How Fast Do Fish Grow?

[Frogspawn]

i got a O.clown about 2 months ago and i have not seen any change of size since i got him/her. i feed every other day and i change his food each time i feed. this is what i feed is this ok for them
Oraglow pellets
Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef Flakes
frozen Mysis shrimp every wed.. i dont feed alot of that it tends harm my water.

my clown is a very agressive feeder he swims around like crazy trying to feed and some times eats the food and then spits it right out. i worrrie about this cause after a few sec. he wont even bother to feed he will just chase the food around and spit it out.
he looks great and color is bright his resperation seems good also
what do u guys feed and whats a good growth rate for O.Clowns

 

[ezy33]

IMO Small feedings 2 to 3 times a day. Thats why the "very aggressive feeder". Just don't over feed.

 

[Frogspawn]

so mabey i should feed 2 or 3 small amounts of food each day?

 

[MT79]

Your clown spits out food- what? I'm pretty sure my clowns would eat until they exploded- a couple times I thought they were going to heh. I would recommend more meaty foods. Flakes and pellets are just a convenient means of feeding. Flakes at least, I'm not sure about pellets, also tend to pollute more than frozen foods. They contain a lot more PO4 generally. Plus you can rinse frozen foods in RO water before use for even further reduction in PO4 and other nutrients. Carnivorous and most omnivorous fish's diets should consist mainly of frozen, raw foods and/or homemade blender mush. The addition of a good supplement/food soak such as Selcon ensures proper amounts of important omega-3 fatty acids, and other important things which many foods lack. I feed my fish three or four different commercial frozen food blends, for ex. both Ocean Nutrition formula 1 and 2 etc, along w/ cyclop-eeze, brine shrimp soaked in selcon, fresh raw shrimp (freeze fresh seafoods before feeding them to the tank) and flakes. Variety is very important IMO.

whats a good growth rate for O.Clowns

If you have a picture you can compare it to, you may be surprised. Seeing it everyday may have made growth less noticeable. Plus 2 months is not very long. FWIW I got my clowns in 9/06. I would say they have more than doubled in body size/mass. They have grown from about 1" to about 2". The female, the larger of the two, is a little over 2". HTH

 

[MT79]

so mabey i should feed 2 or 3 small amounts of food each day?
_________________

Many fish, including clowns, will appreciate that. It is very important to not overfeed though. That will cause water quality issues along w/ nuisance algae outbreaks. Personally I only add what my fish will consume immediately. My fish are done eating what I add with in a few seconds of adding it. I make a couple food additions per feeding about 15-20 seconds apart and feed two times a day.

 

[Frogspawn]

so clown fish eat mostly meaty foods? i though they eat both plant and meats? any one have any good recipes they would like to share? and i am going to go to my local fish store and see if i can find some of those additives to soak it in.

 

[MT79]

Their diet consist mostly of meaty foods, but yes, they are omnivores. That is why I include frozen food blends that are made for omnivores( Ocean Nutrition formula 2 is one of them). I also palce seaweed in my tank daily primarily for my tang, but the other fish all eat some of it as well. Many people add spirulina and/or dried seaweed sheets, peas, romaine lettuce, etc. to their homemade foods. SW plants and algaes are best, the other things should be considered extras so to speak.

one have any good recipes they would like to share?

A quick look at the forums for blender mush recipes using the search feature should yield good results.

 

[tecwzrd]

Only wanted to add that on average it can take up to 2-3+ years for most fish (sold for aquariums) to reach full size from a juvenile IME and I also doubt you would notice hardly any growth in only 2 months. If the clowns sides are pinched in then it's not getting enough to eat, otherwise it's not a problem and your fish will grow with time.

I like Ocean Nutrition products as well as Marine Cuisine. Variety is key as Mike said and as long as you feed what they can consume within 30 seconds or less then feeding a couple times daily shouldn't be an issue.

One of the better blender mush recipes.

 

[melosu58]

Variety is very important IMO.

To me this is very important also. The blender mush sounds good. I might make some myself. The blender mush I believe is also good for corals I believe. Someone check me on that.

 

[MT79]

I have heard many people say their corals look better after switching to blender mush. Blending creates some very small pieces and "juices" for coral polyps. Being made w/ quality, fresh ingredients doesn't hurt either. FWIW melamine, which caused the dog/cats deaths recently, is a pretty common ingredient in commercial fish foods from what I've read recently. It's used to mislead tests into registering more protein content than there actually is in the food. It provides nothing good for the fish. Definitely an advantage to making your own foods.