Reef Discussion

[mark]

i have now got two clowns and two chromis fish, i am feeding them new life spectrum marine fish formular.feeding them morning and night.the two clown goble up most of the food and the chromis seem to try the food but spit it out.not sure if they are getting any.should i be feeding them something else.also have a coral banded shrimp and he just cleans up all the left overs on the ground.all the food is gone in a couple of minutes.

 

[MTG]

have you tried frozen food such as mysis or brine?

 

[mark]

i havnt .will head up to the lfs tomorow to see if they sell them .read about chromis and they say they need to be feed a few times a day,dont no how i can do this as i am at work during the day.

 

[NiCd]

you can tell long term if they are being fed well enough by the size of their stomach, if they have a sunken belly you need to increase it but you will probably find not by much.

wild caught fish like chromis can take a little while to take to pellets as its unnatural for them.

If you do one feed a day with mysid or enriched brine and the other with pellets you will sustain them and they will eventually realise they are missing out on the second feed and take to the pellets and then move to giviing them the mysid or enrighted brine once a week as a treat (if your concerned about nutrients)

If the chromis take more than a month to take to the pellets try putting them in the water of the mysid while your defrosting it and feed the mysid water soaked pellets at the same time as the mysid. They will generally grab some and gobble it down thinking its mysid and they get used to the harder texture.

 

[MTG]

i usually feed my fish 10x a day. roughly. it doesn't have to be throughout the day. feed in smaller amounts more often. so chuck a bit of food in every 2 hours when you are home

 

[192k]

I normally feed my fish whenever I walk past the tank, small frequent feedings.

A trick I have picked up is to get a small container of RO water, cut up some fresh garlic and keep it in the fridge.

For feeding time, use a small amount of the garlic and water mix to soak the food in for a few minutes.

That method has worked for most fish ;)

 

[MagicJ]

If the chromis take more than a month to take to the pellets try putting them in the water of the mysid while your defrosting it and feed the mysid water soaked pellets at the same time as the mysid. They will generally grab some and gobble it down thinking its mysid and they get used to the harder texture.

On my first reading of this I thought you were putting the chromis in with the defrosting mysid :)

 

[mark]

On my first reading of this I thought you were putting the chromis in with the defrosting mysid :)

i thought the same thing,now im trying to defrost them.is the microwave ok.:confused:

 

[MagicJ]

mark - no need, just put the frozen food in a small container with a bit of tank water. It only takes a few minutes to melt.

 

[rusty1]

i usually feed my fish 10x a day. roughly. it doesn't have to be throughout the day. feed in smaller amounts more often. so chuck a bit of food in every 2 hours when you are home

Not many of us are home 20 hours a day :p

 

[NiCd]

Remember to dispose of the thaw water and prefably rinse again with RO water before adding the food to your tank (assuming you arnt using the thaw water to soak other food) as this stuff is like concentrated liquid phosphate.

Its much easier not to put it in in the first place than to have to try and remove it.

 

[NiCd]

Not many of us are home 20 hours a day :p

Thats 4 hours less a day than he is online for :cool:

 

[MTG]

:D im naughty i dont rise my frozen food. :D hey hey im not online that much!

 

[Synodontis]

Question?
If we to dispose of the "thaw water" how do we do that?:confused: Some of the frozen food it quite small, too small for a strainer or to scrape or pick off paper towel. We normally defrost the frozen food in tank water, or we just buy fresh fish which everybody loves!:) We get some strange looks at the market when we say the fresh prawns, mussels and scollops are for the fish! :D

Jen.

 

[NiCd]

Fresh food is fine, no need to rinse that. prepared foods are concentrated into a tiny amount of liquid (which is pretty bad to begin with) and then frozen live and the shrimp in stress empty their bowels to the water they are frozen in, so b getting rid of this water you are not filling your tank with the shrimps waste.

I fill a 100ml container with RO water, pop in a cube, give it a stir, let it get to room temp and pour it through a tea strainer then wave the tea stainer in the tank.

This is with mysid and brine, baby brine i think your knackered there.

 

[MTG]

i would have issues as i mix my reef roids, aminio acids. marine snow, daphnia, rotifiers etc all in the one mix

 

[NiCd]

yeah well nutrients obviously isnt a concern in your system (as really is in mine) but most people dont have skimmers that pull out a fish fart before it even hits the surface

 

[rosechaser]

I have an ATI 250i Powercone Skimmer...do I need to worry about rinsing mysis when I defrost he cubes

 

[NiCd]

I guess to answer that you would need to state what are your phosphate levels like?

I havnt run a power cone myself but I know the grid wheel impellers they have would put them in the category of an aggressive skimmer especially on a tank your size.

It will never do you harm to not add this extra phosphate to your tank.

 

[rusty1]

Question?
If we to dispose of the "thaw water" how do we do that?:confused: Some of the frozen food it quite small, too small for a strainer or to scrape or pick off paper towel. We normally defrost the frozen food in tank water, or we just buy fresh fish which everybody loves!:) We get some strange looks at the market when we say the fresh prawns, mussels and scollops are for the fish! :D

Jen.

I let it thaw out on paper towel (scott towel) then add it to the tank. Wont take out all of the phosphate ECT, but running a low nutrient system a little being added wont hurt either ;)