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Feeding Program

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MattinIdaho View Drop Down
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    Posted: September 01 2011 at 11:08pm
Let's hear what kinds of fish and invertebrates you have in your tanks and what kinds of foods you are feeding and kind of a program that you run to keep them healthy and in good color. I am interested to see what different kinds of foods and brands of foods people are having success with. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote russianrick Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2011 at 4:55pm
I like to keep things mixed up.  The way I see it, if I get bored eating the same thing every day, then my fish probably do too.  As a result I try to rotate several different types of food: brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, spirulina enriched brine shrimp, and various types of algae flakes.  Considering all the stuff growing in my tank, my fish probably eat their fair share of various types of copepods/amphipods too between feedings.  I don't have a ton of fish, but the ones I do have are very brightly colored.  I would post a picture, but it is hard to get a good picture of them since I don't have a camera worthy of taking pictures of fish (they don't like to hold still for their pictures and I can't put them on my lap like I do with my daughter).  I have never seen a more brightly colored pair of black oscellaris clowns in anyone's tank, professional or private.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MIK3B Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 06 2011 at 8:53pm
I also feed a mix, often all at the same time. I have Tangs, Gobies, Chromis/Damsels and Clowns, the standard Clean Up Crew and a Sea Cucumber, sand sifting star and several conches as well as several crabs (Sally lightfoot, Emerald and Ruby) and a mated cleaner shimp pair.

For food I have frozen GSL brine shrimp, frozen roe/fish eggs, 2 types of flake, 3 types of pellets (one that's garlic enriched), Rod's Original frozen seafood mix, Rod's coral food, sheets of Nori and Seachem's Seaweed mix as well as a homemade recipe of chopped seafood mix that I still have in the freezer from my Cichlid days.

Some days I'll feed all of one type and rotate through, other days I'll do a potpourri and just throw a little of everything in there.

I also have my pumps and skimmer programmed to go on standby for 30 minutes when feeding, just leaving one power head on for circulation in the display. My fish have the Pavlovian response down - they know when it's feeding time!   

I also chop up fresh garlic and mix it once in a while, and whenever I see signs of Ich, just to be safe - I've read that it's also an appetite stimulant and although it's never really been confirmed to help combat illness and parasites, it is Nature's most powerful bactericide!

I've always kept all of my food in the freezer and just take a cup of tank water and put it in the microwave for 7-10 seconds to heat it up before I add my food so it thaws out quicker. I don't think tropical fish in the wild eat ice cold frozen food...

I feed well, maybe even a little heavy but I run GFO and Phosguard and although I don't test for Nitrates or Nitrites as often as I should, I've upgraded the tank size recently, but I have an old established system.
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Mark Peterson View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mark Peterson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 07 2011 at 11:02am
I wonder if what you might be looking for is not just a feeding schedule or "regimen" but a look into the philosophy behind why we each feed how we do.

My philosophy is partly covered in the Reefkeeping Tip about adding new fish, but right now I feel like adding my 2 cents to your inquiry. Smile

Ideally, it seems to me that we should feed as close to nature as possible. This is partly why I choose not to use a skimmer. It allows a lot more stuff to grow in my tanks and this "stuff" in turn, feeds other "stuff". This is also why I make a big deal about educating ourselves about what an organism eats before we bring it home.

My preferred fish food is the frozen food concoction that some hobbyists make right here. I am too lazy to make my own, so it ends up that most of the time I feed frozen Emerald Entree and Rods Food. The algae contained in these foods is very important. Knowing something about "Herbivores versus Carnivores" is likewise very important.

I usually feed once/day as much as fish can eat in a few minutes. Garlic Oil is used once every 2-3 weeks. (1-2 drops allowed to marinate in the thawing food without added water). Of course feeding larvae and young fish is very different than feeding adults. About once/week I will skip a day or two of feeding. I believe this keeps the fish healthier. In fact fish can live for a week or more without supplemental food. They simply eat what the aquarium grows. Not feeding allows the biofiltration to catch up, thereby cleaning the aquarium.Approve

Rather than dropping all the food in the tank at once, I feed food in small portions, watching the fish as they eat, to check for signs of abnormal behavior, disease and parasites.

Fish food feeds invertebrates too, either directly or indirectly as fish waste. I find that feeding fish also helps add trace elements to the water.

