Afraid of Overfeeding

[Lorna]

Okay I am not sure how much I should be feeding my tank. The clowns won't eat anything except mysis or brine shrimp, formula one frozen food....I have tried flake and pellet but they spit it out. I have been feeding 1/2 cube of frozen in the morning and again at night but I am afraid of overfeeding. The tang eats and so does the cardinal but I haven't seen the gobie eat anything but sand. Should I add coepods for the gobie as my tank hasn't been up that long? and how often should I feed the others? I would like to get them eating some flake food with supplemental mysis every other day???? but I haven't found one they will eat yet. None look like they are starving and the crabs and snails take care of any leftovers..........

 

[aresgod]

well, here is my opinion....most people chronically overfeed their tanks...the clowns and other fish in there should readil y accept flake...try mixing the flake in with the frozen and gradually ween them off of it. I just dont see it necessary for most inhabitants to be fed on a daily basis...especially in the quantities that people tend to feed. for example, I feed flake every 3-4 days...and frozen every two weeks, my corals, and all my fish are fine and happy...and as a result they scavenge more, picking at things in the tank...which is much more natural...this said, there are some fish/inverts that require daily, sometimes hourly feeding...but they are few and far between....overfeeding can also easily lead to algae problems...which suck.

 

[Lorna]

I know I used to feed my fw fish every other day flake and not a lot of it. The clowns are regular pigs that rush up to the baster like it is some sort of manna from heaven. I want to wean them onto flake as I think they are spoiled from the mysis. I am worried about the gobie though and wonder if I should buy some coepods to add just to reinforce what's there....or I was reading that they eat mysis? That is if clowny ever lets any reach the bottom of the tank

 

[wayne]

In contrast I feed at least twice a day ...... answers to this are always all over the palce

 

[Lorna]

well I guess the best I can do is try to wean these suckers off onto some flake, supplemented with frozen a couple times a week and really watch my phosphates and nitrates for signs of overfeeding. So far things have been good. I just don't want that diamond watchman to starve......all he does is sift sand, maybe I should innoculate the tank with a bunch of coepods.......isn't that what they eat in the sand?