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Feeding Marine Aquariums | Do you feed enough?

Anorexia and underfeeding among captive fish is a chronic problem, and can be even worse in Acroporid dominated reefs as aquarists make an effort to keep nutrients low. Today keeping a colorful SPS reef is not all that challenging. Keeping a colorful SPS reef that is heavily stocked with fish for a long time period [...]

Anorexia and underfeeding among captive fish is a chronic problem, and can be even worse in Acroporid dominated reefs as aquarists make an effort to keep nutrients low. Today keeping a colorful SPS reef is not all that challenging. Keeping a colorful SPS reef that is heavily stocked with fish for a long time period is.

Dr. Ron Shimek has done some great work on the food of natural reefs. From Reefkeeping magazine:

…if you wish your fish to have the same mass of food that they are likely to eat in nature, presuming the data of Hamner et al., 1988, is applicable to other fishes, you should feed each fish in your aquarium that is the average size of a damsel fish, the equivalent of about 70% of a cube (Ocean Nutrition) of this food per day. Large fishes would get proportionally more.

Think about that, and then think of how much you feed. It is something to consider…

Here are some additional resources to take a look at:

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  • Nick
    So feeding 4-5x a day is really the only solution, no damnsel sized fish can eat that much in one feeding, right?
  • Correct. The more frequent the better in my opinion. From Shimek's article:

    "From this study, it is apparent that these fish are feeding continuously throughout the daylight hours. They are eating small items, but on the average they eat an item of food every three minutes all day during a twelve hour day."
  • Richard Gilliland
    that is very interesting...do you assume this would have a heavy impact on a DSB aquarium? Would feeding heavily like that be best suited for a barebottom?
  • Hi Richard,

    It should not matter on a proper set-up, whether it is DSB, BB or SSB. Flow should prevent waste from settling and then it is up to the export mechanisms... skimming, chaeto, carbon dosing, etc.

    I do find it to be easier with BB simply because waste and detritus cannot find places to hide.
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