feeding fish

[liquafaction]

Does everyone just feed there fish per the instructions on the box. The people I got my fish from said they fed them a cube of marine cuisine a day. Marine cuisine instructions say to feed oftern, but no more than fish can eat in 3 minutes. This is what I learned: They can eat 1/2 cube in 3-5 minutes. I have been feeding them 1/2 cube of marine cuisine 2 times a day. After feeding them, the fallow you around as you walk by the aquarium like a begging puppy. Would you say I am underfeeding? How often do you guys feed? What is a good rule of thumb?

[VoodooChild]

The three to five minutes rules a good one. You can feed twice, but keep an eye on your nitrates. And I'd recommend feeding a variety, not just one thing. Personally, I feed once a day, with two fast days a week, sometimes one (depends on if I get home before the light timer brings night to the fish).

[liquafaction]

once a day using the 3 minute rule? Then no feeding for 2 days of the week?

My nitrates are a 30, according to the instructions on the test kit anything over 50 parts is a concern

amonia is at .025

do you guys recomend a water change to correct, or chemical correction.

[kreblak]

I feed flake every other day, and frozen cubes once a week. My hermits and shrimp are the only ones that like the frozen stuff anyway. I used to feed twice a day, but I got some really high nitrates so I cut back to every other day.

[BrianH]

I think you will probably get a variety of responses on this question but I agree with Kreblak. If your parameters go downhill, I would reduce the feedings. I currently feed 1 frozen cube w/cyclop-eeze every other day. I put nori on a clip every day, and use DT's on the days I do not feed.

Brian

[liquafaction]

I figured I would get different feedback this question, but at least it gives me a better idea of reality, instead of what a box says. ??"feed often"?? How do you translate feed often?........lol.
That is such a broad rule.


Back to the nitrate question though. When your nitrates start reading high, would you do a water change, or a chemical additive of some sort?

oh yea, what are DT's

[VoodooChild]

DT's is a plankton mix for things such as corals. I'd do frequent water changes to keep nitrates down. If you starting having a problem, say over 40 ppm (preferably lower), then I'd do 20% a week and feed every other day until they lower down a bit. Using carbon for three days can help, but rely the most on water changes. Do you have any live rock? That makes a huge difference.

[liquafaction]

oh yea, I have live rock. I purchased, and moved this tank from someone.

As far as the DT is concerned. I have some leathers, will they feed on DT? I really do not have a lot of literature on corals at the moment. I had an anemone pop up the night I moved the tank, and he acturally snatches some of the frozen food particles out of the water, so I have not worried about actually feeding him. The literature I have for anemones say you might feed them small brine every 3 or 4 days, but I cannot see where that would be necessary. Thery were a few polyps I notices when I was putting the live rock back in the tank

I do have to more things start popping up that I cannot identify. One thing popped up on a whole piece of live rock. It is about 1/4 inch tall, redish purple, and looks like a mushroom with a flatend cap. The cap is about 1/4 inch diameter circle and is more white on the underside. The next thing I had pop up is coming out of an old scallop shell. It looks like a muscle with a shredded foot. It is more of a blue violet with white. I hope this does not offend anyone, but what it really looks like to me is a vagina with a shredded clitorus.