Proper Feeding 101

Sorry.

HUFA - Highly Unsaturated Fatty Acids

When doctors tell humans to increase their Omega-3 fats by eating more fish, those are HUFA's and we need them every bit as much as fish do.

Omega-3 fatty acids

 

Very nice Inwall!!:2thumbsup Really good info!

 

+1 on what Cuttingras said. Do you see a lot of overfeeding in the tanks you visit? Do you have a rule of thumb about how much to feed your fish?

 

I see people fall into several categories.

Most newer hobbyists tend to overfeed. With that said, there are also some newer hobbyists who've been told to be careful not to over feed, so they actually underfeed. I'm more a fan of put some food in, make sure it's all gone. If necessary, add more food and make sure it's all gone. Observe your fish. Don't only look at their bellies....when they turn towards you and are facing straight at you. Look at the thickness from straight on all the way to the dorsal fin. If it's skinny, they may not be getting enough food. To try and explain this, if your friend were to look at you bending their head down as much as possible, are their shoulders wide or are they skinny. That's what you're looking for....thickness above the fishes eyes before you see the dorsal fin.

I'm not really a fan of Rules of Thumb. The Watts Per Gallon of lighting and the Pounds of Live Rock Per Gallon rules of thumb are actually utter nonsense. We certainly don't need another rule of thumb that is equally useless.

 

another stupid question.
what does the GVH in GVH by H2O Life mean

 

Garlic, Vitamin's, and HUFA's

 

thanks inwall great info.....

 

I am glad this came up. I have been trying to determine how much to feed my tank and the rule of thumb about feeding so much so it is gone in 3 minutes is not working for me. My fish would eat a brick in 3 minutes if i put it in there.

I normally feed them one 1/2# cube of fish food and one 1/2# cube of coral food a day.

Does this seem like too much or not enough? Listed below are my tank inhabitants:

Corals:

Birds Nest
Cauliflower Coral
Yellow Soft Leather
Bubble Mushroom
Orange Ricordea
Purple Soft Leather
Acropora Coral
Bali Stag
Clove Polyp
Galaxia Coral
Colony Button Polyps
Frogspawn Green Branching
Kenya Tree Coral
Yellow Colony Polyp
Bubble Coral
Orange Sponge
Waving Hand Zenia
Brown Goniopora Coral
Leather - Toadstool
Alelis Blues Zoanthid
Green Striped Mushroom
Starburst Polyp
Red/Pink Feather Duster
Hawiian Feather Duster

Fish:
True Percula Clownfish (2)
Sixline Wrasse
Yellow Tang
Three Stripe Damselfish
diamond prawn goby
neon cleaner goby
Coral Beauty Angelfish
Scooter Dragonet Blenny
Blue Hippo Tang
Watchman Goby
Sailfin Tang
Dragonface Pipefish

Inverts:
Indonesian Conch
Sea Cucumber
Pin Cushion Urchin
Sand Sifting Starfish
Banded Coral Shrimp
serpant sea star
Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
Emerald Crab
Sally Lightfoot Crab
Astria Snail
Nassarius Snail
Flame Scallop
Hermit Crabs

 

I gotta ask, what is it to underfeed? What is it to overfeed?

I found fish are extremely greedy, gluttonous by nature. I've never seen a fish see a piece of food it was familiar with and turn it's nose up to it.

Only reason I see a fish not engage a piece of food is when they either don't notice it, or don't recognize it to be food.

Then, how do you know if you're underfeeding or overfeeding? If I drop in some pellets, he won't eat all, cause he may not get to it before water current drags it away while he was eating another pellet on the side.

I was feeding twice a day and I was told I'm over feeding. So now I feed every other day, and it seems like it works better to me. Cause they will eat up a big serving and I can keep my water parameters in check easier.

 

If they are underfed, their stomachs will suck in. Also, if you look at them straight on and look at in front of their dorsal fin and the tissue under their dorsal fin, there needs to be some thickness there. Overfeeding would mean there is food left over after about 3 minutes

Sounds like a good plan.