Feeding of a reef tank

[Octupus]

how often and how much do you feed the fish in a reef tank? i have a 55 gallon that has two small yellow tangs, a clown, a damsel, a scooter blenny and few shrimps. Thank you

 

[ac7av]

I would feed as often as the fish in your tank require to thrive. You should look into the need of each of your fish. I feed my tank twice a day but some of the critters only eat 1 time a day or even once every other day.

 

[dnjan]

If your tank is established, stable, and not over-stocked, you may not have to feed very often. I last fed mine in July.

 

[Octupus]

If your tank is established, stable, and not over-stocked, you may not have to feed very often. I last fed mine in July.

Thank you all!
Don thats really impressive! How big is your tank and what do you have in it? i take it the liverock is the primary source of nutrition to the fish?

 

[ac7av]

That is really impressive. Do you not ad any nutrient into the tank at all? I am curious as to how you accomplished this.

 

[jezzeaepi]

If your tank is established, stable, and not over-stocked, you may not have to feed very often. I last fed mine in July.

You havent fed your fish in two months?

 

[returnofsid]

The only way I see that being doable is if your fish consist of vegetarians and you have lots of Macro growing for them, or if your tank is made up of pod eaters and you have a huge, self-sustaining population.

 

[ac7av]

It must be a very specific few fish in a large tank packed with live rock corals and enough light two grow algae fast enough to sustain them. I am defiantly no expert by any means but I would think even then, that the fish would be missing the variety they would get in the wild and that’s why we have enriched foods to provide them in a tank environment. I have a small 210 gallon and just the one golden eel alone eats more then all the other tank fish combined X10. No way could my tank even come close to maintaining that 10 inch eel. That think is a pig.

 

[Sascha D]

how often and how much do you feed the fish in a reef tank? i have a 55 gallon that has two small yellow tangs, a clown, a damsel, a scooter blenny and few shrimps. Thank you

You need to feed the tangs at least once daily. I can pretty much guarentee that if you do not feed a tang for 60 days, you will not have to worry about feeding him ever again. :lol:

 

[dnjan]

How big is your tank and what do you have in it? i take it the liverock is the primary source of nutrition to the fish?

The tank is 100-gallon, and has a sixline, a yellowtail blue damsel and a lawnmower blennie. The sandbed is original (established in 2000), and I believe it is providing most of the nutrients for the pods and algae (overfeeding when the tank was young helped accumulate nutrients - I do not recommend overfeeding a tank with a sandbed).
Corals are a mix of LPS and non-light intensive SPS. I was gone most of the summer, and my wife and daughter had to maintain the topoff water, but they did not feed. Now that I am back in town I will try to go back to feeding once or twice a month (when I remember).

 

[ac7av]

That certainly explains it. That’s more like a reef tank almost without fish. I see some are doing large tanks with 1 or 2 fish but I like the fish and so I have less of the other stuff and more room to swim around. I would say its not an overstocking thing in that case just a preference.

 

[DonW]

I feed many small meals sometimes one and on some days when I'm home five or six. Just gives me the time to play with the the fish. Right now all I have is a little school of five chromis but still enjoy feeding time.

Don

 

[KrautBurner]

I feed many small meals sometimes one and on some days when I'm home five or six. Just gives me the time to play with the the fish... but still enjoy feeding time.

Don

same here,
fairly small bio load,
but I feed veg based food 1-3x per day
and meat based every other day or so

 

[trido]

I feed nori in the morning and meat at night. Small amounts that the fish eat within a few minutes at most.

 

[burning2nd]

i would take it a step back and ask your self why you have 2 tangs in a 55g....

no so nice..
your feeding should depend Sollie on what your feed... and who your feeding it 2.. what your tank can and cant handle.....

It very safe 2 say, that if your tank is overstocked, or under filtrated you will find out how much NOt 2 feed...


i feed meny small feedings a week... every other day some times back 2 back...

 

[miwoodar]

I used to feed seldom when I had a strict Berlin approach...maybe a small pinch two or three times per week.

I've been feeding a lot more since getting into VSV around the beginning of the year. I'll skip a day or so each week when I'm feeling lazy or away from the house. More typically though it's a few large cubes per day (four fish in a 140) spread out over a few hours.