cleaner shrimp eating all fish food

[thommyboy12183]

I have 2 cleaner shrimp in my tank. I have had the tank running for about a month with nothing in it but sand and live rock and tested my water and everything came back normal 0 nitrate and 0ppm nitrite. I finally added some snails, hermit crabs, 2 cleaner shrimp, 2 clowns, and 1 bi-color blenny in a 55G tank.

its now a week and all fish/inverts are doing great(so it seems) but my nitrite is between 3 and 5(on the test strip chart(listed as stress to danger) and between 20 and 40 for nitrate listed as okay.

I decided to cut back on feeding but now when i feed the shrimp i have steal the frozen cube and eat the whole thing it breaks up and the fish are getting some but i am not sure if they need more food but i am afraid to add more as i dont want my nitrate and nitrite levels to go up.

any advice on how to not have shrimp steal all food? or do you think things are normal?

as i only have the 3 fish and 2 shirmp i add a have a cube every other day(i was doing half a cube every day but my levels of nitrate and nitrite rose.

 

[Fishmaster13]

Get a (very) small cup like a Dixie cup and put hot water in it. Put your cube in the cup, wait a minute-ish, and then stir it with a coffee/tea stirring stick or something similar. Then the peices will all be broken up and it will be easy for everyone to get food since nobody can take a clump and hide with it.

 

[thommyboy12183]

I will do that next time. I was hesitent since pack says not to dissolve cube.

 

[ThroThra]

I would even use tank water to dissolve the food in rather than tap water. It makes a huge difference to dissolve first and will solve your problem.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I use a beer mug and thaw all the frozen food I'm going to feed the tank. After it's thawed I add dry food like flakes and wet food like Reef Nutrition. I stir it up shut off all my pumps and deliver the food to the tank with a turkey baster. That way I can spot feed a few special inverts.