Feeding intervals?

[John Kh]

Hello everyone,

Can someone give me an idea about how often I should feed the fish in the tank? Every 12 hours? Every 24 Hours? Or maybe every 48 Hours? Some told me I should every 12 or 24 hours!! So I set the AutoFeeder to do that but then I had a problem which was that I had lots of food resided in the tank and another big problem when it fell in!! But anyway what is the best feeding interval to feed the fish?! I have lots of Live Rock and sometime the fish pick on them and eat some stuff from them as well.

[whatevva]

I used to feed every day until I developed a hair algae problem. Now I feed every other day and the tank is much better because of it.

[Loverotties]

I feed every 3 days.

[John Kh]

The fish can survive 3 days without food? :O

[crvz]

it really depends on the fish you have. can you tell us what's in the tank?

[John Kh]

Lots of things:
1 Green Chromis,
4 Percula Clowns,
1 Tomato Clown,
2 Banggei Cardinals,
4 Gobbies,
2 Lawn Mover Blennis,
1 Decorator Crab,
2 Stars (1 Chocolate Chip and one serpent)
1 Yellow Tale Damsel,
1 White tale black damsel,
2 blue damsel,
1 black damsel with a white spot on the face,
1 Sailfin Tang,
1 Hermit Crab,

That's what I recall for now. Maybe I missed something (Not really sure)

[Elegance Coral]

I feed at least once a day. With my clowns, I shoot for 3 times a day. I don't always succeed

The fish you listed feed throughout the day in their natural habitat. IMHO, they should be fed at least once a day to keep up with their nutritional needs. There are other fish, like predatory fish, that can go much longer between feedings.

Just keep an eye on water quality. If water quality begins to go down, you may want to think about reducing the fish population, increasing water volume, or increasing filtration.

[icebear]

what size tank ya got?

Todd gets fed whenever he begs, about every 4 days. but he's a gorger

[Saltmaniac]

Depends on what fish you keep. I feed daily sometimes twice a day if I'm around. I have 5) Anthias and try to feed them twice a day. My tangs and Lemark Angel could go once a day but they enjoy the fruits of the Anthias labors.

[jenglish]

I feed my clowns every other day and they look healthy to me.

[umakemekissu]

there are handbooks that show the feeding interval for each fish but they are useless if you have more than 1 type of fish in yourtank! you can go either one or two per day.. Feed them less but more often is what i do! NOTICE: feeding too much tends to reduce your water quality!

[Jnicho]

I've gone back and forth on this one...I now feed twice a day most of the time...for the fish I keep I find it keeps them fat and happy (aka healthy)...but, I skim very heavy/wet...thaw, rinse and drain all food before it goes in the tank...change filter socks every other day...have plenty of stars, snails, shrimp, crabs, etc. to take care of the food the fish miss...and although I feed twice a day they are smaller meals each time so I don't feel like I'm overfeeding even though I feed regularly.

[Elegance Coral]

"In addition to nutrients from curing rock, the systems absorb large nutrient input daily. All the fish are heavily fed four or more times daily. It is my opinion, that improper nutrition is the primary factor in 75% or more of the fish problems reported by aquarists. Our broodstock is fed a minimum of one feeding daily of each; enriched brine, tuna roe, earthworms, HUFA enriched formulated food, and flake food, and encouraged to eat their fill. IME, nutrition is THE limiting factor for breeding"

The above quote came from this link. http://www.inlandaquatics.com/profile/tour1.html

I have to agree 100% with what he's saying. Ask any successful SW fish breeder, and they will all stress the importance of nutrition. Every breeder I know of, or have read about, feed multiple times a day.

Doesn't it make you wonder why many fish don't spawn in the typical reef tank, and yet these breeders can take the same species, drop them in a tiny 10gl tank with not much more than a flowerpot, and they spawn? How could that be?

The drive to procreate in the animal kingdom is only overpowered by the drive for self preservation. Arguably, that's only so that the animal can live to procreate another day. If we are withholding food from our animals so that we can keep clean water, to the point that it impacts the drive or ability to procreate, isn't it a sign that there is a problem?

Many of the fish listed above feed throughout the day in their natural environment. Doesn't it seem logical that restricting their diet to feeding once every few days would lead to problems? Even if the fish can't stick his head out of the water and say, "Hay.....I'm starvin here!"

If we are mimicking our pets natural diet the best we can and it causes water quality issues, isn't that a sign that the tank is over stocked, or under filtered?

[luther1200]

I give them a piece of seaweed on a clip every other day, and feed them 1 cube every day. And occasionally I will trow in some flakes, usually on the weekend when I'm home.

[yellow submarine]

You have to stop & ask yourself, "do I want alot of fish or alot of coral?".....'cause you cant have BOTH, my brother......

way tooooo many problems arise when you have alot of fish (which I think you have from your list) and coral confined in a 4ft glass box....and then overfeed on top of that. yikes.

me personally, i think i have 3 more fish than i should have....i have 7 in a 75gal but they're all smaller than 4inches (mostly wrasses & firefish). i'm too lazy & not enough patience to catch them and sell them to another reefer.

...and OH.... i feed every 2-3 days. we all feed our fish probably 2-3 times the amount of food they actually get in the wild.

fish dont need three "squares" a day IMO, just two good feedings a week
.
.
.
.