Feeding my fish every night!?

[One fish]

Hey guys. I did some searching but didn't find much yet but... How do you guys feed your fish? I have a clown, a damsel, and a puffer and have to take about 15 min every night to take a square from the freezer, thaw it in saltwater, and then distribute it to each fish making sure they all get to eat. Then I worry about spilling the nasty garlic food on my floor and making sure that it isn't old and tons of other things i worry about. Is there an easier way to do this? How do you do it? THANKS!!! :dance:

 

[amber3k]

I just hold the cube at the surface of the water and let the power heads disperse it. All the fish get some. Or put in a pinch of flake. Sometimes I soak freeze dried plankton then dump it in.

 

[borg]

Same as Amber i just hold a cube in front of the powerhead and let it snow

Althought as my sailfin gets larger his random nibbles on my hand get more and more stronger in saying that the sharpest bite i have felt from my tank was from my redline cleaner ... who would of thought

 

[scootshoot]

Depends on your inhabitants. I have to target feed mine with a 2 foot long pipette since I have slow moving guys aka Fire Fish, yellow goby, few shrimps, etc. Otherwise my piglet Coral Beauty will just devour everything before it reaches the bottom.

 

[Saltliquid]

I have a lot of little squeeze bottles like small sauce bottles, but before I use them I make up foods, including all that I can find of planktonic and small shrimp species frozen life from the lfs and small krill and lobster eggs, I put the last two to one side, then blend up cunjevoi ,limpet meat and green muscles or you could just use green muscle meat, never use predator meats, then a quicker blend including the krill and lobster eggs, then I add all the small shrimp species and planktonic frozen stuff and mix.
I make up around 60 litres to last a couple of years of it in saltwater with a lot of pure salt to prevent bacteria build up if when I thaw it and put into aquarium shop bags or freezer bags into my freezer.
Then one bag I take out and thaw, then I sive threw small holed aquarium net and what goes through goes in one bowl and the goes in another bowl, I fill to top with saltwater and add more pure salt and a little amino acids and then I have 8 squeeze bottles with f written on top for fish food, that’s for the not so fine foods and the other 8 bottles I have an I written on them for invert foods being very fine food particles.
I fill the bottles with a funnel and make sure I stir the bowl each time I fill a bottle from the bowl.
Then I freeze the bottles and thaw as I need one, I have one I and one F at any one time to use, then just squirt into the water from the top of the water from 4 to 20 tim4es per day and they last two days with no refrigeration but 5 days in the fridge with no detrimental bacteria developing in those bottles.
I always leave out a day each week with no feeding! Gives the water and bio media a rest and fish get use to it.
I have always done mine this way, but the squeeze bottles, just the last 7 years, no way I would do it any other way.

 

[BleuFish]

I bought a eheim auto feeder and set to feed nls pellets 3 times a day. Allot easier than feeding frozen, basically set it and forget it for weeks. Then either mysis or a raw sea food mix I blended up, feed them once on the frozen about every 3 weeks and the corals.

 

[toothybugs]

I have a little plastic cup (says 150mL) that I take a scoop of tank water in and thaw a cube while I do something else. Then I stir it up to break it up, turn the pumps off and give it a couple seconds to settle down, and dump. A minute or so later I turn the pumps back on to let the corals catch the scraps. 2x a day.

 

[scooter31707]

I take a plastic cup, put a little of the tank water in there and drop a cube of frozen food in to thaw out. Once thawed out, I put in a couple of drops of Selcon and let it sit for about 5-10 minutes. then I have a pair of small feeding tongs that I use and disperse it in front of the powerhead.

 

[ZeeSparrow]

I have a lot of little squeeze bottles like small sauce bottles, but before I use them I make up foods, including all that I can find of planktonic and small shrimp species frozen life from the lfs and small krill and lobster eggs, I put the last two to one side, then blend up cunjevoi ,limpet meat and green muscles or you could just use green muscle meat, never use predator meats, then a quicker blend including the krill and lobster eggs, then I add all the small shrimp species and planktonic frozen stuff and mix.
I make up around 60 litres to last a couple of years of it in saltwater with a lot of pure salt to prevent bacteria build up if when I thaw it and put into aquarium shop bags or freezer bags into my freezer.
Then one bag I take out and thaw, then I sive threw small holed aquarium net and what goes through goes in one bowl and the goes in another bowl, I fill to top with saltwater and add more pure salt and a little amino acids and then I have 8 squeeze bottles with f written on top for fish food, that's for the not so fine foods and the other 8 bottles I have an I written on them for invert foods being very fine food particles.
I fill the bottles with a funnel and make sure I stir the bowl each time I fill a bottle from the bowl.
Then I freeze the bottles and thaw as I need one, I have one I and one F at any one time to use, then just squirt into the water from the top of the water from 4 to 20 tim4es per day and they last two days with no refrigeration but 5 days in the fridge with no detrimental bacteria developing in those bottles.
I always leave out a day each week with no feeding! Gives the water and bio media a rest and fish get use to it.
I have always done mine this way, but the squeeze bottles, just the last 7 years, no way I would do it any other way.

