. Fish-only for now. My tank is only about 3 months old.

I currently have 3 b/g chromis, a ocellaris pair, 5 hermits, and a foxface.

Because my tank is so new, my LFS guy has recommended feeding sparsely and as little as every-other-day. I am just doing flake food now, and substitute miasis shrimp once a week or so. My numbers have been good with this routine.

Good advice? When do you start feeding more frequently? I'm planning to add a clown fairy wrasse in a week or so, and read that they should be fed at least twice a day, so I'm confused. Right now, it just seems like the fish are gorging during every feeding session, and I know that's not ideal.

Also, is now too early to begin making my own marine mash? Is it just going to be wasted and bump up my ammonia because I have so few fish now?

Lastly, I bought some red and green seaweed for the foxface. He loves it. How often should I hang a strip? Does it count as a meal for him? I left it in there overnight, and he ate the whole thing by morning. Should I be removing it after an hour or so so that he is not constantly munching?

Thanks!

[Dustin83]

Yeah i'm not sure why your lfs person told you to feed so little. Only reason I can think of is that he probably wanted you to make sure you didn't have a ammonia spike with not enough bacteria colony to break it down. Hopefully, after 3 months, your tank is fully cycled. I would slowly increase the feeding frequency. Fish can skip eating day or two without a big problem, but i'm sure if you kept that pattern up for extended period of time, it would be BAD for their health. Most fish should eat AT LEAST once... twice if possible, per day. Your foxface going crazy on the seaweed might be the sign that he's starved. Why don't you slowly increase the frequency, but decrease the amount you feed at once? As far as the seaweed goes, I'm not quite sure, I use it sort of as a supplement for my tangs. So I feed them mixture of different food per meal. Let us know if you have any more questions, but I definitely think you should increase the frequency to at least once or twice a day.

[fsn77]

I've read that if your tank if low on algae, then there should be a near constant supply of seaweed available for any algae consuming fish in your tank. Algae grazers should be aloud to pick and snack at their discretion. If your foxface is eating the entire strip of seaweed in a short period of time, another strip should be provided. There's 2 rabbitfish in our tank, and they get a 3" x 10" strip of nori (dried, not toasted, seaweed bought from the asian section of the grocery store) each morning. It lasts our fish about 1/2 the day, and then they also snack on whatever other food I feed in the evening to the rest of our fish (mysis, cyclops, etc.).

It's never too early to start making your own food. To prevent any nutritent problems, start out making / adding smaller amounts and gradually increase the amount as you have more fish / feel comfortable that all you're putting in is being eaten.