Feeding fish

[sympley]

Hello,

just trying to figure out how much food to feed my fish. I have 3 clowns and one blenny. I don't want to overfeed but I don't want to starve them either. Out of 4 clowns 1 has stopped eating for about 5 days and now I can not find it in the aquarium. In any case now I feed them twice a day and everytime I do the go crazy for the food. Should I feed them more?

Any suggestion.

 

[JDSmith]

I have now lost two clowns because I could not get them to eat. I never saw them interested in eating from the time that I purchased them. I have two new ones that do not seem to want to eat either. I have just about had it with clowns, unless someone can help. I have tried frozen mysis shrimp, frozen brine shrimp, plankton, live brine shrimp, flakes, and food soaked in pure garlic. Can anyone suggest anything else that might work. I have two b. cardinals, and a diamond goby that seem to like to eat.

 

[reefman23]

I feed my clown and watchman goby 3-5 times a week. I hand feed both of them Ocean Nutrition Brine Shrimp Plus, a mix of frozen mysis/cyclop-eeze, small pieces of raw shrimp/squid/oysters (available at your local grocery store), even tiny pieces of brocolli for my clown (a little trick I learned in my marine aquarium science class). The key is to only feed them what they can eat. This means small enough pieces and only feed them a little bit at a time. Once they stop eating, you know that they are full.

I have had three clowns and have never had a problem feeding them. If they dont eat out of your hand, try a small pipette or turkey baster. Both the goby and clown attack the tip of by turkey baster whether there is food in it... they know that food comes out of it and want to be there when it happens!

I see one big problem though, sympley. Your sig says you have a 20g, but you are saying you have 4 clowns. This is too many and is probably leading to agression and territorial behaviors. This WILL cause the stressed fish not to eat and they will starve. My suggestion? Remove two of them, only leaving the two that seem to get along the best. A 20g is too small for even two mature clowns, but it is better than what you have now. IMO, twice a day feeding are max. If you are feednig this often, any uneaten food will add up quicker and lead to some algae problems etc.

HTH

 

[sympley]

Thank you for the heads up. At first I had 2 clowns, and one of them stopped eating. It would get skinnier and skinnier. I pretty much figured out that it will died. I did not wanted to leave just one of them alone. The store had a special 2 for one that is why I ended up at first with 4 and now only 3 are left. The scary thing is that I can not find the dead one, and I am very afraid about amonnia spike. Is there any way thet the live rock can handle such a spike or not really?
In any case, you are feeding only 3 to 5 times a week? That mean they can go few days without food? You also mentioned that they stop eating when full? Totaly opossite to my fresh water fish, these guys would eat until bursting. Would this also meat that when they go craxy for food I should keep on feeding them, right? Now I feed them for a minute or two and then I just stop even though they still want more.

 

[reefman23]

My YWG staight up ignores the food when he is done. The clown will eat a little more than the YWG, but he too will begin to ignore the food when he is full. Remember that it is much better to under-feed than over-feed. At one point I was only feeding my fish once or twice a week. The goby will begin to sift through the sand for food and the clown will graze some of the algae from the rock. If your fish do not stop eating after a minute or two, then stop feeding. You can usually observe their belly to see how full they are. If you begin to see a small bulge develop, stop feeding.

As far as your dead clown goes, you will probably never find a body in your tank unless you spot it right after death. Hermits and snails make quick work at picking the carcass apart. Are you testing for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites? You will ikely not have any issues from the dead fish.


Jesse