hungry fish

[12learn]

hello, i am sorry to ask a possibly dumb question, but my fish always seem to act like they are starving when i come into the room. is this just my thoughts. i also am getting some brown (what i think is diatom) algae on the sand bed. i think i may be slightly over feeding ( twice daily) it doesnt seem like much that i am giving them and i do have about 50 crabs and about 20 snails for a clean up crew. oh, my tank is 150 gallons, do i need more of the crew. also i see so many differtent types of snails. is one better than the other. thanks for any help.

 

[Reefscape]

You will find that different snails perform different functions really..Trochus snails feed mainly on algae, Nerite are another algae feeder, Astraea are good for feeding on diatoms...

A old saying is a hungry fish is a happy fish. I feed mine every other day and feed them untill they stop. There some exceptions to this like algae grazing fish like tangs who will spend time picking at rocks or additional algae, like nori, left in the tank on a clip...I think feeding twice a day is too much and coupld be a cause of the algae. How long has the tank been running? If it has not been running very long it could be just the normal algae blooms that new tanks get..Or it could be that you dont have enough flow going over the sand bed so particles are just resting on the sand rather than staying in the water column and removed by filtration or the skimmer..

Hope that helps a little bit

Niko

 

[Germanman]

You will find that different snails perform different functions really..Trochus snails feed mainly on algae, Nerite are another algae feeder, Astraea are good for feeding on diatoms...

A old saying is a hungry fish is a happy fish. I feed mine every other day and feed them untill they stop. There some exceptions to this like algae grazing fish like tangs who will spend time picking at rocks or additional algae, like nori, left in the tank on a clip...I think feeding twice a day is too much and coupld be a cause of the algae. How long has the tank been running? If it has not been running very long it could be just the normal algae blooms that new tanks get..Or it could be that you dont have enough flow going over the sand bed so particles are just resting on the sand rather than staying in the water column and removed by filtration or the skimmer..

Hope that helps a little bit

Niko

i agree with him about it. but it really depends on the fish you have. i feed my fish 2 times a day because of my dragonetts and also the seahorses i used to have. but they are both small ammounts and i have the tank over filtered to compensate. maybe u could give us ur water parameters just to check out how everything is doing.

 

[spinx]

I feed my fish atleast twice a day. it is better to feed often but in small doses than feeding once a day in a large dose. The kind of fish you keep plays an enormous role in feeding frequencies though. dragonets, sea horses, tangs etc. needs a constant supply of food. in order to be successful with keeping fish you need to mimic its environment as close as possible. only then would you have a truly happy fish.:read: