KarenM Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 I've seen a lot of posts on boards about pellets and flakes and was wondering what everyone feeds and how often. I have the yellow tang (that I'm trying to rehome), a clown and his anemone, a scooter blenny, a 6 line wrasse, and a coral beauty. I also have a med sized green hammer coral and a sea apple, a cleaner shrimp, a camel shrimp, and various snails and hermit crabs. I feed them every evening with a combination of 2 or 3 of these: frozen mysis cubes, frozen squid, frozen spirulina cubes, frozen whole krill, frozen oyster eggs (for the blenny), and liquid Micro-vert. I hand feed the anemone pieces of the krill or squid every day. Do I need to add in some pellets or flakes for more nutrition? What should I feed the sea apple? The LFS I where I bought it assured me it would be fine with what I already feed, but then they failed to mention any of the warnings that are all over the net about the apple and it's "chemicals". And, yes, I know I should have researched it before buying it, but I didn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willow Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 First... I have no clue as to the sea apple.. I researched them just enough to find out that they can nuke a take then gave up very quickly on the idea of having one! I feed dried nori, frozen Emerald Entre cubes and also my own frozen food blend (a mix of meats and greens)... bits of raw shrimp and silversides for the anemones... I also dose live phyto (home grown) & live brine shrimp (also home grown).. and eventually I hope to culture mysid shrimp... I avoid flakes and pellets... to me frozen or fresh food beats manufactured flakes any day! Granted that's just my opinion and you may have different results... but so far (knock wood) none of my fish have ever had ich or any other disease and I don't have any algae problems... I read somewhere that some of the manufactured foods can cause algae problems... not sure how true that is.. but maybe someone else with more experience can chime in... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenM Posted July 2, 2007 Author Share Posted July 2, 2007 First... I have no clue as to the sea apple.. I researched them just enough to find out that they can nuke a take then gave up very quickly on the idea of having one!I feed dried nori, frozen Emerald Entre cubes and also my own frozen food blend (a mix of meats and greens)... bits of raw shrimp and silversides for the anemones... I also dose live phyto (home grown) & live brine shrimp (also home grown).. and eventually I hope to culture mysid shrimp... I avoid flakes and pellets... to me frozen or fresh food beats manufactured flakes any day! Granted that's just my opinion and you may have different results... but so far (knock wood) none of my fish have ever had ich or any other disease and I don't have any algae problems... I read somewhere that some of the manufactured foods can cause algae problems... not sure how true that is.. but maybe someone else with more experience can chime in... Wow! You raise your own phyto and brine, that's great. I've thought about setting up a little "pod farm", but I'm not sure exactly how to go about it and if I want it in my house. It gets so hot here I don't think I could do it in the garage. Do you have a full tank setup for the brine? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GKarshens Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 What you are feeding sounds good to me. Pellets and flake food tend to have more phosphates so they can cause Algae problems if you over feed. I make my own food from mixed seafood, mysis, cyclopeze, nori, garlic extract, and V3 vitamins. I feel that the more diversified the fishes diet is the healthier they will be. One note, you might want to cut back on how often you are feeding the anemone. Once a week is enough. They also need smaller pieces than most people give them. In fact, according to Anthony Calfo (an expert on anemone propagation) they will spit back out large pieces in the middle of the night and not get any value from it. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willow Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 (edited) I raise my brine in two liter bottles of phyto! The other shrimp will be in several ten gallon tanks once I start culturing them. The pods seem happy (for now) in my fuge... Edited July 2, 2007 by Willow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenM Posted July 2, 2007 Author Share Posted July 2, 2007 What you are feeding sounds good to me. Pellets and flake food tend to have more phosphates so they can cause Algae problems if you over feed. I make my own food from mixed seafood, mysis, cyclopeze, nori, garlic extract, and V3 vitamins. I feel that the more diversified the fishes diet is the healthier they will be. One note, you might want to cut back on how often you are feeding the anemone. Once a week is enough. They also need smaller pieces than most people give them. In fact, according to Anthony Calfo (an expert on anemone propagation) they will spit back out large pieces in the middle of the night and not get any value from it. HTHOnce a week? Well, OK, I'll cut down. And I found out the hard way it'll spit the larger pieces back out. Now I tear up pretty small pieces and it seems to swallow them without a problem. Thanks, Gabriel.KarenI raise my brine in two liter bottles of phyto! The other shrimp will be in several ten gallon tanks once I start culturing them. The pods seem happy (for now) in my fuge...I've read about people keeping their pods in 2 liter bottles. How'd you get started - just buy the shrimp and phyto and pour them into the bottle? Do you have an airstone or anything in the