Feeding Marine Fish Throughout the Day

[leebca]

One of the greatest difficulties in this hobby is feeding your fish like they feed in nature. Most wild caught fish that aren't strict predators (like the Lionfish) are grazers. They eat throughout the day.

How do you think this can be accomplished in an aquarium where the owner works all day? I'm always looking for alternatives and maybe someone here on Reef Frontiers has found something or is using another product, or another technique.

Obviously, one can just hang around the aquarium and drop food in every couple of hours. But what do us working 'stiffs' do?

I'll start with things I know about:

1) When I feed macro algae to the fish, I put it on a clip. The herbivores in the tank graze on it throughout the day. Most of you likely do the same.

2) I can put cubed/gelled food into a special Ocean Nutrition clip so that the fish have to pick through the openings in the cage to get to the food. It takes them time through the day to get it all, and it gives them something to play with. See: http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=ON1131

3) I came across a feeder for frozen foods. My problem with it (and any such feeder) is that frozen foods contain so much extraneous 'juice.' Most is from the freezing process -- rupturing the brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, or ? No sense in feeding the algae. Still, the frozen food feeder did work as advertised. As the food thawed, it was released into the aquarium. Still, some close supervision is needed at the start to 'set it' properly. See: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&pc=1&N=0&Nty=1

4) There are automatic feeding machines, equipment, devices, etc. They are usually for flake pellet foods (neither of which I particularly want to use daily, let alone throughout the day).

[As a mention -- The brine shrimp hatcher was not such a good idea, IMO. The b.s. egg shells can get out of it and into the aquarium. :evil: Not good for marine fish to consume the indigestible shells.]

Have you any other ways of feeding marine fishes throughout the day? Please post! :idea: Also, post if you use any equipment (and post what it is) for feeding while you are away (vacation, work, business trip, etc.).

Thanks!

 

[NaH2O]

Lee - when you use the Ocean Nutrition clip, do you put it in the tank before you leave for work? Then stock it again when you get home? I'm curious if it lasts allllll day, or if it needs restocking when you get home.

I add my fish food manually , and the algae is on a clip. Whatever the fish haven't picked off at days end the snails devour at lights out. There are usually 3 or 4 snails on the clip at a time eating the algae.

Good thread.

 

[Scooterman]

lee methods of feeding is a great topic, how do we get that food to them on a daily basis, lucky me I get to go home for lunch but that doesn't cover all day. One last & important question, what do I do when I'm gone for a long weekend or even a week for that matter? The fact that getting someone into the home & feeding can sometimes be limited or non existent in my case, Usually I resolve to a clip with macro algae & an automatic feeder loaded with spectrum pellets. How can I do better?

 

[DonW]

4) There are automatic feeding machines, equipment, devices, etc. They are usually for flake pellet foods (neither of which I particularly want to use daily, let alone throughout the day).

Thanks!

Why not?

Don

 

[leebca]

NaH2O,
I put a frozen cube in several clips around the aquarium. It is gone in three hours. I could make it more difficult by changing the clip opening size, or relegating the opening size to favor a particular fish(es).

Scooterman,
Try one or more from the list. When you get home for lunch, restock/replenish the feeder.

Properly fed and nourished fishes can go a week without being fed. Now, that sentence needs clarification. Carnivores may get so hungry as to eat another fish; crustacean eaters may get so hungry they eat a cleaner shrimp; etc., etc. A long weekend should not be a concern for fishes that are: well matched; suited to extended fasting; not tempted by tankmates; established (old population with no new additions for a few months); well shaped; fed properly; and properly nourished. Again, the catch is if all this is really true. It's a serious (but long) list to go through. You can use two or more pellet feeders to dispense some pellets during the week duration.

I find, unfortunately, that few fishes are really fed and nourished properly, so they pretty much can't make the list. :evil: But, in an aquarium free of disease (because of a stringent use of a quarantine process) the worries decrease exponentially when meals are missed.

Don,
See my post for the up and down sides to flake and pellets: http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=294728#post294728

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Thanks to all the contributors so far!