how much to feed?

[Ann1214]

2 clowns, one watchman gobbie, 2 chromis, 1 royal Gamma. 1cleaner shrimp, 1 coral banded shrim. lots of crabs & snails. a few sifter star fish & a sea cucumber.

OK - how much do I feed them? If I am using mysid shrimp that come in little cubes. One or Two, or more?

If I am using flakes? (I tend to alternate shrimp & flakes.

[Andrew]

Depending on the size of the cube, I would only feed half a cube a day. Than for flakes, feed them enough to where they will eat it in about a minute ( most fish go crazy and have in gone in seconds like mine ) Just a pinch is enough. Just dont over feed them.

[HumanIMDB]

I was feeding two clowns and two gobies a quarter of a mysis shrimp cube, a small pinch of spirulina algae flakes, or a 1/4 tsp of "complete marine food" pellets daily...not sure if that was too much or not.

[HighlandReef]

i feed whatever they can eat in ~2 minutes, once you do it a couple of times you will know

[woodstock '69]

Hey Ann1214,

I have been thinking about how to learn to feed the right amount without overfeeding for the past 2 days! Easier said than done I am afraid. I have been careful with my discus tank and have cut back to 1/2 of what I fed a few months ago at the request of my lfs. (very knowledgable guy).

He said this because I had small traces of ammonia (.20) and he immediately said I must be overfeeding.

After cutting back by 1/2 (and I am a reasonably smart and careful average kind of a guy) I still today am carrying those same traces of ammonia. I feed what they can eat in 30 seconds twice a day.

I am now going to feed them what they can eat in 30 seconds once a day and see if the ammonia goes back to 0.

My point here is that it is a hard thing to determine. There are no answers or recommendations here, but maybe this post can help anyway?

Michael