How long to leave an oyster in the tank?

[George]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

Today I gave my copperband a fresh oyster. At first it did not toutch it at all and was even afraid of the thing. Then my trigger came along and started eating...then the butterfly took a bite and voila

He's eating slowly and picking often at the oyster so I was wondering how long can I leave it there? Can I put one in the morning and leave it all day for the fish to eat?

It's a fresh oyster so it is alive before slicing it in 2 and putting it in the tank. I rinse it before with tap water. How long do you leave oyster in your tank? does that pollute?

Also how often should I give it? is once a week enough (expensive at 2$ each!)? The copperband only eats live white worms beside the oyster and of course the pods in the tank.

You could try clams. Much cheaper than oysters.
I think you should remove the oyster or the clam as soon as you think the fish have enough. You don't want to leave it in the tank all day. They are very high in protein and can pollute your tank fast.

[daniella3d]

I cannot remove it as soon as the fish as finish eating because he does not stop eating. Copperband are slow eaters. They only pick a few bites and then go away, and then return and pick again a bit like a mandarin picking on liverock all day long.

I watched it and for like 4 hours the fish went again and again eating the oyster. Did 2 huge poop during that time so I guess it was eating quite a large amount still to poop like that.

I left the oyster from around 6:00 pm till 11:30 pm, so around 5 hours.

Both my copperband and my niger trigger were on and off on the oyster for all this time.

Originally Posted by George

You could try clams. Much cheaper than oysters.
I think you should remove the oyster or the clam as soon as you think the fish have enough. You don't want to leave it in the tank all day. They are very high in protein and can pollute your tank fast.

[untamed]

I think you should try to find oysters (or clams) that are of a size that they will be eaten cleanly within a single day....12 hrs or so. I don't think you would want any uneaten portion of anything sitting overnight, if possible.

A good clean up crew should polish off anything uneaten by the fish in less than a day.

[daniella3d]

If it can stay in the tank for all day it's just fine. The first time I put an oyster I put it to late at 6:00 pm. Next time I will put it early morning so the fishes have plenty of time to finish it up.

Today I put a mussel and the copperband liked it as well but he was not as found of it as it was for the oyster. Still, when I removed it tonight it was nearly all consumed.

I am guessing that I should not put this each day, but rather twice a week or it will pollute my tank if I do it each day? I wonder how often people with copperband butterfly are feeding oyster and mussels?

Originally Posted by untamed

I think you should try to find oysters (or clams) that are of a size that they will be eaten cleanly within a single day....12 hrs or so. I don't think you would want any uneaten portion of anything sitting overnight, if possible.

A good clean up crew should polish off anything uneaten by the fish in less than a day.

[untamed]

The more you feed, the more strain you put on the system filtration regardless if it is consumed or not. Uneaten food would be worse than eaten food, but it all has to be processed by the system one way or the other.

I believe that well fed fish are healthy fish. Yes, you can feed less and they may survive...but if they are eating an entire oyster every day, then I would give them one every day. If they can eat two, give them two. I think this is probably especially valuable for a fish like the Copperband.

[daniella3d]

That copperband is getting fat now. So far I have put a large oyster 3 days ago, yesterday I put a mussel, today I put another oyster. He's picking at it bit by bit all day long, plus he gets live white worms. I tested ammonia today and it was zero. Tested nitrates and was zero.

What would be the sign of my system overload with waste? I guess first sign would be nitrates?

Originally Posted by untamed

I believe that well fed fish are healthy fish. Yes, you can feed less and they may survive...but if they are eating an entire oyster every day, then I would give them one every day. If they can eat two, give them two. I think this is probably especially valuable for a fish like the Copperband.

[Doug]

http://96.31.86.198/vbulletin/showth...d+eating+clams

[untamed]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

What would be the sign of my system overload with waste? I guess first sign would be nitrates?

Increasing nitrate level would be something to watch for. However, you're more likely to see an increase in algae/cyano before you get to measure that nitrate as they are very quick to take advantage of high nitrates. Nitrates are just the end product of the nitrification cycle that deals with everything that goes into the aquarium. (simplification ;-)

I don't think that high nitrates would define "overload". I would define "overload" as supplying so much food, so quickly, that your biological filtration cannot deal with it...Decaying food/waste produces more ammonia than your bacteria can quickly handle. Ammonia, kills rapidly and you produce MORE death and MORE waste and ammonia resulting in a spiral that takes down the entire tank. You overload the bacterial population you have.

My final thoughts on this are that you can generally feed as much as you want provided you build up the system to handle it. GRADUAL increases in feeding will be matched by increasing population of bacteria to deal with it. Once you have a robust population of bacterial to deal with large feedings the only downside to the large feedings is dealing with nitrates/algae.