feeding question.

[tattoosmitty]

I'm not really sure if I'm feeding to much or too little. I currently have a niger,sailfin,lion,foxface,coral rabbitfish,naso, emperor angel and a small longhorn cowfish. All of these guys are hand size except the cowfish. I've been feeding these guys three frozen cubes brine,blood worms or mysis and a angel/butterfly food, along with a few pinches of flake food through out the day. Is this to much or to little? thanks.

[erikharrison]

What I do is this. Feed one cube with all the powerheads off. My return is small so I leave it on. Let them devour as much of the first cube as possible. Once everything settles, turn the powerheads on for about 5 seconds. This will get the excess food suspended again. If there isn't any or much left, feed again. I also leave a constant supply of nori in there for the tang-a-roos. I think a cube of brine and bloodworms is good, rotate out the brine with mysis every other feeding. Then you could do a cube of the angel food every other feeding, or once every four days. That should be plenty. Just keep your eye on their bellies. The important thing is your clean up crew. If it is not big enough, you are going to have a building problem. I try to snag a few hermits here and there every month. The really itty bitty hermits are good for getting in those tight spaces.

[tattoosmitty]

can hermits safety live with these kinds of fish? What about a few cleaner shrimp for the fish es sake?

[erikharrison]

Your hermits may not be totally safe. My trigger would just pick them up and carry them to the other side of the aquarium and drop them. It's definitely worth a try. A clean up crew is a godsend.

[bananags]

wow, i did not know you can keep a cowfish with list of fish you have, i love to have a cowfish =)

[erikharrison]

Cowfish will nuke your tank if and when they die. Their bodies release a toxin called ostracitoxin which is deadly to other fish.

[copperband]

triggers usually are not safe with shrimps

[erikharrison]

triggers usually are not safe with shrimps

Shrimps = candy.

[tattoosmitty]

wow, i did not know you can keep a cowfish with list of fish you have, i love to have a cowfish =)

yep the cowfish is doing great with my other fish yeah he gets a bump every now and again from the bigger guys, but he is quick to spin around and show them his long scary horns. he was a slow eater at firs but he's learnt to speed it up during feeding times or he gets nothing. hes even eating the flake foods now, seaweed too.

[apedroza]

A good rule of thumb is to only feed what the fish can comsume in 5min. If your having excess food falling to the floor than your overfeeding. If your fish appear to be searching for more to eat after they eat then you may add a little more.