How much to feed fish? Do we tend to overfeed our pets? Easy to feed a lot, difficult to feed the right amount

[Alexander1312]

Looks like there are some rules as to how much to feed fish daily, some of it seems to come from aquaculturing fish for human consumption.

My nitrates are consistently higher than I wanted them and I am sure I am feeding too much, even after cutting back quite a bit.

I do not believe that fish need to be fed a ton daily and that focusing on water parameters leads to underfeeding fish. Both can be accomplished, balanced parameters and well fed fish, it is just less straight forward.

I heard that folks recommend between 2-3% of the fish’s body weight for daily pellet food consumption. 2% for less active fish, 3% for more active fish such as anthias and tangs.

For frozen food, water content seems to be approx. 80%, so this needs to be considered when calculating the food amount. 1 gram net frozen food is 5g gross frozen food equivalent (math wizards please correct me if this is wrong).

If this is correct, the next question is how much does a fish weigh?

It looks like the following are some suggested weight guidelines:

• Clownfish: 15 gram
• Wrasses: 20-30 gram [I feel this is not correct, should be higher]
• Anthias: 30 gram
• Tangs: 70-100 gram

Not sure how much my two triggers weigh? Or the Foxface. I use tang weights for them.

Based on the below overview of my fish population, I calculate a total of approx 800g fish weight.

Applying an average of 2.5% I can feed 20 gram of pellet food daily to keep them well fed.

Or 100 gram of frozen food.

Or a combination of both.

The other consideration is how often to feed. The more often the better seems to be consensus. My concern with feeding too often smaller amounts is that some fish might not get a chance to get the food over more dominant fish.

Any thoughts or reaction to this?

 

[Kensington Reefer]

From what I see...too many starving fish out there!
It’s sad
It’s disgusting
Whaaaaa...too many nutrients, too much algae, blah blah blah
Whaaa whaaa whaaa
Feed your fish!

 

[Turkeysammich]

It’s a loaded question. There are so many variables. What fish diet ? Where do they swim in the water column ? How fast is their metabolism ? Are you feeding a flake , frozen, pellet, etc. Is the food floating , sinking , middle water column. Are they fast eaters or slow eaters.
As per the fish whisperer, feed until you see his tummy is on the fuller side. That’s what he told me years ago when I asked the same question. And variety is the spice of life.

 

[MichaelB]

I typically feed once a day. No auto feeders .
I mostly feed frozen variety of mysis and Roe eggs+ krill.

For the herbs they are feed mostly half a sheet of nori or some seaweed pellets, all the fish will eat the seaweed pellets except the puffer.

When I'm rushed or wanna swap it up I'll feed tdo pellets, maybe once a week or once every other week. Yet always feed nori or seaweed pellets in addtion to tdo pellets.

The one thing I absolutely never feed is flake food.

For the two tanks without any fish 2-3 times a week I will feed the hermits sinking crab pellets. And half a sheet of nori once every 2/3 weeks.

All the fish are definitely chunky. I have Nothing against feeding multiple times a day, however I'm frankly very busy so It wouldn't really work for me with any constancy.

I think over all the tank including coral, fish, cuc, invisible living things, and even the pest will adjust and be better off overtime with constancy over time sticking to a routine. Verse always changing things up, feeding more feeding less, water change this week another a month from now, the next 3 weeks later etc. I'm not implying I'm more experienced than anyone else that's been at it a little while far from it. Though I will speak firmly on be half of just be constant with what ever approach you tank in reefering.

 

[Alexander1312]

From what I see...too many starving fish out there!
It’s sad
It’s disgusting
Whaaaaa...too many nutrients, too much algae, blah blah blah
Whaaa whaaa whaaa
Feed your fish!

I agree with some of the details, ie feed your fish, algae should not be the reason etc, but disagree with your overall sentiment, Erin, as it oversimplifies the point.

 

[Alexander1312]

It’s a loaded question. There are so many variables. What fish diet ? Where do they swim in the water column ? How fast is their metabolism ? Are you feeding a flake , frozen, pellet, etc. Is the food floating , sinking , middle water column. Are they fast eaters or slow eaters.
As per the fish whisperer, feed until you see his tummy is on the fuller side. That’s what he told me years ago when I asked the same question. And variety is the spice of life.

I have mentioned these points in the post, maybe you want to re-read it. There is a difference in how active the fish is and how much to feed them. I am not seeing where this is a loaded question?

Edit: I did get inspired though by the loaded question comment, and added a loaded question to the thread title .

 

[Alexander1312]

While not the main point here, I just want to address the concern that I do not feed my fish properly.

