Feeding fish???

[Jj49er]

Well I finally done with the cycle for my tank added my first fish Thursday night! A small clown fish but he mostly kept to one side of the tank when I get to close he goes n hides behind rocks (normal I assume) but I've been trying to feed him some marine flakes n he just won't come up to eat n eventually flakes end up in overflow cuz they dont seem to sink... Any suggestions???

 

[obscurereef]

Might be still adjusting to your tank. Fish are more comfortable feeding when there are already fish in the tank. For example, I had 3 chromis and only one was brave enough to eat and the other 2 mysteriously disappeared . Then that single chromis became shyer and more skittish, but when I added the clownfish they ate together and now both are always in the open waiting for food. My chromis loves flakes, doesn't enjoy pellets as much and my clownfish won't eat the flakes, but loves the pellets.

Soaking the flakes in garlic extract will hopefully entice your fish to eat. Might want to try feeding some frozen food too like brine shrimp, mysis, and/or a mix of things.

 

[Jj49er]

Ok thank u... Yeah I was thinkig of buying some pellets for him n possibly adding another clown fish today to see if that way he would be more open to feeding

 

[nikki_kaiser]

Well I finally done with the cycle for my tank added my first fish Thursday night! A small clown fish but he mostly kept to one side of the tank when I get to close he goes n hides behind rocks (normal I assume) but I've been trying to feed him some marine flakes n he just won't come up to eat n eventually flakes end up in overflow cuz they dont seem to sink... Any suggestions???

You can buy frozen foods fortified with vitamins etc. With one clown you could use half or less. Just make sure to melt it in RO water before and use a net or strainer to put the chunks in some new RO. That way you don't add additional nutrients to your water. Mine like the brine that are fortified but I feed them different stuff including pellets.

 

[Jj49er]

Are those the frozen cubes? So use half n melt in water then strain in net? Or just dump in water?

 

[nikki_kaiser]

Are those the frozen cubes? So use half n melt in water then strain in net? Or just dump in water?

Yes it is. I get mine at Petsmart. They have added vitamins and make sure it says "parasite free". I let it melt in RO in a plastic cup. Then strain that water with a net and add to fresh. I use a medium syringe (no needle) to suck it out of the cup and feed. That way I can control how much I actually put rather than pouring too much. I also cut some of the little tubing and shoot some towards the bottom so my shrimp get some (saw that on YouTube so it's not my idea but works great!).

 

[nikki_kaiser]

Are those the frozen cubes? So use half n melt in water then strain in net? Or just dump in water?

The reason you strain it is to keep from pouring the liquid that the actual food sits in into the tank. Your only adding nutrients that can't be eaten if you don't.

 

[TommyP]

i just picked up two clowns yesterday. i fed them today a small amount of brine shrimp. thawed them in tank water and poured it slowly in while they were eating. 1 ate more than the other. how many times are we supposed to feed the clowns?

 

[nikki_kaiser]

i just picked up two clowns yesterday. i fed them today a small amount of brine shrimp. thawed them in tank water and poured it slowly in while they were eating. 1 ate more than the other. how many times are we supposed to feed the clowns?

I feed mine every other day. I've had one for over 2.5 years or more (can't remember when exactly I got her) and two in another QT tank that are going in my new tank. Sometimes I will feed them two days in a row when I'm cleaning my tank that day. I was feeding every day when my older one was really small but only as much as she could eat.