Feeding fish

I've been reading through various threads - zeroing in on what to feed and I'm just getting confused.


I have 1 Royal Gramma and 2 clowns.


I feed once every other day. I alternate between tropical flakes and pellets.


The clowns eat this up. Quickly. The Royal Gramma will eat some... if it sinks... and if it is far away from a clown... and if it happens to float right by her.


I see the Royal Gramma eat pods.


I am concerned their diet isn't varied sufficiently. I am also not sure if Royal Gramma is OK in her diet specifically. She might be developing ick... maybe.

What would be a better food choice or are these fine?

My phosphates and Nitrates continue to measure at .5 and 0 respectively. So I'm not worried about that aspect of the food I'm using currently.



I'm also wondering - when people say they supplement with garlic to help the fish immune system... what do they really mean? Chopping up some garlic and dropping it in with the regular food?



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I know I could feed them all kinds of things. But I don't want to go to the trouble until I have a fish that requires the trouble. If one of these do, then I have no problem with more troublesome food than flakes and pellets (like frozen food that has to be thawed, etc).

 

On the food rec, this is my usual rec - I am a fan of frozen foods (that I thaw in a shot glass of tank water first) - the mulch kind with everything in the sea in them - typically there is one for algae eaters and one for meat eaters. I get both and alternate. I used Formula 1 & Formula 2 which I preferred over San Francisco Bay. I have not tried H20 Life, but that looks pretty good too.

In my experience, fish preferred these foods to pellets and flakes.

My Royal Gramma loved them.

 

I also use frozen cubes mostly, but occasionaly give them flake. Luna

 

I've had my royal gramma for about 6 months and it's never quick to grab a pellet or flake unless it's right in front of it's nose. It's still alive. I figure if it's hungry enough it will more aggressive towards food.

 

Ditto............you took the words right outta my mouth... LMAO Luna

 

I am not great at feeding my fish a variety of foods. I only have feed them frozen mysis shrimp the whole time I have had them. I have 2 clowns and a Royal dottyback. And 2 really small corals. I bought rods food to give them variety, but for 3 small fish, it just isnt the right stuff. The pieces in it are either huge, or so small the fish dont even try to eat them. So most of it seems to just drift around my tank.

When i say too huge, the chunks the fish grab, wont fit in their mouths and they swim around dragging the one piece of food, I guess trying to swallow it. It makes me wonder if fish can choke.

Dont know if i am doing something wrong. But Mysis have kept my fish happy for a long time. I did have a Lawnmower Bleeny, that has passed away. He loved eating the mysis, but I dont think they did anything for him. Poor Guy...

 

Thanks. Good info!

I'll go get some this weekend probably. Good idea using the shot glass too

 

Oh a few more things.. If your getting frozen food, much of it comes in cubes. If you have just the 3 small fish, you probably don't need to feed a whole cube each time. In my opinion half a cube is more than enough.

Another thing you can do. Take the cube dissolve it in some water (might need a bit more than a shot glass worth. I use about 2-3 turkey basters worth) And once the food cube dissolves, you can stir it up and watch most of the mysis or heavy pieces fall to the bottom, and a lot of the "dust" will hang suspended in the water, then you can dump most of that water out, and you will end up dumping less inedible food into your tank.

I am far from the expert on anything in the hobby. But this has been my experience feeding my fishies. I feel like I am constantly fighting cyno. But hopefully my soon to be built refugium/sump will solve some of that problem.

Good Luck!

Glen.