This is their current diet:

- 3 x daily 40 secs high quality pellet food each 2 hours apart with AVAST auto feeder
- 1 x daily frozen food LRS various types
- 2 nori sheets daily
- several larger dandelion leaves daily

 

[L/B Block]

I’m not sure weighing your fish (or estimate of weight) is the way to go in only that there maybe some that eat their weight, some less so, some more so.

I just think it’s imperative to observe to see if the fish are eating or not..

I feed a combo of pellets and the nyos Artemis/mysis 3x a day (6 feedings total all automated) plus aminos/coral food at nighttime. Damsels don’t touch the nyos stuff (they all loved ROE when I was dosing that) but the wrasse and dwarf angel do and all of them shuffle up to the pellets..

Phosphate is my issue - so small doses of lanth it is with a swish of carbon dosing..
I had the po4 at .2 but jumped more than expected with the nyos to .3 - just slowly bringing it on down

 

[Alexander1312]

I’m not sure weighing your fish (or estimate of weight) is the way to go in only that there maybe some that eat their weight, some less so, some more so.

I just think it’s imperative to observe to see if the fish are eating or not..

I feed a combo of pellets and the nyos Artemis/mysis 3x a day (6 feedings total all automated) plus aminos/coral food at nighttime. Damsels don’t touch the nyos stuff but the wrasse and dwarf angel do and all of them shuffle up to the pellets..

Phosphate is my issue - so small doses of lanth it is with a swish of carbon dosing..

Which fish is eating its weight ?

Aminos/coral food is not fish food.

 

[L/B Block]

Which fish is eating its weight ?

Aminos/coral food is not fish food.

My lyretail damsels are plump little sob’s. Yes coral/aminos are not fish food but corals need to eat too!

 

[Alexander1312]

My lyretail damsels are plump little sob’s. Yes coral/aminos are not fish food but corals need to eat too!

Just to confirm - no fish eats its own weight on a daily basis, or to limit this statement, none of the ones we keep in our little tanks . Far, far from it, but maybe that is why we are tending to feed a lot.

How much coral eat or need to be fed is a whole different topic, and requires very different deliberation than feeding fish, and some might say they get enough through the fish food. I am somewhere in between on this topic.

 

[L/B Block]

Prob not eating their weight - maybe 4-5% based on estimated weight of fish (ChatGPT) -but they certainly look it.

 

[Alexander1312]

Prob not eating their weight - maybe 4-5% based on estimated weight of fish (ChatGPT) -but they certainly look it.

I am claiming 2-3%, but I can see that triggers and fox face might go higher than that. But this is the heart of my question.

 

[MichaelB]

Does what your fish eat in two minutes not apply? I also saw something about their stomach being the size of their eyeballs to estimate how much to feed?

You mentioned weight and body %based feeding prob has potential just seems a little impractical long term like i don't see myself weighing fish food before feeding them or weighing the fish to make it really accurate.

 

[L/B Block]

Does what your fish eat in two minutes not apply? I also saw something about their stomach being the size of their eyeballs to estimate how much to feed?

Depends on the food I think -for the ROE -it was whether it was gone in 30-45 sec.,


It’s also harder to judge sometimes in my tank as the liquids go through the return pump and can disperse over 30 sec in itself -

 

[MichaelB]

Depends on the food I think -for the ROE -it was whether it was gone in 30-45 sec.,


It’s also harder to judge sometimes in my tank as the liquids go through the return pump and can disperse over 30 sec in itself -

So you feed into your sump?

I feed into the display.

 

[L/B Block]

I mean do we have to worry about trans fats and ldl for fish? It really is to me whether they are eating something to support their nutrition

So you feed into your sump?

I feed into the display.

When I was running my “doserator” which was the mini fridge with the doser and running artic pods/ROE/oyster eggs -it would go into the return section and then delivered into the tank. Broke it down a couple months ago to simplify things a bit. Miss having it. Hopefully @lazy_reefer makes good use of it now

 

[SupraSaltyReefer]

When do you plan on consuming your fish?

All joking aside, I think the "right" amount is going to be different for everyone.

There's more than one way to skin a cat, in this case feed a fish.

 

[Bryce.martin23]

From what I see...too many starving fish out there!
It’s sad
It’s disgusting
Whaaaaa...too many nutrients, too much algae, blah blah blah
Whaaa whaaa whaaa
Feed your fish!

It hurts me to see folks saying just feed less, I’m with yah, feed more! Shoot today I think I fed my tangs 6 sheets of nori. I’d rather deal with nutrients and dial my system in with high feeding than starve my animals. Like Rich says, “If it’s got a mouth it probably wants to eat”.

 

[clownvan]

I think you can feed a fish in a tank too much. It is not like it is out in the wild where it is constantly working for its food, hustling away from predators, etc. and in need of that many calories.

A fat fish is not necessarily a healthy fish.