do you need to worry about feeding your CUC?

I have been trying very hard lately to feed my fish only as much as they can eat within 2 minutes per feeding. So I add the food very slowly and make sure it is all eaten. My only worry about this is that there won't be any left over for my 30 snails and 15 crabs. Should I be adding extra food to make sure the CUC has something to eat? Should I be using different food for the CUC than the fish? Or should I not worry about this?

 

I usually just overfeed my fish once a week and let all the junk settle on the bottom for a while before turning my pumps and powerheads back on to give them a chance to eat or atleast spread it around..

 

i would not suggest letting flakes sink to the bottom, you are way overfeeding by then.. what i do is actually i bought some hikori sinking algae wafers, and my nassarius, ceriths and hermits love that stuff.. clean up crew are generally scavengers, they need feeding once in a while, but they will find their source of food as long as your tank is well established

 

I dont use flakes.. I use the frozen cubes.. usually I cut one into 1/4 and feed that to the fish, but once a week I feed 1/2 to the tank.. its gone in no time

 

Ya I have the algae wafers and some sinking pellets. Have to feed them after lights out or my fish go around and pick it all off the bottom.

 

We just let them do their own thing. The snails and hermits have all found food stuff. However, sometimes we target feed the cool members of CUC. Guys like our pistol shrimp, cleaner shrimp, harlequin serpent star, and brittle star get target fed every now and then. Partly because I want them well fed too, and partly because it's awesome to feed them and watch them eat.

 

i think sinking pellets and algae wafers are a better bet, feed the CUC like said above when the lights are off.. a pack of algae wafers will cost you $10-15.. an algae bloom will cost you way more trouble than $10-15 dollars.. also make sure, when you feed frozne foods, make sure to get a very fine net and put the cube in and rinse water on it so that all that extra nutrients can be washed out before you put the cube into the tank.. the nutrients can lead to algae problems as well as algae will feed off the nutrients

 

Just backing up what others have said. Most of your CUC are herbivores so most of what you probably feed your tank is not food directly for them anyway.
Unless you have a grossly oversized CUC the amount of algae that grows naturally in a tank should sustain them. If you have to regularly feed your CUC they are no longer a clean up crew but are adding bioload to your tank. I like to feed some of my sea stars once or twice a week but otherwise I assume they are getting enough leftovers that settle in low-flow areas or in between rocks etc.

Ultimately it really depends what you CUC consists of and how much you feed and how much algae grows naturally in your tank.

 

I agree.

For snails and hermits, you do not need to worry about feeding them. If you are feeding them, then they're not CuC.

For stars and some other specialized inverts, you might need to feed, but these are more decorative than really your CuC.

Don't feed the snails and crabs. If they can't find enough food, then you have too many (which is extremely unlikely).