Food?

[ebauman75]

I have some experience in freshwater, and finally got my new 75 gal saltwater tank up, running & cycled. I've gotten a pair of percs as well as a pair of lyretail anthias. There's a few turbo snails, hermit crabs, a snail, and a sand sifting star also. I'll be adding a Midas blenny later this week. Then in a few months and add a hippo tang, yellow sailfin tang, and a fire angel. I've been feeding the clowns and anthias frozen mysis shrimp, cyclops, and cyclop-eeze. Is there anything else I should be feeding them, or anything I shouldn't be feeding them?

[sir_dudeguy]

first thing to do...slow down. You're adding fish a bit too fast and if you dont wait about 3 weeks in between adding fish (or a pair of fish if they're small enough) then you may not be giving the bacteria enough time to bounce back, thus resulting in an amonia spike (not enough bacteria to handle the bioload).

Second thing, the ONLY tang that will do well in a 75 for its whole life would be a yellow tang. Blue tangs get about a foot long and require over 100-125g tanks. Sailfin tangs...not sure exactly how big they get, but too big for a 75 i know.

Then there's the anthias. Those anthias that you've got require around 125g, despite the fact that they stay around 5 inches long. They just need tons of room to move since they're really active. So you'll want to take that into consideration if you're keeping them longterm (if not...good luck catching them. Saltwater fish are a lot harder to catch than freshwater :) ).

The last thing i'll "criticize" (for lack of a lighter word, because i'm really not criticizing you, i hope you know. I'm just trying to make you aware of these fish's requirements), is the sand sifter star. It needs tons of open sand with lots of life in it. A 75g tank cant really provide either of those, and a new 75g tank at that. These stars dont do very well in aquariums in general tho. They will just starve eventually once they clear out the sandbed (and they do more harm than good to the sandbed anyways...you'll have no pods in a heartbeat). I strongly recommend getting rid of the star and the 2 anthias. The flame angel would be a great addition tho.

But finally, to answer your real question, what you're feeding is fine. Maybe mix it up with frozen plankton every now and then, altho my 2 black ocellaris (false perc) clowns dont care for it that much...but they still eat it.

hope this helps

[Im Lon 2]

Along with what you feed I try and do some Flake food as well. Formula one, formula two, Prime reef, and Spectrum Marine Pellet.

[ebauman75]

Actually, got the clowns mid Feb, and the anthias 2 1/2 weeks later. I'm planning on getting a 240 in a year or so, so I'm not really worried about the size constraints of the fully grown adult tangs. I've read that it's safe(r) to get multiple tangs so long as they're not in the same genus. The star is actually there to clean up fish poo and remove overfeeding. If that's not a good idea, any other suggestions? I'll look into the foods mentioned when I pick up my Midas.
Thanks for the info.

[scoots]

I think a better alternative to the sand sifting star is a proper cleanup crew of some hermits, cerith snails, astrea snails, nassarius snails (which will help move the sand around a little), ect. I normally stay away from turbo snails if you are going to have any SPS because they are very good at knocking corals over before they have a chance to encrust.

[sir_dudeguy]

basically what scoots just said, minus the hermits. The hermits will just kill other snails for their shells. Doesnt matter what type of hermit you have, it'll do that.

The ceriths are the best imo. They'll get the algae and poo in the sand, rock, and on the glass. The nassarius dont eat algae tho...they stick to more meaty stuff, but they're still good to have, just maybe not as many.

I also always have the astreas that scoots mentioned. They stick to the rock and glass tho and mostly eat algae. Good to have a mixture of different snails so you're getting a wider variety of stuff being eaten.

[Jorgens]

As for feeding alot of people use a home-made mush of oysters&juice, shrimp, scallops, garlic and viatimins. Worth doing a web search on at least.

[scoots]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9397354#post9397354 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sir_dudeguy
basically what scoots just said, minus the hermits. The hermits will just kill other snails for their shells. Doesnt matter what type of hermit you have, it'll do that. I find that blue legged and scarlet hermits are always pretty well behaved in my tank although yes you will always have the occasional snail being killed for it's shell. The nassarius snails are great at eating any left over food that falls to the bottom. The hermits will help with the detritus on the bottom. Could also get a fighting conch to move the sand around a bit and help with algae on the sand bed.

[ebauman75]

Would the selection in the liveaquaria.com reef cleaner package be about right? It's 20 trochus, 15 super tongan nessarius, 30 cerith, and 25 scarlet reef hermits. I currently have 5 turbo snails, 4 scarlet reef hermits, 6 dwarf blue leg hermits, 1 peppermint shrimp, and the star. On another note, is it possible for my snails to eat themselves to death?

[ebauman75]

btw, the date on my current tank is the date it finished cycling, not the date I set it up.