Feeding once per day??? Every other day?

[Agu]

Light feedings two to three times a day..........

[Saltz Creep]

Every other day. Even longer is OK if you have species that feed off a never ending supply of pods from the fuge. I think keeping tangs and other herbivores a little bit hungry is good because then they'll focus on your hair algae rather than just holding out for a meal they've come to expect.

[SCIFI_3D_zoo]

Do you have corals?? They're more sensitive to water quality than fish. So if you do then you should be much more concerned with overfeeding b/c you'll foul your water up QUICK. It's one of the most abused habits in reefin... OVER FEEDING. First thing you should do is think about feeding once every 2-3 days. You can alternate 2 and 3 if you want. But get out of the once a day habit fast. Unless you are cycling you are almost for SURE having an algae problem b/c of overfeeding. I know.... I've done this a couple of times myself. And lost a lot of corals too. And to this day I'm still pressured by my family to feed the fish. You can put in a cube 2 or 3 times a day and they'll still swim around and act like they're hungry. So first thing you have to do is be logical and sensible about this and forget the emotion or guilt. The right thing to do is limit feeding. With the fish you have you should be putting in like 1 CUBE every 2 or 3 days. And of course supplement the Tang with some greens. I have no idea how big your tang is either but I'm sticking with x1 cube either way. These fish need to scavenge a bit too. So you'll keep your tank clean two-fold.

I've heard it all... feed them what they can eat in some # of minutes... go by the # of fish... size, etc. I followed these rules and I ended up putting in 3 cubes of food every other day a few years ago. I was just following the professional advice. You really gotta play it by ear and observe. But most people over-feed. There are other things you can do to also not mess up your tank. Don't dissolve cubes in a cup of water. This can melt "SOME" of it down to small particulate matter that the fish won't eat. Then that settles on your rock and sand creating a lot of waste that nasty brown and slime algae like. You can also melt the cube a little at a time in your hand, then take it out, etc. so a little is released at a time and make sure it's eaten before adding more. This will not only make sure your fish are getting the food before it settles on your rock and sand... but keeps it from just settling and rotting in your tank. Snails and crabs will look for it too but trust me.. they won't clean it all up before your tank is fouled to hell. ALSO remember... the more you feed ... the more excess food there is laying around... the worst your water will be... the more food they do eat the more they'll poop... the worst your water/tank will get. It's a viscious cycle. ALSO... if you are around to feed them 2-3x DAY that's ok too as long as you still only use 1x CUBE.

Now I've told my family to leave me alone about feeding the fish they are trying to use the excuse that live brine will survive in the tank so there's less waste... so keep dumping live brine in. WRONG again.

Another thing I want to mention that somebody else said... fish don't feel hunger or stress. Maybe some primates do, maybe dolphins since they have exhibited some self-awareness behavior. We love our animals, and we should respect them.. but lets not go overboard and turn this into a PETA convention. Hunger, fear, sadness, boredom, stress, etc... these are all human emotions that we like to attach to animals. But they are human experiences and only human... except for possibly a few other animals like I mentioned. The determining factor?? SELF-AWARENESS. If you are not aware that you EXIST then you are not aware that you are stressed, hungry, etc. All these fish are doing is reacting to their environment. Their brains are telling them to swim fast b/c food is coming. It doesn't not mean they are sad and hungry and can't wait for you to feed them. These are human concepts and they are not aware of their existence in the world. They're just reacting to the world. Humans are hungry, we are aware that we are hungry, we are aware of others around us who hunger, we are sad b/c of world hunger, we are depressed b/c of our own hunger, etc. OK? I do not want to debate ANY of this with any over-zealous animal lovers out there b/c I love animals too. I watch ASPCA shows on Animal Planet all the time and I want them to throw the bastards in jail too. But lets not use this type of thinking to guilt some new reefers into "over-feeding".. which IS one of the biggest mistakes by reefers all over.

[SCIFI_3D_zoo]

OH yea... another good point I missed. Animals will learn to be conditioned. They aren't aware of it but they can be conditioned. What will happen is they'll not graze on algae, not eat detrius, your goby won't sift your sand, your crabs won't clean you rock. If they know they'll get a hot fresh meal every day they'll hold out and wait for that... thus decreasing the time they forage and clean. Again the viscious cycle kicks in.

Originally posted by Saltz Creep
Every other day. Even longer is OK if you have species that feed off a never ending supply of pods from the fuge. I think keeping tangs and other herbivores a little bit hungry is good because then they'll focus on your hair algae rather than just holding out for a meal they've come to expect.

