What's on the menu?

[reverendmaynard]

Hey guys,

Just added my first fish to my tank, and now I'm turning my attention to what to feed them. My stocking list is:
Added Monday 1/16:Yellow Tang
Blue Hippo Tang
Added Sunday 1/15: Maroon Clown
Royal Gramma

I have regular flake food, which they all ate yesterday. Also, I have Tang Heaven (Gracilaria parvispora (Hawaiian name: long red ogo)) from ipsf in my refugium. I pulled out a small clump, rubberbanded it to some LR rubble and placed in the main tank. After ignoring it for their first 24 hours, the blue hippo finally nibbled a little last night, whhich encouraged the yellow to try it. They both appear to love it, and they finished off that small piece (about a golf ball if loosely rolled up) in a few hours. I added another piece after lights out last night, and suspect it'll be gone by the time I get home from work tonight.

Anyway, I want to feed them some raw seafood to supplement the flake and the algae, and am wondering what types of commonly available (preferably from the grocery store rather than a LFS) seafood items I should give them. My GF works at a place that has fish and chips, so I can get cod for free any time, but I haven't heard of that being used. Is cod Ok for the fish? I'd also like to feed them some chopped whole fish (so they get the skin, bones, and other internal organs which I believe to contain a lot of trace elements that flesh may not). What kind should I use?

Thanks for your advice,
Maynard.

 

[reverendmaynard]

Sometimes I'm amazed by what posts get responses and which ones get none.

Wrong forum?

 

[zukihara]

I'm sorry, I have no clue if ground internal organs will inordinately benefit your fish but I would assume chopping up something like shrimp, scallops etc would be easier with that small fish load, especially with your tangs needing herbage.

 

[reverendmaynard]

Well, I'm thinking of putting a shrimp, a scallop, and a very small whole fish (smelt, mackeral, herring?) or other mixture into a blender or food processor, then freezing it in daily-feeding size portions. And... The tangs will stil devour meaty foods as voraciously as ever. I was at the lfs at feeding time and they put a spoonful of this seafood slurry in the tank. The Tangs were chowing down as much as the more carnivorous critters.

 

[CeeGee]

You put four fish in your tank over two days two of them being tangs?

I wouldn't worry about feeding them I don't think they will be alive long enough to worry about it. I may be wrong but I would never add more than 2 fish at a time and even that would depend on the size of the specimens. I would then wait 4-6 weeks before adding more. Just enough time for the healthy fish to come out of quarantine.

 

[reverendmaynard]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6529019#post6529019 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CeeGee
You put four fish in your tank over two days two of them being tangs?

I wouldn't worry about feeding them I don't think they will be alive long enough to worry about it. I may be wrong but I would never add more than 2 fish at a time and even that would depend on the size of the specimens. I would then wait 4-6 weeks before adding more. Just enough time for the healthy fish to come out of quarantine.

It's 4 small fish in a 125gal. We'll see what happens, I guess.

Nothing relevant to the topic to add?

 

[zukihara]

sorry, I mean you will need less meaty foods because you must supplement a portion of your feeding with greens for the tangs.

I would be hesitant to advise a particular whole fish but you may wanna check various recipes online and also try checking if Reef One or other frozen foods list any type of fish which may help you in your decision. If I had access to my freezer at the moment I would look and see.

 

[CeeGee]

I have had a few tangs and they are basically anything I put in. Just make sure they get their greens as well.

clowns love formula 1 and mysis. and the gramma will eat about anything.

I don't think the fish you have are picky at all generally. Give a wide variety and see what they like best.

Good luck with the fish 125 or not that is a lot in two days. Keep an eye on your ammonia over the next week or two and do the fish a favor and don't buy any more for a while.

 

[reverendmaynard]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6535167#post6535167 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CeeGee
I have had a few tangs and they are basically anything I put in. Just make sure they get their greens as well.

clowns love formula 1 and mysis. and the gramma will eat about anything.

I don't think the fish you have are picky at all generally. Give a wide variety and see what they like best.

Good luck with the fish 125 or not that is a lot in two days. Keep an eye on your ammonia over the next week or two and do the fish a favor and don't buy any more for a while.

Thanks for the input.

My questions were less about what they like to eat, but more about what is safe to feed them. For instance, cod. There's no atlantic cod in any reef that I'm aware of, and if there were, fish the size of mine would not be eating from one the size of the average scrod on any kind of regular basis. Large fish have a lot more buildup of polutants and heavy metals compared to small, young fish or your average crustacean, I believe. I have found a recipe posted on some other board that has cod as a primary ingredient, so I decided to try it, though I'm still hesitant to feed it to them on a regular basis.

I tried some cod last night, the tangs didn't seem too impressed. The others ate the pieces that were small enough to fit in their little mouths. Had to fish a couple of pieces out. If I try it again, I'll use a blender to chop it finer.

The way I see it, if you can't add 4 fish to a 125, you can never add any fish to a 10 or 20. I will continue to track ammonia every couple of days, and 15-20% wcs for the next couple of weeks, regardless of ammonia. I have 150lbs of lr (all of which came from the original setup of this tank and has been in continuous use in a tank for at least 10 years) and 120 lbs of sugar sized aragonite, a sump/fuge with about 35 gals operating volume, with macro, as well as a dsb in a bucket. I believe this should give me sufficient nitrifying capacity for my new additions. Denitrifying is, I'm sure, a slower process, but I'll be doing wcs to combat that 'til it catches up. Other than some cleaner shrimp to keep my tangs well groomed, I'm done for about 6 months after this, barring any catastrophe.

 

[CeeGee]

Why would you try to feed tangs cod?

I am confused by this whole thread. I always thought it best to tey and replicate what fish eat in the wild.

 

[reverendmaynard]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6565619#post6565619 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CeeGee
Why would you try to feed tangs cod?

I am confused by this whole thread. I always thought it best to tey and replicate what fish eat in the wild.

I fed cod because:
1) I have a free, ready supply of it.
2) The other fish are carnivorous, and even tangs are omnivorous (as all fish are, really) to some extent.
3) The LFS where I bough them fed a slurry of fish, shrimp, etc. to all their tanks. The tangs seemed to eat it as happily as the other fish.
4) With the ready supply of live macro, I don't feel I have to worry too much about high protien/low fiber foods causing them problems.
5) I've seen cod in several online fish food recipes.

By supplying them with live macro algae, as well as the diverse varieties of micro that are likely to spring up, and get eaten by the tangs, I am trying to replicate their natural food supply. I do, however, have other fish, shrimp, crabs, snails not all of which are herbivorous. It's unrealistic to think I'm going to somehow feed all of these animals the protein levels they require while excluding the tangs from eating it somehow. Life is full of compromises, and that is what this thread is about; i.e. What's a good compromise feeding regime to satisfy the needs of all my livestock without taking extraordinary measures to insure that particular fish will/will not eat certain portions of the food and without compromising any creatures health?

BTW, they are still alive. Am I supposed to worry about feeding them yet?