feeding questions

[jaded]

I have never had a tank so full of life before and I'm wondering if I'm feeding enough or too much.

135gallon reef with
1 Scopas Tang
1 Blue Hippos
1 Lawnmower Blenny
1 Elibi Angel
1 fire fish
1 6 line wrasse
1 Tomato Clown
1 Coral Banded Shrimp
1 Cleaner shrimp
Numerous Emeralds, hermits and snails.
Seven zoo colonies, yellow polyps, purple mushrooms, green mushrooms
Asst. leathers etc.
Frogspawn
Xenia
Green Star
Large Sebea Anemone
Red tree sponge
bubble
175+lbs live rock

I currently feed once a day, usually a mix of frozen brine and frozen mysis. I will also feed some flake when the mood is right. I used to feed romaine lettuce to tangs but I don't see that mentioned here so I am wondering if thats become a bad thing. I tried the roasted nori (only nori available at HEB)last night, but so far they pay it no attention.

When I feed flake there is a substantial amount of food that makes it to the bottom, but the massive amount of crabs and snails seem to make short work of that. The frozen food seems to stay suspended long enough to get 90% eaten in about 30 seconds.

Please advice if you see anything I'm doing wrong or could do better. I'm also wondering if I should put a piece of romaine in the tank for the tangs

[don-n-sa]

If you are feeding too much then I am in trouble. >_<

Monitor you Nitrates and that should tell you if you are overfeeding.

[jaded]

Im actually more concerned with underfeeding at this point! I didnt get any spikes, algea bloom or any other negative effect from the move and all fish seem to be ready to eat. I just dont want to go wild!

[cailan]

unless your fish look skinny, your'e probably not underfeeding. i don't feed lettuce but i do feed dried seaweed on a lettuce clips and let my tangs graze on it for a few hours.

[jaded]

where do you get your seaweed? Is it roasted nori?

[don-n-sa]

IMO I would switch to 2 to three feedings a day. Example: Brine in the early feeding, nori or seaweed in the afternoon, and mysis in the evening feeding.

[jaded]

I would but this pesky job thing has me kinda tied up during the day ;)

[cailan]

i think it's basically like macroalgae; i get it at alamo aquatics and they have different kinds of seaweed there. my tangs, wrasse and angels all love it.

[don-n-sa]

I would but this pesky job thing has me kinda tied up during the day ;)

If you can do two that would be better. Maybe once as soon as you get home and another either beefore bed or in the morning before you leave.

[jaded]

that would probably be possible don-n-sa... I kinda do that now. I feed the frozen when I get home and then flake after a few hours.

does anyone feed romaine anymore? was I doing bad things by feeding it before?

Oh... I should also mention that I do feed the anemone a bay scallop once a week as well as a shot of brine/mysis occasionally and I use phyto and zooplankton every few days or so

[CD]

I feed twice a day...currently 5 different types of frozen - P.E. mysis, formula 2, cyclopeeze, enriched brine, and this new stuff I got from Austin Aquariums that has a mixture of veggies, clams, etc....THEN I add to the above, two different types of flake, sm. pellets, and Garlic Xtreme (two drops). I mix all of the above in a small cup with tank water and let it sit for a few minutes, then I feed it to the fish with a turkey baster. The great thing about the turkey baster is that you can monitor how much food you put in the tank by "trickling" the food in with the baster. Once the fish are fairly full (you'll be able to tell...they stop "gobbling") you just take the turkey baster out, and squirt any uneaten food back into the cup. Then I put the cup in the 'fridge so it will keep until the evening feeding. I also keep nori or macro (usually OGO) on a clip in the tank during the day. Sometimes you will have to be patient in getting the fish to eat the nori. Our fish were totally ignoring the stuff until we got the rabbitfish - I guess he was accustomed to it, and started munching as soon as we put some in there...the other fish quickly followed suit, and now they *all* go nuts for it. I guess the RF just had to show them how it's done! :roll

Oh...BTW, IMO I would not feed any "land veggies" like lettuce. I did some extensive reading on this, and it was pretty much agreed (even by marine biologists) that fish do not digest this type of food well. Some items can even stay in their gut and eventually cause big problems. Stick to ocean grown veggies. ;)

Wendy

[jaded]

I figured there had to be some reason why I didnt see anything about lettuce in the feeding searches I did prior to posting this thread.

thanks for the post... I may go to the trouble of mixing up a recipe like that and freezing it myself. I currently use a flavor injector with a piece of ridgid airline tubing in the same way you use the baster.

thanks for the help

[GaryP]

The tangs won't normally eat the roasted nori. I have also heard it may also spinach mixed in it. I tried several different kinds of grocery store nori and never had any luck. It may have been that I was always getting the roasted type too. If anyone knows the Chinese ideogram for "roasted" I would appreciate you passing it along. :)

I finally settled on the large package of Seafood Selects.