How important is this food?

[Milad]

Im currently feeding flakes/pellets but ive been watching videos on youtube, talking to friends etc and they are saying frozen foods are better. including brine shrimp

So whats the take on this? Can i get by on flakes/pellets?
The youtube videos i was watching, the guy was preparing a meal for his one fish. It looked alot more completed than my DINNER! I dont want to spend 30min a day preparing food.

suggestions, comments, links?

[bioload]

I've fed flake and nori to my FOWLR with no issues. I would suggest variety though which depends on your livestock.

You could always prepare frozen foods in bulk as well in order to save time. A local trip to the grocery store seafood section and pop it in a food processor.

I then usually take the "mush" that comes out and place it on a cookie sheet. Press an eggcrate into the tray to create small cubes and place in the freezer. Once frozen pop out the cubes and store in a freezer bag.

You can make enough for a few months about 1/2 hour.

Hope this helps

[mike31154]

A lot depends on the livestock you keep. Tangs will enjoy some nori on a clip from time to time. I have a Yellow Tang, Singapore Angelfish, two Mandarin Dragonets, a Maroon Clown pair, a couple of brittle stars and cleaner shrimp along with more clean up crew type critters. I use an Eheim dual chamber auto feeder to take care of the bulk of the feeding every day. That way, if I'm away for a few days or even longer, the feeding routine stays largely unchanged for the fishes. When I'm home, I supplement the evening feeding with various frozen treats, some times soaking them in Selcon. I take several small chunks of frozen mysis and brine shrimp, put them on a plastic spoon to defrost and then rinse in tank water before feeding. I'm too lazy to prepare my own fresh treats and at the price of mysis/brine shrimp at LFS, I don't see the need to at the moment.

Although considered primarily vegetarian, the tang eats pretty much anything that drops into the water including mysis & brine shrimp. He really likes the small strip of nori I put on a clip pretty much every day. Tangs are grazers and will check for food all day, so this gives him something to do between the timed feedings. The angelfish also takes the odd hit of nori, but not that often. He also enjoys the mysis and picks & chooses a little more between the flake & granular that comes out of the feeder. The two mandarins pretty much take care of themselves hunting for pods all day. The larger one will take CycloPeeze granules from the substrate and he's also taken some soft round bits of stuff that I can't remember the name of. Similar to the CycloPeeze, but a duller brown colour, very round and packaged in a round container with aluminum foil vacuum bag. Quite aromatic too. Finally, the female Maroon Clownfish, along with the Yellow Tang can be considered a 'Miss Piggy'. Those two are voracious come feeding time and chase down the food with a fair amount of energy. The male clownfish is quite the picky eater, I often think he doesn't get enough, but seems healthy and able to take care of the eggs during spawning.

There are a lot of types and brands of dried flakes and other foods out there. Some specifically labelled for marine, but I often wonder whether that's really all there is to it, labelling and the resultant price increase for anything with 'marine' on it. Look at the ingredients and you probably won't find a big difference on most of it. Once you start stocking your tank, you'll find out relatively quickly what food your fish prefer and if it keeps them healthy. After that, if you wish to go to the extra effort of making up your own concoctions as treats, the choice is yours. Certain fish species will require that extra effort, whereas others will make do quite well with what's generally available.

The only other thing I do as far as feeding, is my GBTA. It gets a chunk of thawed silverside every 3 days or so. While I'm at that, I provide a scrap of the same for each brittle star and the cleaner shrimp.

[Milad]

Is there a link for what I should making the mush from?

[Mandosh]

check out kien's build thread under the "My Homemade Fish Food" section

[bioload]

Originally Posted by Mandosh

check out kien's build thread under the "My Homemade Fish Food" section

Here is a link you can try.....I just look for what is on sale

http://www.melevsreef.com/food.html

[Zoaelite]

I always look it from the fish/ corals perspective, I would hate to eat the same flake and pellet food day after day so I try and mix it up as much as possible. The ocean provides more than flake so we should strive to provide the same.