will clowns over eat or are they hungry

[reef tank 2.0]

I have two baby Perculas. When I first got them a a couple weeks ago, they would eat a little bit and be done.......Didn't think much of it. Just assumed it was normal.

Well, two weeks later and now they will meet my squirter as it enters the water, put their nose up to it and wait for me to release the food. Quite humorous to watch. Once I release the food, they eat and eat.

Since day one, they seem to hide in the pvc elbows I have for them in my QT. They will only come out about 3-6" from the elbow to get any floating food. Except to come to the surface when its feeding time. They have no problems eating, it seems, but I also don't want to overfeed. I could keep feeding and feeding but I'm wondering if they are like gold fish and will eat till they explode. SO I stop after I see each of them get a few pieces of food.

Now, these fish could be truly lazy or frickin geniuses.....depending how you look at it. When I drop the food in the tank, they go to their pvc elbow and wait for it to come there direction. I think they have the flow of the water figured out cause when they go to their elbow, they wait for the floaties to pass the elbow opening and they come out and grab it. They grab it, then retreat back inside, until th next piece floats by, then they fight for it.....sometimes playing tug of war till the other gives up and grabs the next floaty. So, are they lazy or genius? Why work for food if it will come to you?

I know they say dont feed anymore than can be eaten within a minute.......but they just seem to keep eating. Starving?

On a side note, still have two more weeks of QT and have yet to see any issues come up

 

[mr9iron]

I have no evidence to back my thought, but it is quite possibly due to their genetic inclination to eat whenever food is present. In the wild they may not know when their next meal will come, so they eat whenever food is available.

 

[edinphilly]

I think they would "over eat" by potentially fouling your water with too many nutrients before they actually did damage to themselves from eating too much. Unless of course you have a huge system.

 

[Bogue Chitto]

I think Mr9iron is right.

 

[ThRoewer]

In my experience you need to train them to overeat. My wild percula pairs will eat until they are full and then stop. But none of them are spawning yet.

Though when fish realize that food comes only once in a while they will eat as much as they can get and stuff themselves. Tank raised clownfish should have been trained to this right from the beginning. Plus thy always had to deal with lots of competition.
Also when clownfish start spawning the females tend to stuff themselves with as much as they can fit in.