bottle? Do you keep in in the light? How often do you have to buy more shrimp to replenish the supply? Can you just keep adding more if needed, or do you ever have to just empty the bottle and start over? I'm very interested in this idea, thanks for any info you can give me.Karen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willow Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 I start out by decapsulating the brine shrimp eggs... once that's done I hatch them out in just plain salt water... then separate out the egg shells... after about two days I start pouring in the phyto... the entire time they have air tubing in the bottles... I don't bother with an airstone except during the initial hatching.. once I separate out the shells I just use a regular piece of tubing minus the airstone... they do eat alot of phyto (so I make sure I always have plenty on hand)... as far as lighting.. I have them on my front porch in the hot Texas sun! Haven't lost a batch yet due to over heating and I have never had a batch of phyto crash in the sun either.. in the winter they do have to come in cause the porch gets a little too cold at night... I usually keep them on window sills (away from the cats) or add a regular cheap aquarium light (depending on how much I am growing out at the time)... The shrimp get rather large on their phyto diet and will reproduce in their bottles... depending on how many I have going I will either let the culture reproduce and keep a supply going.. or I will start up a new batch... the main thing is keeping them fed... they do eat a large amount of phyto.. I can add a dark batch of phyto (almost black) and in a day or two depending on how many shrimp are in the culture they have it eaten down to a pale yellow... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesL Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 I feed pretty much what every one else does ... but I do use Spectrum pellets to feed the fish a few times during the week when I don't feel like thawing frozen food. When I feed frozen, I generally make two cups .. one for filter feeders and one for the larger food. For filter feeders I mix micro-vert, oyster eggs, cyclopeez, and Reef Roids. For larger foods I mix mysis and finely chopped krill. My frospawn, torch, tongue, sun coral, galaxia, orange plate, and long tentacle plate all get the large food. The filter feeder food is to help entice the sun corals open and for the toadstool, zoas, cloves, and other things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmanning Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 Gabe, If you don't mine me stepping in, I got 2 questions about your recipe. What is V3 vitamins?....Where to purchase this item? Thanks, Cindy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ACampbell Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 John gave an awesome presentation on making fish food at one of our past meetings. Here's his recipe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GKarshens Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 It is a vitamin supplement for fish. I can't remember who makes it but I have seen it at several LFS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Headless_donkey Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 We feed pretty much the same thing as everyone else. About twice a month I will hatch some brine shrimp. I feed them, minus shells, to the tank about 36 hours after I start the batch. The small fish and seahorses seem to like it. When brine shrimp are freshly hatch the are super nutritious. When they are bigger, they are more like potato chips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenM Posted July 2, 2007 Author Share Posted July 2, 2007 We feed pretty much the same thing as everyone else. About twice a month I will hatch some brine shrimp. I feed them, minus shells, to the tank about 36 hours after I start the batch. The small fish and seahorses seem to like it. When brine shrimp are freshly hatch the are super nutritious. When they are bigger, they are more like potato chips. So how do you go about hatching brine shrimp, and separating the eggshells? Where do you buy the eggs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Headless_donkey Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 They eggs float. So, you can drain the baby brine out of the bottom of the container. You can buy the eggs at almost any pet store. I believe http://livebrineshrimp.com/ has higher quality eggs. Hatching is easy. You can get the hatching kits at pet stores as well. Tt just takes a container with a valve in the bottom(to get the shrimp out), an airtube, and some old tankwater. Pretty much combine those things and the eggs. Wait 24-48 hours and you have baby brine. You then open the valve on the bottom and drain the water into a brine shrimp net. The shrimp will get caught and the water will go through. Mandarins love baby brine! I have to say Willow sounds like the brine expert. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willow Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 When brine shrimp are freshly hatch the are super nutritious. When they are bigger, they are more like potato chips. That all depends on what the brine shrimp are fed.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Headless_donkey Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 I forgot about that fact. I was referring mainly to the brine you can buy live at the LFS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willow Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 I forgot about that fact. I was referring mainly to the brine you can buy live at the LFS. ok... yeah... they are potato chips! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.