Starve a Clownfish, Feed a Fever...

[carfac]

Hey:

I have two false clowns- they are great. Playful, fun (thery like to surf the filter output!), colorfull- in general, they seem very healthy.

However, they always seem to be hungry. They always beg for food. I was wondering how much and how often you all feed.

My tank also has a 6-Line and a Purple Fire, as well as the two False.

I feed twice a day. Morning, it was 1/3 but now 1/2 a frozen cube of something- Mysis, brine, something like that. I upped it as I just added an Elegance Coral, and she might be hungry, too. I usually put 1/2 in the tank, that is usually gone in 30 seconds or so, then the other half, and I call it quits.

Evenings, I feed approx. the same amount (about 1/3 to 1/2 of a "cube""), but this is my private mix, based on the recipe I found on this site. Basically, fresh seafood, cyclopsese, vitamins, shrimp, stuff like that. This tends to cloud the water more, and not all gets eaten by the fish, mainly because there are some small bits.

So, are my fish too hungry, or am I overfeeding?

Thanks!

Dave

 

[rkelman]

Don't mistake the clowns friendlyness for hunger.. They are always at the glass when I'm near the tank. If I stick my hand in the tank they are over checking me out all the time. They are just a very personable fish I think.. My yellow tang now he's a different story he's always hungry. He begs horrible. Darting at the glass / sticking his fins way up and swimming back and forth in front of me like he's saying "look look i'm hungry loooook"

 

[carfac]

Well, by playful, I mean they are always swimming, and circling each other, poking at each other, "surfing"- in general, playing.

When I see what I think is them being hungry, I mean this. When I get close to the tank, especially over the top, they come to thew surface and poke their mouths above. If I am adding anything to the tank, they try to eat it! Anything in the water column they see that is new (like other fish poop!) they will try to eat, no matter what time of day.

Last night, about an hour after lights out, the pair were still active and playing, so I popped in about 1/4 of a frozen cube- a bit at a time. They ate itall, and asked for more- this is after an hour or so after their full evening meal!

D

 

[rkelman]

Oink.

 

[dantodd]

clownfish are pigs. feed them as much as they will eat in 5 minutes and feed them as often as your filtration allows.

 

[818]

All fish that follow you and look happy to see you...well their not. They are just playing you so you can feed them.

Clownfish are explorers. Whatever you add the wont eat per say. They just kinda put it in their mouths and see if its cool or not then just spit it out.