Feeding

[MMacro]

Ok, here we go.
I have always fed a variety of food to all of my fish as I truly believe that it keeps their health and immunity up. I feed multiple times a day in small amounts. Below is a list of the foods that I feed.

Frozen
LRS Reef frenzy - Two~Three times a week
PE Mysis - Two~Three times a week
Hikari Brine - Veryrarely; maybe once every three months
Cyclop-eeze - every day for my chromis and pipefish
Homemade food (mix of fish, scallops, mussels, clams, etc) - once a week
Lobster roe - every day along with Cyclop-eeze


Dry
A mixture of approx. 7-8 different pellet and flake foods - twice a week
Mixture of different coral foods
Decapsulated brine shrimp eggs - three times a week

Live
Baby Brine Shrimp - Every day
Adult Brine Shrimp - Twice a week
Black Worms - Once a week
Tisbe Pods - once a week from my cultures
Phyto - once a week
Oysters, clams, mussels, etc - Once a week for pufferfish

So my question is, is there anything that I should add or take off of the list for health benefits? For example, completely remove the adult brine from the list as they have little to no health benefits. I know that it might seem a little crazy that I spend this much time on food but I have seen amazing recovery, growth, color, etc from feeding a variety of different foods. Or, maybe I am just crazy. Not sure yet. Anyways, thanks!

 

[slay]

I'm very impressed with your dedication to providing a varied, nutritious diet (I only feed 4-5 different foods total on my reef, but feed a ton of different seafood to my predators).

One thing you could do is to start gut-loading your brine shrimp. I assume you hatch and raise your own? Extremely finely ground Spirulina (brine shrimp are filter feeders, and the particles need to be in the several micron range in size - thankfully you can easily buy it as a finely ground powder) added to the your brine shrimp tanks, along with Selcon and Vitachem should make your live brine shrimp more nutritious.

 

[MMacro]

I'm very impressed with your dedication to providing a varied, nutritious diet (I only feed 4-5 different foods total on my reef, but feed a ton of different seafood to my predators).

One thing you could do is to start gut-loading your brine shrimp. I assume you hatch and raise your own? Extremely finely ground Spirulina (brine shrimp are filter feeders, and the particles need to be in the several micron range in size - thankfully you can easily buy it as a finely ground powder) added to the your brine shrimp tanks, along with Selcon and Vitachem should make your live brine shrimp more nutritious.

I do gutload my shrimp. Most of the time I try to feed my fish within an hour of the brine hatching to keep as many nutrients as possible.
I feed spirulina to the grow out tanks and wait until they are fully grown. Then, the day before I feed them to my display I put the shrimp into a bucket with selcon and tank water. The water is clear by the next day so I know they are eating it.

 

[slay]

I do gutload my shrimp. Most of the time I try to feed my fish within an hour of the brine hatching to keep as many nutrients as possible.
I feed spirulina to the grow out tanks and wait until they are fully grown. Then, the day before I feed them to my display I put the shrimp into a bucket with selcon and tank water. The water is clear by the next day so I know they are eating it.

Well, as you know in adult brine shrimp pretty much the only real nutritional value is in the gut-loaded Spirulina and whatever vitamin supplements they absorb into their system. Otherwise it's fish junk food - but I think it's more than ok as an occasional food. My fish love chasing and eating live adult brine shrimp more than any other food I've fed them, so I feed them adult brine shrimp on occasion - I think of it as if I were giving a dog a treat or something like that.

You're already going above and beyond, really I don't think you need to stress about changing anything.

 

[nereefpat]

Fish list?

Example: nori for any tangs, angels, blennies. Angel formula or similar (something with sponge in it) for any full- size or dwarf angels or butterflies.

 

[MMacro]

Fish list?

Example: nori for any tangs, angels, blennies. Angel formula or similar (something with sponge in it) for any full- size or dwarf angels or butterflies.

I feed nori to my blenny, urchins, crabs, etc. I currently have a temporary tank in which I have a midas blenny, blue spotted puffer, dragon face pipefish, and green chromis. I ordered a 150 and it should be shipping soon.

 

[nereefpat]

Serve some of the shellfish with the shell for the puffer. Maybe add some krill to your frozen list. I agree, you are being very thorough!

 

[lpsouth1978]

Do you feed the live clams live? It seems like most fish would be unable to actually get at the meat. I feed clams to my aggressive tank, but I freeze them and then quickly thaw them before feeding. My Angels, Butterfly fish, and Harlequin tusk go crazy for them!

 

[MMacro]

Do you feed the live clams live? It seems like most fish would be unable to actually get at the meat. I feed clams to my aggressive tank, but I freeze them and then quickly thaw them before feeding. My Angels, Butterfly fish, and Harlequin tusk go crazy for them!

I barely shuck them open so my puffer has to work for it. This also aids in grinding down his teeth.

 

[nereefpat]

I believe some people do feed live clams to puffers, maybe not tobys though. Definitely can feed frozen uncooked shrimp with the shell on to your puffer. It will help to keep its teeth worn down.

 

[MMacro]

Does anyone know where I can buy hatching decapsulared brine shrimp eggs? I know brine shrimp direct sells them but I dont want to pay $20 for shipping.

 

[MMacro]

Does anyone know where I can buy hatching decapsulated brine shrimp eggs? I know brine shrimp direct sells them but I dont want to pay $20 for shipping.

Bump

 

[ca1ore]

Far more dedicated than I am. I don't bother with any live foods. Toyed with hatching brine when my mandarin was alive, but never did.