Phosphate thread, and oldie but a goody

[Treebeard]

I came across this thread while researching phosphates as it relates to what we feed our tank inhabitants.

It made me realize I need to rethink how much and how often I feed, but how do I know if I am underfeeding? How fat should a fish look? Currently I feed nori in the morning and mysis and pellets in the evening. Do I need to feed mysis and nori everyday (or at all for that matter)? So many questions...

[Zoaelite]

Originally Posted by Treebeard

I came across this thread while researching phosphates as it relates to what we feed our tank inhabitants.

It made me realize I need to rethink how much and how often I feed, but how do I know if I am underfeeding? How fat should a fish look? Currently I feed nori in the morning and mysis and pellets in the evening. Do I need to feed mysis and nori everyday (or at all for that matter)? So many questions...

My preference is to over feed my fish (that way they stay healthy and avoid any sicknesses) and then just increase my phosphate sinks (additives, fuges, skimmer, water changes). That way the fish don't suffer and everyone wins.
Levi

[subman]

After reading the other thread and fighting a little with phosphates I was wondering how everyone feeds nori? I only have one Foxface that eats it how much and how often should I be feeding it (and how long should I leave it in there).
Thanks in advance

[Delphinus]

Short answer is fish ought to be fairly thick. We see "fat" fish in people tanks but to compare them to their wild counterparts they are still pretty thin.

I opt for feeding what seems correct, and finding ways to deal with the excess of nutrients.

Back in the days of that thread though, I was feeding a half to a full sheet of nori per day to the tank. Nowadays I feed more like 1/6 of a sheet, rolled up on the PVC. Less waste, but still fat (-ish) fish.

But yes, everyday, and mysis every day too - it's the only staple food my CBB will eat. Otherwise I'd probably cut back on the mysis a little, but what I do is feed a very small cube of mysis (maybe 1/4" square) and I use a turkey baster and wait for the CBB to notice. Then I shoot out mysis about 3 mysids at a time, let the CBB catch them, then repeat until the mysis is done. This way I know he's getting some - a mass dump of mysis in the tank results in a feeding frenzy and he has to compete with everyone for his food whereas everyone else eats everything else, so with mysis it's a little more imperative that it's a bit more targeted than otherwise..

[subman]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

..... rolled up on the PVC.....

What do you mean?

[Whatigot]

Jeez...
I feed my reef pellets (salifert energy plus) every second day and a mix of mysis, brine and bloodworms every third day.

I do put a lot of effort ino making sire there are some natural foods available as well and all my fish are pretty thick, though far from fat.

I am guilty of undefeeding if anything but have not seen any ill of it so far...

[phreezee]

Mysis, Flake and Nori for me everyday. To combat, I siphon detritus every 1-2 days.

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by Whatigot

Jeez...
I feed my reef pellets (salifert energy plus) every second day and a mix of mysis, brine and bloodworms every third day.

I do put a lot of effort ino making sire there are some natural foods available as well and all my fish are pretty thick, though far from fat.

I am guilty of undefeeding if anything but have not seen any ill of it so far...

If you ask me ... basically we're all underfeeding to some degree. Some species will adapt better than others. A few years ago there was a design floating around about this planktonic reactor that would do mini-surges all day and presumably dump live rotifers or similar over the course of a day. It looked like a neat DIY project - it was on reefkeeping.com - called it a "Geosapper".

Originally Posted by subman

What do you mean?

Ok, the only picture I have that sort of shows it is this one. To the left of the tank is a 3" piece of 1/2" PVC on a fishing line. I roll a 2x3 piece of cut nori onto this and hold it in place with an elastic. The advantage this offers over a nori clip is that to eat it, the fish have to rasp it off instead of cut it off .. which results in far less waste. It also has the benefit that urchins and other inverts can polish it off at night. I can count on my abalone finishing off whatever the others don't get.

There are several variations on this theme that people use for feeding nori.. the main trick is that a clip isn't the best way for delivering nori because nori flakes down too easily if left loose.

[subman]

Thats perfect thanks!