Reef Discussion

[Ziggy]

Ok, so I've been doing lots of reading about different food products that we can feed our fish and of course, the type of food will also be dependent on whether they are herbivores, carnivores or omnivores.

With that said though, I'm keen to hear your thoughts about what commercial brand of fish food you use and what variety of content you feed. Also what brands of fish food you avoid because of unknown addictive, phosphate content or whatever?

Thanks :)

 

[daveH]

I use the Ocean Nutrition packs, with a preference to Seafood Mix.
I always rinse/thaw them in a fine tea strainer to get rid of the water they're frozen in (seems to be getting more water than food lately!!). This gets rid of the extra phosphates.
I like to mix the commercial food 50/50 with a finely chopped mix of prawn and scallop to give them a bit more range.
They all love it and have thrived for years on it - never had a sick fish.

 

[Dean Lovett]

I use the Ocean Nutrition packs, with a preference to Seafood Mix.
I always rinse/thaw them in a fine tea strainer to get rid of the water they're frozen in (seems to be getting more water than food lately!!). This gets rid of the extra phosphates.
I like to mix the commercial food 50/50 with a finely chopped mix of prawn and scallop to give them a bit more range.
They all love it and have thrived for years on it - never had a sick fish.

I'm going to try the prawns and scallops! Would that be suitable for hard corals, like a torch?

 

[gtrxu1]

Ocean Nutrition Mysis and Lobster eggs mix. I rinse 1 cube of Lobster Eggs and 2-3 cubes of Mysis in a sieve, then add to 400ML of RO.
The mix keeps well in the fridge for a few days and I feed small amounts 3 times per day. I also target feed my LPS with the same mix about once a week.

Also feed NLS pellets when I can't be bothered making up the frozen, works well they like the variety.

 

[Azedenkae]

I use New Life Spectrum, just because I found that my fish have the best reaction to it. They love it, eats like pigs, and seem to be very healthy.

I did then start using the NLS Nutracell for my corals, but has since given up. The NLS Nutracell clumps together way worse than any coral food I have ever tried, including the old NLS microvore thingy. So that's the one NLS product I do not like.

 

[daveH]

I'm going to try the prawns and scallops! Would that be suitable for hard corals, like a torch?

Yep, my torch loves a bit of same mix.

 

[Agent M]

At the moment I feed a random mix of finely grated frozen prawn, Hikari frozen Blood Worms, Hikari frozen enriched brine, Tropical Bionautic pellets, Ocean Nutrition Formula 2 Marine Pellets (just using them up, not buying again)

I'm feeding the following animals and I'm listing them because like you said @Ziggy that has to be taken into consideration when choosing foods:
Red handed shrimp - doesn't eat pellets
Sexy shrimp
Hermit crabs
Brittle starfish - doesn't eat pellets
Azure Damselfish
Clownfish
Coral Beauties
Scooter Dragonets - doesn't eat pellets
Banggai cardinals - doesn't eat pellets
Algae Blenny
Engineer Gobies
Anemones

 

[ReeferRob]

I feed 3 different size plankton from .5mm up to 1cm. I also feed shad roe which is a local fish that is very high in EFAs as well as carotenoids. I rinse my frozen plankton as Dave does and I save the fine stuff to feed to my filtre feeders after the lights go out.

 

[Agent M]

@daveH @ReeferRob have you tested your phosphates with and without rinsing? I'd be interested to see if there is a measurable difference. I'm not able to do that as I've never had phosphates test higher than 0.03 ppm for some reason I don't yet understand. I'm in the no rinse camp because of 1) sheer laziness 2) I figure the fine particles will feed the corals

 

[curly747]

I use Ocean Nutrition Formula 1 marine pellets and Hikara Mysis (frozen) and Hikara Mega Marine Algae (frozen) and some Hikara Algae Wafers.
I have a Foxface, Coral Beauty, Lawnmower Blenny, two clowns, two pygama cardinals and a six line wrasse. The Duncan Coral and Green Fungia and the Coral Banded Shrimp also get a feed. The pygama cardinals swallow the algae wafers whole. The blenny loves the mysis.The foxface likes the Mega Marine Algae. The coral beauty, the clowns, the wrasse and pygama cardinals love the pellets. Actually everyone loves the pellets except the blenny who does not seem to notice much except the mysis. The duncan coral loves mysis. I have been through a few foods and pretty much just choose them on how much the fish/coral go for it.

 

[webber555]

I feed Hikari mysis (frozen) every 2nd day soaked in garlic elixir. I sometimes mix in some fresh chopped prawn.

I put in a piece of nori (about 5x5cm) every day for my tangs, occasionally miss a day if I notice algae on the back wall, they pick that off instead.

I use NLS Thera +A pellets as a staple once or twice a day.

I target feed mysis and reef roids to selected corals (acans and elegance love a feed) twice a week.

 

[ReeferRob]

I've never tested that way. I know they just use filtred water from the mains so I'm not taking any chances. I will add that I do use saltwater to do the rinsing and not RO water.

 

[Andrew B]

currently i am just using what i have left over from the old owner of my tank but i am going to be making my own food when run out of the left overs
planning of mixing, lobster eggs, mysis, shrimp, a cheap fish, scallops etc

 

[curly747]

I think i will try Agent M's Tropical Bionautic pellets next. What a great name for fish food !

 

[Trash]

All my fish love ocean nutrition formula 2 pellets. It's interesting that there has been a negative comment about the same food.

 

[Franklin Dattein]

Here are my 2 cents:
New Life Spectrum Marine Fish formula pellets: Have been using for about 3 years and I absolutely love this pellets and I think it is the best brand of food out there. Even my dragonet loves it.
It sinks at the right speed (slowly) and my fish never been so colourful and healthy.
New Life Spectrum reef Macro Feeders pellets: Bought a week ago to feed LPS(previously used mysis) and so far so good.
New life spectrum flakes: I am not a fan of flakes, but it is handy to mix with pellets in the auto feeder, so each feed doesn't drop a ton of pellets.
Ocean Nutrition Frozen mysis: Only thing my bangaiis would eat.
Reefroids: Filter feeders and corals like gonis.

Not so good:
Ocean nutrition Formula 2 Marine pellets: After reading lots of recommendations I gave it a try and I wasn't impressed. It sinks too fast, it seems that the fish have to put an effort on chewing it, fish don't show interest after a minute of it being in the water, my skimmer skims a lot of green stuff (which doesn't mean anything to be honest) and mandarin doesn't show the same interest as the Spectrum pellets.

 

[Ziggy]

I notice lots of you are using pellets. I only use lots of different frozen foods for variety but wondering if I should start giving pellets too now for even more variety.

 

[Franklin Dattein]

Dry quality foods provide a balanced diet with little waste, as a result from years of research.
Frozen food are usually rich in one benefitial thing, like fat acids, and leak a considerable amount of undesired waste. Also, mixing frozen food can be a pain in the neck.

Every tank is a different story. For example, most large tank owners use exclusively mixed frozen food, simply because the tank can handle the waste and it would be too expensive to feed kilos of dry food.
Mixed reef owners tend to take it easy on frozen foods.

 

[daveH]

This stuff is brilliant also, we got some a while back in a group buy and I've got to get some more.
The fish love it and fattens them right up.