How much food and clown question

[cvrle1]

Hi,

I have 2 false percs in my 33 gallon. They are only fish. I was wondering how much and how often should I feed. Right now I feed every 2nd day 1/3 of a square of frozen brine. Is this enough or should I add more food.

Also, just noticed last night that one of my clowns got kinda shy. He is hiding in the back of the tank. He was swimming all over the place since I got him (2 weeks ago) but as of last night he has become shy. I can't really see anything wrong with him. It seems that his mouth is open a bit wider then with the other clown. When I fed the fish today, both were chasing the food and ate regularly. As soon as the food was gone, one of them went back behind the rock and is floating there.

I was using RODI water for top-offs till yesterday morning, however since the water advisory started I was forced to use Safeway's RODI unit (the one where you manually fill up you bottles) I tested the water with the TDS meter and got a reading of 1 which is fine. Not sure if I should test water for anything else. Not sure if I should try and use the RODI filter since water that we are getting is brown, so filter will just get destroyed.

Any ideas and help would be appreciated.

[ed99]

Have you seen the two clowns fighting at all? It could be there are just establishing the order between the two of them now that they are settling into the new surroundings, which can be a bit of an elaborate ritual of fighting, chasing and a freakish looking twitching by the one submitting. If they are both juveniles then they should settle things without damage- however if they are older one may eventually be killed my the other- either directly or indirectly through stress.

[cvrle1]

They are both juvies, and one of them was definetly more aggressive at the beginning (for few days) but nothing too serious. The "shy" one was twitching as well like you mentioned, so that could be it, or at least I am hoping. Both were swimming around since day one with occasional "attack" from the bigger one (which is still swimming around the whole tank)

It is just strange that the smaller one started hiding in the back of the tank last night when it was all over the place previously. I haven't seen any aggression for at lest a week so I can't see that being a problem.

Either way, thanks for your help and hopefully they are just getting their roles straight and it's nothing to worry about.

[ed99]

Hopefully they will settle things out. I've had these things go both ways- sometimes they peacefully co-exist, and sometimes they don't.

As for your water quality- it's always worth checking periodically but if it were the cause I would expect both fish to be acting strangely.

Finally, on your food question- the rule of thumb I heard was enough for the fish to consume in 5 minutes each day. That always seemed a lot to me, and it easier to overfeed than underfeed. As a minimum I would try feed them every day. In the wild I think most finish eat small amounts constantly so it is better if we can duplicate that. There's lots of opinions on what to feed out there, but if your nitrites and nitrates are low than you are probably not overfeeding.

[ron101]

Finally, on your food question- the rule of thumb I heard was enough for the fish to consume in 5 minutes each day. That always seemed a lot to me, and it easier to overfeed than underfeed. As a minimum I would try feed them every day. In the wild I think most finish eat small amounts constantly so it is better if we can duplicate that. There's lots of opinions on what to feed out there, but if your nitrites and nitrates are low than you are probably not overfeeding.

Agreed. IMO DO feed your fish a least once per day. I feed three small servings per day. Brine shrimp is mostly fibre, there is no much energy there. Feeding them brine every other day is hardly anything. Dont starve your fish...

[Cameron]

I have 2 small percs in a 10g.

I feed usually 1/3 a small cube of brine twice a day, nitrates are incheck.

Should I add some differnt food to their diet?

What to feed my torch coral?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Brine shrimp is not very nutritious. You should try to get them switched over to small mysis shrimp or pellets or high quality flakes.

Anthony

[ed99]

Brine shrimp is not very nutritious. You should try to get them switched over to small mysis shrimp or pellets or high quality flakes.

Anthony

This is what I feed my fish. There are lots of other options out there too. People have compared brine to potato chips for fish- delicious, but not so nutritious!