[jedimike]

I also feel a tinge of guilt when I'm observing the tank and I can't hardly see anything because the fish are swarming the glass to be fed. I typically feed at least once per day and twice a week I feed the tank heavily (feed all corals and dose phyto). I think my tank looks healthier when it is "nutrient rich."

That being said, I don't think it is wrong to feed your tank only 2 times a week. Whatever works for you.

[Donw]

Reducing feeding to cure a water quality issue is just a crutch. Sure you can keep fish alive with minimal feeding. There metabolism is already running in overtime. We run our systems at a higher salinity than nsw which gets the fishes metabolism really going. With this in mind they use up the food we give them much faster. They grow at much slower rates than they do in the wild, they also live a shorter life.
The theory that since we have sps, we need to keep the water quality perfect by reducing feeding. Thats only a half truth since they eat mostly fish poop. I'm more from the school of feeding as much as the system as a whole can handle. If a system can only handle feeding every other day then I'd take a better look at the system as a whole.
I feed mine 3/4 times a day on a timer and usually an extra hand feeding at night for variety.

Don

[moses13]

Originally posted by SCIFI_3D_zoo
Another thing I want to mention that somebody else said... fish don't feel hunger or stress. [/B]

What exactly are you basing this on??? If they did not feel hunger, they would not eat. If they did not respond to stress, they would be eaten. Have you studied stress behavior in animals? Fight or flight?

[Saltz Creep]

Originally posted by Donw
Reducing feeding to cure a water quality issue is just a crutch.

I disagree. Overfeeding can be a water quality problem, so reduced feeding is not a crutch but a cure.

Originally posted by Donw
We run our systems at a higher salinity than nsw which gets the fishes metabolism really going.

Again I disagree. Most of us run salinity less than 35ppt.

[Donw]

Originally posted by Saltz Creep
I disagree. Overfeeding can be a water quality problem, so reduced feeding is not a crutch but a cure.

Again I disagree. Most of us run salinity less than 35ppt.

Who defined overfeeding? What exactly is overfeeding? My understanding is that over feeding is when food fed by the human causes water quality issues.

Don

[Crusty Old Shellback]

OK for all of you nay sayers. Here's my 7+ year old tank that's been fed at least once a day. Looks pretty good to me for an overfed tank. SPS, LPS, Softies, zoo's, clams, sponges, muscles and who knows what all else is still thriving in there. The clam is closed because the lights had just came on. Any other time during the day, he's wide open.

[magnum420]

blown63chevy--- No offence, but from the picture, it looks like most of the corals and such in your hex are corals that tend to like the water a little less clean than a SPS dominated tank... Pretty tank though either way you look at it. Love the green yuma!

I also am not saying you cant have a great tank and feed once a day... 3-4 times a day is a bit much imho, but what I was trying to say was this... Its not cruel if you dont feed your tank every day. Every tank is different, every tank can take more or less in the way of feeding, different filtration can allow you to feed more or less, doing weekly water changes can allow more... etc...etc.. but in my opinion it is not cruel to feed your tank every other day to every third day like some people are saying.

I really only saw one "nay sayer" that said that once a day is really bad. Most of the rest of the people are saying its ok not to feed every day not that its the end of the world if you do feed once a day.

[Reeforbust]

You know.....I had a problem with overfeeding on my freshwater tank.......Maybe I should cut back from 3 times a day??

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Magnum, NP. You may be right.

I only have one SPS which I recently aquired. It's the little round green w/ purple edge spot in teh center of teh tank. It's a monti cap and has doubled in size since I got it a few months ago.

Just wanted to show a pic that says yes it can be done. Most people want to see rather than be told. There are a lot of other people on here that go against the grain so to speak and still have healthy thriving reefs.

[trippyl]

Originally posted by SCIFI_3D_zoo
Do you have corals?? They're more sensitive to water quality than fish. So if you do then you should be much more concerned with overfeeding b/c you'll foul your water up QUICK. It's one of the most abused habits in reefin... OVER FEEDING.

Whats your point exactly? Sounds to me like if you are so concerned about the corals, you shouldn't be keeping fish. You wouldn't feed a cat dog food. You wouldn't house a lion with sheep.

I've gotta say that to air the assumption that these animals don't feel is the most offensive point of view of all. May karma never find you.

Feed your fish. If they are eating pods, great. But make sure they get enough food, and the right quantities at the right times. Otherwise, don't take on the responsibility of keeping them.

[welshnumber8]

I have been feeding once a day, however I am now going to look to do it every other day. Thanks for advice.

[Aquaticman74]

The fish in my FOWLR tanks get fed every other day. My eels, groupers, lionfish, and puffer get fed every forth day.