Wow!

Currently I only have a few fish so I'm basically doing what you do OP... thaw a bit of frozen in saltwater, then feed. Any leftover either goes to the coral, set aside for the next feeding or given to my freshwater fish.

I read a suggestion from someone on here about using those pill boxes and preparing a week/more at a time. If you're using more/less than a cube or want to mix things up, that sounds like a great idea to me.

 

[Marchillo]

Wow!

Currently I only have a few fish so I'm basically doing what you do OP... thaw a bit of frozen in saltwater, then feed. Any leftover either goes to the coral, set aside for the next feeding or given to my freshwater fish.

I read a suggestion from someone on here about using those pill boxes and preparing a week/more at a time. If you're using more/less than a cube or want to mix things up, that sounds like a great idea to me.

I stopped using cubes and bought mysis in a big sheet. I only had 3 fish so I was only doing a third of a cube which was messy. Now I have 5 pill boxes and prepare 70 days worth of food at a time. I cut the sheet to the size I want and put them in the freezer. Then I use a butter knife and pop it right out.

I also use an auto feeder during the day when I'm not home for flakes/pellets.

 

[scooter31707]

Take a look at this product. I use it sometimes and very nice.

http://www.marinedepot.com/Innovati...ns-Innovative_Marine-0I05093-FIFDFECF-vi.html

 

[JakeK]

I use a turkey baster to feed. I thaw the frozen food with some tank water then distribute it with the baster. This allows all my fish even the more timid ones to get a chance to eat. Plus I can put it directly into the water column where they will eat. Only the wrasse will grab food from the surface.

 

[bat21]

I put my frozen and some pellets into a shotglass, add some tank water to thaw it, and use a pipette to distribute food to different parts of the tank with the powerheads turned off. I squirt in a little bit at a time so that the fish can grab most of the frozen without much hitting the sand. Whatever does hit the sand, which includes the majority of the pellets, are eaten by my shrimp, and whatever they miss is eaten by the hermits and nassarius snails.

And then if I happen to have at the time, they get a live blackworm dessert

 

[intyme]

I just thaw mine in tank water, turn off return pump and let the mysis float around. They don't last long in there

 

[Marchillo]

Take a look at this product. I use it sometimes and very nice.

http://www.marinedepot.com/Innovati...ns-Innovative_Marine-0I05093-FIFDFECF-vi.html

Feeding time is my favorite thing at night. So I wouldn't use this when I'm home. Although this is perfect for vacation feeding. We have a service come in for the cats and the tank. They top off the tank (I need an ATO) and feed the frozen. I tell them to prepare the food when they get there and to dump it in before leaving so it defrosts. This would be mighty helpful. Thanks for sharing.

 

[leetch]

I used to just put it directly in the tank near the powerheads but was worried it was putting too much un-neccessary stuff in the water causing issues. I now take a piece of my large block, put it in a net and rinse it off for about 1 minute. I carry it back to my tank over a small bowl I keep just so I don't drip anything on the floor. I put the net in the tank, flip it backwards and watch it blow everywhere and the fish go nuts. I do have to be careful though because my chromis is not the brightest in the bunch and always swims in the net....I just hope I don't fling him out of the tank and across the room one day.

Once done, I go rinse the net and dry it and I'm done. Takes about 5 min.

 

[3dees]

I soak my frozen food in a cup of tank water and add some flake. I leave everything on so the food gets to all the fish.

 

[nuxx]

I have a little ramekin I fill with tank water.

Put the food in there for about 15 minutes, mix up with a fork and dump in.

Feed meaty/flake/pellets 2x a day 9:30am and 7:30pm. Nori at 2pm.

 

[Saltliquid]

oops i forgot to put them in, i also blend in nori, spiralina and ulva.

 

[kmbyrnes]

Depends on how busy I am.
Some days I just toss the frozen cube and a few flakes in the tank and move on.
Others days I chop up a shrimp, thaw a cube or 2, shave off some scallop and hand feed every coral. Then I grab an adult beverage of choice, pull up my chair, add some pellets and flakes and relax for a while.
Either method makes the fish happy.