I feed inverts too. Bugs, worms and coral each have their preferred foods and times. Feeding Golden Pearls and Rotifers at night really helps. Stirring the sand bed or squirting water into it creates a little storm of detritus which feeds coral, sponge, tunicates, copepods, amphipods and a myriad of worms. (These are the larger animals from the long list of biofiltration organisms.)

Algae is the basis of life in the ocean and in our tanks. Algae paste from Brine Shrimp Direct is invaluable to feed everything in the tank. Allowing Macroalgae to grow in the tank or feeding it as a daily supplement is the best way I know to keep herbivorous fish healthy and happy.

One final note. I've seen how dry flake food is made. I try to avoid using standard flake and pellet foods except for times when I have not been able to feed for a few days. Natural food is much better than junk food.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Laird Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 07 2011 at 11:10am
Mark, which paste?
http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/Algae-Pastes-c6.html
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mark Peterson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 07 2011 at 5:57pm
For feeding a reef, the Tahitian Blend would be my choice.
I was growing Rotifers for the baby Nemo's so the Nanochloropsis was the one I was using lately for both reef and rotifers.

This paste is very concentrated so it's best to share a bottle with one or more hobbyists to use it up before it goes bad. It has to be refrigerated and be careful not to leave it out to get warm.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Aquaristnewbie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 07 2011 at 7:00pm
I rotate through mysis, krill, brine, and 3 different flake and pellet food through the week with a homade mixture of above with garlic, nori, trace elements, fuel, and bloodworms on sunday.   I think the variety betters their color and keeps them fat and healthy
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Laird Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 07 2011 at 7:36pm
Originally posted by Mark Peterson Mark Peterson wrote:

For feeding a reef, the Tahitian Blend would be my choice.I was growing Rotifers for the baby Nemo's so the Nanochloropsis was the one I was using lately for both reef and rotifers.This paste is very concentrated so it's best to share a bottle with one or more hobbyists to use it up before it goes bad. It has to be refrigerated and be careful not to leave it out to get warm.



How long before it goes bad?
Indefinite hiatus from sw aquariums.

Once I have my glorious return I'll set back up the following.
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180 Gallons mixed reef paradise
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote hydro phoenix Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 07 2011 at 10:19pm
I do brine, mysis, clams on the half shell, cyclops and plankton sally's San Fransico and H2o life. For corals I use phyto feast and oyster feast. feed every other day. a few capfuls of garlic guard too. I have 2 clowns, 2 purple fire fish, 2 regular firefish, 1 tailspot blenny and 1 royal grama and 1 dotty back (neon). 1 rtba and 1 gbta, favia, galaxia, montipora, frogspawn, green and orange zooas, eagle eye zooas and zooas that make me think of mint chocolate chip ice cream, meteoria, 2 candy cane colonies and a duncan colony anda few watermelon mushrooms, some purple star polyp and a hawaiin feather duster...and blue cloves. lovely little things! variety helps!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mark Peterson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 09 2011 at 11:10am
I don't remember the official word from BSD, but my experience was:
In the fridge, 2-3 months.
In the freezer, a lot longer, if kept insulated from the defrost cycle.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote russianrick Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 09 2011 at 11:26am
I was recently talking to someone at an LFS and he mentioned that he has a tank where he just doses the tank with phytoplankton and lets that feed everything through the food chain.  It definitely seems more natural than constantly adding frozen dead foods, but I don't think this could support a larger population of fish.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mark Peterson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 09 2011 at 12:00pm
A tank could be completely sealed where no supplemental feeding takes place, no water top-off or water changes would need to be done and the little ecosystem takes care of everything.
It's been marketed!
Stocklys Aquariums, the LFS here on the big island of Hawaii developed and promote a local shrimp and some algae which live together in a sealed globe. I've been there. He is very proud of his product. It can be found at specialty novelty stores like Brookstone.

People do the same with Brine Shrimp. Pretty boring if you ask me. Wacko
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote russianrick Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 09 2011 at 1:03pm
I have seen these sphere, but they are definitely not as interesting as a reef tank.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mark Peterson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 03 2017 at 8:12pm
This thread is an oldie but goodie. Plus, there are foods that have since come on the scene that ought to be mentioned, such as Rods Food, Larrys Reef Frenzy and Benepets. Comments anyone?
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