[gearow]

i feed twice a day removing excess food

[Reefski's]

there was an article in Coral mag a few months back that actually measured what fish ate over a 24 hour period. most reef fish are grazers and eat continually over a much bigger area than we give them so we need to make up the difference by feeding.

the average tang ate >2 gms per day. that translates to a lot more than a cube every day or two for the whole tank. of course you need filter/skimming to keep up with that amt of feeding but that is what the fish should have.

much food passes through undigested in the best of circumstances and when given a lot of food all at once more of it passes though undigested. haven't you seen your fish eating the other fishes poop? recycling at it's best. and then it feeds the corals too.

i am not sure you can overfeed the fish. their inate sense will tell them when to stop. they aren't sitting in front of the TV with the ice cream.

you can of course overwhelm the systems ability to process that waste in a timely manner.

Carl

[KDodds]

Just for the record, there's a LOT more to caloric need than thermo-regulation. To state that fish don't need to eat because thermo-regulation is not an issue is a gross oversimplification and simply untrue, at best. As already stated, most reef fish eat throughout that day and more than most of you feeding every 2-3 days are feeding in your tanks. The result is that more fish, especially heavy grazers, will tend to graze MORE. Fine and dandy if you're not worried about a Centropyge picking at coral slime, but there ARE reasons to feed daily, even multiple times per day. Furthermore, feeding multiple times per day is NOT a recipe for algae, nor is it a recipe for high nutrient levels. The former is easily managed through control of the latter and the latter (if even need be) is easily controlled through regular maintenance (water changes), resins, skimming, detritus feeders, and biological nutrient export. For 4 years my 180 ran with 2 dozen fish, no algae problems, nitrAte 0ppm, phosphate 0ppm, fed twice daily, every day, sometimes 3x per day. My current 450 is not a fair comparison as it currently houses only 8 fish.

[prezioso73]

I kicked up a hornets nest by starting this post!

I gather that I am OK by feeding once per day.

[funkyman]

Nothing wrong with a spirited discussion. It's a great way to learn and exchange information in a very subjective and opinionated hobby like this one.

[barrysalt]

So let's recap this feeding controversy: Seems from reading all the threads that opinion on frequency of feeding runs from feeding 3 to 4 times per DAY, to feeding once every 3Days! And almost every variant in between. It's tough to get a handle on what is really the most optimum course to take. Once again, it may point up the fact that for some, depending on many factors of tank size, age, and number of fish, you can justify any position on this subject! In other words, there may not be one feeding schedule for everyone. My own experience has been that I used to feed once/day, cube and mysid shrimp, but I had a horrible algae problem, and my skimmer had to be emptied every other day. I then cut back to a bit less food, every other day, and after a few weeks, algae disappeared, skimmer gunk much reduced, and the six fish in a 65 gal plus refugium are still doing great. So in my circumstances, every other day feeding worked fine. Even my few corals look better, perhaps due to better water quality with reduced excessive food. Whatever the reasons, bottom line is that every other day feeding works for ME, with my tank.

[Dolfan]

As to the water clarity question, regardless of the times/day or week of feeding doesn't it emphasize that having a "feed" cycle for the tank would be very very good. By reducing the flow and having calmer water for the feeding period so that the most of the food is eaten should help. I would think that this alone by increasing the percentage eaten would have a marked affect on overall water/tank quality.

Agree/Disagree??????

[phenom5]

Once again, it may point up the fact that for some, depending on many factors of tank size, age, and number of fish, you can justify any position on this subject!

well said.

KDodds,
as i've said several times, i'm not a doctor, marine biologist, or expert. i may be wrong, or i may have oversimplified things...that was the way i understood it. someone explained it to me like that, seemed to make sense too me...i guess it wasn't correct.

the bottomline is still that my fish are welcome to eat any time they want. there is plenty of stuff in a reef tank for fish to snack on, and no, not just coral polyps. this is something that i've had long term success doing, so i don't see the need to mess wit it. maybe i'll start daily feedings, and see how it goes...maybe not. i wish i had the free time to feed my tank 2 or 3 times a day, but the reality is that just isn't practical for me.

additionally, something i probably should have made clear from the start...i'm currently running a nano with a single fish. so for me, light feeding is the way to go.

[trippyl]

Originally posted by barrysalt
Once again, it may point up the fact that for some, depending on many factors of tank size, age, and number of fish, you can justify any position on this subject!

Wrong, this isnt about what skimmer to use, or BB vs DSB, all of which are fine choices and won't affect the lives that we have under our care. This is about being a responsible owner of pets. FEED YOUR FISH. If your tank can't support the feeding needs of your fish, then give the fish to someone who can. Feeding 2-3 times a week is plain cruel. It's not surprising to me that the same people in this thread who feed so sparingly also have the opinion that fish don't feel hunger. Get a grip.