Feeding Question

[Guest Triple Skeet]

I have a question about how much I should be feeding my fish.

Right now I have about 20 fish, 12 snails, 6 shrimp, 1 lobster, a bunch of crabs and hermit crabs, 1 clam, 1 scallop, 3 serpent starfish, 3 anemone, 1 sea hare, and about 14 corals.

Right now I feed them a decent amount of flakes in the morning, some pellets in the afternoon, and 3 frozen cubes at night. Does this sound right? In all honesty, Ive been feeding them this amount for awhile and havent had any problems, Im just wondering because Ive recently been adding the corals and Im not sure about when I would have to go up to 4 cubes of frozen food.

Thanks for your help.

Edited March 14, 2007 by Triple Skeet

[Tolbert2002]

Depending on the types of corals. Most don't need feedings. when you buy the coral ask the guys you buy it from they will tell you if it needs food. If you have certain corals in question let me know and I will find out.

[Panzz]

your current feedings seem fine to me.. but also seems a little too much.. well anyway you need to monitor your water params to see if this amount of feeding is doing any harm to the water or not and if so, decide if you should change water, add another better filter system or lower the amount of feedings.

also some corals do need to be fed depending on the types.

some eat bigger food such as other shrimps or small fishes.( you can supplement that with market prawns.) and others eat microscopic food such as plankton, some zooplankton and some phytoplankton.

so it really depends on the species of corals and types you have. Also majority are still able to receive enough food just from the symbiotic algae that lives within them. So sufficient amount of light is still needed for these corals.

you can always check in the internet to see what exactly does your corals need. more food less light or more light less food, or in between. XD

[Guest Triple Skeet]

Well I know for a fact my elegance coral eats because when I feed my fish as soon as some of the food hits it it wraps up almost like a mouth closing.

As far as over feeding goes, I keep readin that as long as the food is gone in 3 minutes its ok. And usually the food is gone before 3 minutes with plenty of time to spare.

I dont always give pellets. Just sometime as an afternoon snack and not really alot. Thanks for the help.

[Reef Man]

What are you water parameters???? You have a lot of fish???? What size tank do you have??? Can you tell us what kind of lighting you have??? Do you have a protien skimmer???

Feeding is all about balance....water quality, tank mates, fish, invert, and coral health!!!