Fish act like they're starving!

This might be a dumb question, but....

How much should my fish be eating, so that I know they are getting enough but that I'm not overfeeding?

I currently feed a small amount of frozen mysis shrimp twice a day, but since adding two new fish about a week ago, my fish seem hungry all the time! I increased feeding a bit to compensate for the two new fish.

In between feedings my fish used to seem happy doing their own thing. But now they are constantly swimming up to the top looking for food and seem like they are starving!

Should I increase feeding, or are they just being pigs? I want to make sure they are getting enough, but I don't want to pollute the tank, either.

Thanks!!

 

Fish will eat all day long if you feed them. Remember that they have a very high metabolism as they are always swimming around. I have 12 fish in my 90g and I feed 2 frozen cubes a day. My Eng. Goby gets fed 1 silver side a week, how he does it, I dont know.


Luna

 

A mixed diet in small amounts is key, I feed freshwater and marine flakes, marine granules, defrosted frozen mysis, krill, and brine shrimp. My fish will eat but they never beg for food at the top of the tank. I feed a small amount of one of the feeds 3-4 times a day.

 

How would I get mine to start taking flakes or pellets?

 

Geeze i only have a bio cube 29g and i feed my tank 2 times a week i thought that was to much it is natural behaviour of fish to always want food

 

It is natural behaviour for a fish in the wild to constantly graze.

 

IMO feeding your fish only twice a week is cruel. Especially in an unestablished tank.
Small amounts of food and often is more natural for them than starvation especially at the warmer temperatures of a tropical marine tank where there metabolism is higher than there cold water counterparts.

 

I feed my fish every other day, and I vary their diet.

I will alternate between a cube of mysis shrimp (thawed, then strained), ocean nutrition formula one (frozen - drop cube in tank), cyclopeeze, and omega one marine pellets. So they get one of these, every other day, and no more. Since the addition of my tang I will now keep a strip of seaweed for him to graze on.

I dose amino acids and vitamins (seachem fuel) for my corals twice a week, and also phytochrom by brightwell aquatics every other day (1 ml). Sometimes I will target feed my LPS with tiny pieces of raw table shrimp - they love it. Especially my bubble, that coral is a pig.

No matter what, everything always acts hungry, but you don't want to lower your water quality.

 

Agreed, they need more food than that.

 

I agree. I'm crazy starving if I don't eat every 4 hours! And I am pretty sure I'm using a lot less energy then fish who have to swim constantly!