Training my Fish

[gummi]

I usually saturate my flake food and let it sink or float in the water for my fish to eat. I am going on vacation and I am going to set up an auto feeder for a few days where the food (obviously) settles on the surface.

Some of my fish go up and get it but others don't. Do I need to worry about these guys not eating if it's on the surface and then skimmed out eventually?

Naturally I'll feed them well before I go and it's only about 3 days away but is there a way to 'train' my fish to eat from surface other than just using that as the primary way of delivering food?

Only fish not eating from surface are the yellow tang and royal gramma.

 

[Sk8r]

fish go without food for two weeks between being caught, shipped to distributor, reshipped to dealer. They won't starve. The tang will look for algae, and the gramma will probably look for copepods.

 

[gummi]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13038737#post13038737 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sk8r
fish go without food for two weeks between being caught, shipped to distributor, reshipped to dealer. They won't starve. The tang will look for algae, and the gramma will probably look for copepods.

2 weeks? I never thought about that... I thought that the safety zone was 3 days without food (I think as per 'The Conscientious Marine Aquariust by Bob Fenner). There's definitely enough algae in there to scavenge on.

 

[IslandCrow]

If I'm gone for 5 days or less (and I'm away on business a lot), I don't worry about feeding my fish. Anything more than that, and I have a friend come by once or twice a week to feed them. I actually have two auto feeders, and I can't remember the last time I used them. Even the best ones are less than ideal for all sorts of reasons, including the one you're talking about here (of course, my fish practically jump out of the tank to get their food). I've relegated my autofeeders to the "for emergency use only" category.

 

[gummi]

This leads me to another question: do you guys feed the same way?

Is it better to surface feed or saturate?

 

[IslandCrow]

I've heard that it may be bad for fish to feed off the surface because they tend to get a gulp of air when they do. I don't think there's any actual evidence that this could cause problems to the fish's health. I generally don't saturate my food beforehand, but if I'm feeding a flake or pellet food that would normally float on the surface, I grab a finger full and dip my fingers down below the surface of the water so it sinks. The powerheads blow it around to keep it from sinking too fast.