Feeding time - Am i starving my fish?

D

DamonH

[I currently have 3 green chromies, 1 false perc, 1 serpant star, 1 skunk cleaner shrimp, 1 peppermint shrimp, and misc snails and hermits. I feed once a day around 10:45am before I head to work. My question is, my fish always seem to go CRAZY when I put food in the water. I'm talking, the way they swim around ravaging food they create enough current I don't even need my closed loop. :laugh long: Is this normal? I'm weary of overfeeding, but now I'm worried they aren't getting enough! I usually do this:

Turn off closed loop (but leave return spray bar on)
Throw in a pinch of Formula 1 flake
Throw in a smaller pinch of about 10 Formula 1 pellets
Every other day I throw in a frozen cub of brine, bloodworms, or algea mix alternating between the three.
Thursdays I feed my serpant star a small piece of raw shrimp

The F1 pellets seem to sink straight to the bottum and nobody eats them but the cleaners (skunk seems to love them!). The Clown has grabbed them on occasion, but they seem too big for him on the rare occasion he actually grabs one before it hits the bottom of the tank. I'm pretty sure I got the small size pellets, but he gets it in his mouth, spits it out, and repeats the process. I'm going to start up dosing phyto and either making my own food or buying some of Nick's soon, but in the meantime am I doing everything ok? The food is definitely gone before 5 minutes (more like 3), but I don't understand that rule anyway as when it gets to the bottom I don't think any of the fish eat it.

Soooo ... critique me. Should I be putting in more food? I think the chromies would eat 24/7 if you'd let them.]
 
[My fish ALWAYS seem hungry, and they would eat until they exploded. Anytime I am near the tank, they expect food.

But, I don't always feed them. It creates a lot of waste. Either the food itself, or the other end of the fish.

How often do you do water changes? How often do you WANT to do water changes?

Feeding fish - and how much - is a preference. As long as your fish are fat and happy, you are fine.]
 
[It is usually better to do more frequent feedings with less amount food than one large feeding. As many people work, its good to offer food in small quantities twice a day and ensure that everything is consumed within minutes is usually a good rule. Know your species also, tangs for instance like to graze. So placing some nori in the tank for them to graze on through the day will make them happy. If you start seeing sunken in bellies you will know you are not feeding enough.]
 
[The only time my fish are not hungry is when they are eating.

I could feed them every ten min. and they would try to eat it everytime.]
 
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