herbivore fish

[blaster]

When i feed my naso and foxface seaweed,i get a huge ntrate spike,what are other alternatives that would meet their needs

[Delphinus]

Nori maybe? But it's still seaweed. There aren't too many susbstitutes (if any, really). You can try feeding romaine but there's debate as to whether that's any really any good (nori is better, at any rate), and I doubt all herbivores will really take to it (tangs maybe). I used to feed romaine but I don't anymore, my tangs are WAY fatter on nori.

I dunno ... feeding seaweed shouldn't really spike your system. How big is your tank? How are you feeding (and what seaweeds in particular)?

If you're getting a spike I wonder if there's a lot of it that's going uneaten. I feed my herbivores nori rolled around a piece of PVC. When I used to just feed a loose sheet held in place by a feeding clip, they would make such a mess of it. Little bits everywhere. Of course they can't eat it all, some of it would disintegrate. Since switching to the rolled up method, I don't really notice little bits floating around anymore. All that comes off the tube, is the stuff they eat. Thus, they "harvest" more of it, less of it lingers and potentially fouls. Thus, better water quality and fatter fish. Try it this way, if you aren't already.

[Quinn]

I think any decaying organic matter would cause a spike, be it uneaten nori or fecal matter post nori consumption. I'd be interested to hear how much is being fed and how large of a tank we are talking about.

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by teevee

I think any decaying organic matter would cause a spike, be it uneaten nori or fecal matter post nori consumption.

For the most part I agree. But leftover uneaten food compared to processed eaten food, seems to me, not quite an apples to apples comparison. Something gets depleted out of that food when it's digested, therefore, leftover uneaten food is thus somehow more undesirable than fecal matter. I suppose when you get down to it though, too much of either, boils down to the same thing.

I did have a higher NO3 reading when I fed nori flatly instead of rolled. So whatever the explanation, there's still something going on that explains that...

[blaster]

tank is 52 hex only three fish init.I feed a pretty reasonably small piece.Its the julian sprung seaweed.I do notice they make a huge mess with it.

[Quinn]

Naso tangs get really freakin' big...

[EmilyB]

And my foxface outgrew a 155g in a year.....those are pretty big crappers for such a small tank...you got a big skimmer on there???

Herbivores need to graze all day long, and nori should always be available to them.

[blaster]

yes my skimmer is huge,and the naso is getting big