Having trouble feeding clownfish..need advice...

[2000se]

So I'm a little worried on how I should be feeding my one and only clown (approx. 3/4 inch long) . I have an 8 gallon tank and the filtering is not as beefy as larger systems.

I have 3 items for food

1 - Formula One Pellets (Small)
2 - PE Mysis shrimp
3 - PE Cyclopeez

I can turn the pump off, then put a pellet or 2 in and he'll eat.

Sometimes it just drops to the bottom and I have to get it out (which sucks). If the pump is on, it either goes behind the rocks or in the filter. Which agains, sucks.

But to give him any of the other items, it basically shuts my system down. If I drop a shrimp in and he ignores it, it goes into the filter and builds of nitrates. And if I don't rinse it very well before feeding, my water gets super cloudy from all the junk in the shrimp cube. Same is true for the cyclopeez. He loves them, but the amount that I have to put in the tank for him to try to eat, half of them end up all over the place.* In the filter, behind the rocks...etc, etc...

I'm just trying to find a way to feed him without killing my tank in the process..

what to do?

[Scott07]

I also started off w/ an 8gal. cube... and pretty quickly upgraded... but understand the challanges. What sort of filter are you using? And what is your current feeding schedule like?

[2000se]

I have a maybe 2 6x6 inch squares of filter floss and a small bag of carbon..Not too much because I've always heard that a bunch of crap stuffed into the filter area just becomes a nitrate factory..

As far as feeding schedule, feeding around 730am-est and then again around 8pm est.

[Scott07]

sounds like you're running a pretty similar setup to what I was filter-wise... as long as you keep it clean, change floss and carbon regularly, etc... I think it should be fine. I feed my clowns twice a day also.... morning feeding is always pellets, and afternoon/night I alternate between pellets, and frozen food. At that, I'm probably overfeeding a touch... but much better than I used to (frozen food daily).

A couple of suggestions.....

Do you have a shrimp or clean up crew of any sort? A peppermint, fire, skunk cleaner, etc... shrimp would take care of your run-away pellet issue you described lol.

How much are you feeding? For a 3/4 inch clown... 3 or 4 small pellets and/or a very tiny amt... like pencil eraser sized amt or even smaller... of frozen food will be all he/she needs daily. In my opinion.. no need to rinse frozen food off.. especially in that small of a quantity. A shrimp of some sort would also take care of any extra floating pieces or mysis, etc... although shouldn't be an excuse to over-feed. You'll find that several ppl advocate only feeding their tank every 2 to 3 days... or only feeding frozen foods every 2 to 3 days. While this isn't what I do... It should give you an idea that less is really more when it comes to feeding... especially with such a small water volume. Don't worry... my clowns always seem to have full bellies... eating something or other off of the rocks etc... and i could probably feed them much less often than I do. Give it a shot for a week or two... and see if your water quality improves.

[2000se]

Sounds like a shrimp would help.. I do have 8 very small crabs and 2 snails....Funny you say that too. When the pellets hit the sand....those crabs move fast! Most of the time I see them fighting of the food in the tank...


3-4 small pellets.. I agree...I think 3 and he's full

thanks a lot. I will make a few minor adjustments and report back.