SaltwaterSense

Feeding Your Omnivorous Saltwater Aquarium Fishes

All marine aquarium fishes are omnivorous. Why do I say this? I mean aren’t there carnivores and aren’t there herbivores? Well sure, but from a husbandry standpoint, it is really best in my experience to think of all your fishes as omnivors and to feed a varied diet for optimal health and well-being. 

A big part of good husbandry has to do with feeding, about which I have written here before. One of the biggest mistakes aquarists make in terms of husbandry (again, in my opinion) is not feeding enough, but perhaps the second biggest mistake is not feeding a varied diet.

A varied diet for my own saltwater aquarium fishes includes a combination of fresh and commercially-prepared food of marine origin.

Flake and Pellet Foods

Flakes and pellets are inexpensive, nutritionally appropriate foods IF they are:

• Manufactured by a reputable company (you know the big names)

• Have not been re-packaged

• Are not more than a couple weeks (maybe a month or two at most) old

Flake and pellet foods are accepted by many fishes, and they are probably the least dangerous in terms of adding to the overall nutrient load of your aquarium. You can purchase them in formulations appropriate for different fishes, although I like to mix a pinch of several different formulations on any given day.

In short, flake and pellet food is great. It’s pretty inexpensive, nutritionally appropriate and easy to feed.

Frozen Foods

Frozen foods should be part of any aquarist’s basic feeding routine in my opinion. If you’re going to buy from a retailer (instead of making your own—we’ll discuss making your own in a later post), go with the well-respected brands kept in the freezer case. A wide array of frozen foods are available from the little gel packs to the frozen cubes to sheets of squid or other meaty marine flesh.

These frozen foods are relatively inexpensive and pretty easy to feed. I like to first rinse frozen food and then thaw it in system water. I then use a turkey baster to target feed thawed, frozen food to my different animals (including invertebrates!).

The downside to frozen foods is that they can, when overused, cause nutrient levels to become elevated as uneaten food decomposes in the tank. Don’t overfeed frozen food!

Fresh Raw Marine Flesh

Your fishes will often appreciate a shrimp, mussel, oyster, or some other piece of fresh raw table seafood. In particular, I like to offer clams, oysters and mussels in the shell to my fishes. I simply open the shell or crack it and then drop it in the tank allowing the fish to sort out how to get at the meat. This is an activity that appears to “entertain” most of my fishes for the better part of an hour, and I usually try to do it about once a week.

Keep in mind that adding a piece of raw table seafood to your tank is, in many ways, like adding a dead animal, and it can have the same effects if uneaten portions are allowed to decompose there. If there are left-overs, it is worth taking the time to remove them from the tank.

Live Food

In my opinion, avoid feeding “feeder fishes” unless absolutely necessary. Most saltwater aquarium fishes kept by the majority of hobbyists can and should be weaned onto a captive diet. ‘Nuff said.

Greens

When it comes to greens, I only feed greens of marine origin (no lettuce for my fishes!). While I think some of the commercially-prepared herbivorous foods are pretty good (and as mentioned above, I mix these in when I feed), nothing is better than growing your own macroalgae in a refugium for the purpose of feeding. A close second, however, is Nori and other marine algae available in the Asian food section of you local market. Avoid anything that has been processed beyond simple drying.

Conclusion

To return to where I began, the vast majority of marine fishes are, truly, omnivores, so mix it up to be sure that all your animals get a varied and nutritious diet. Do your homework, know your fishes natural diet and be sure to use feeding time as an opportunity to observe your fishes’ overall health and well-being.

The Importance of Breeding Fish

My friend Matt Pedersen started MOFIB, which, for those of you who don’t know, is the Marine Ornamental Fish and Invert Breeders. I’m sure you’ve seen their advertisements recently in print and in the forums, and you may wonder what the big deal is. I mean is MOFIB just a bunch of fish geeks developing boutique clownfishes in their basements for their own enjoyment and maybe some gas money?

Nope…and here’s why. Here is why breeding saltwater fish is important to a robust and sustainable marine aquarium hobby.

Marine Aquarium Hobbyist Breeders

As MOFIB points out, “the vast majority of marine fish breeders are truly hobbyists, some as small as two tanks and a pair of fish.” This is a really good thing for the hobby at large. Why? Because profitability is usually not a concern for the hobbyist breeder, one doesn’t hear the same sort of rhetoric usually heard from the commercial operations.

Sustainability of the Hobby and Breeding

For example, there are a lot of questions and debate surrounding the Banggai Cardinalfish right now, and the only thing that seems certain is that, until we know more about the situation on the ground in Banggai, purchasing captive bred Banggai cardinalfish is probably what is best for the species and the hobby. If this is the case, and if everyone from Eric Borneman to the editors of Tropical Fish Hobbyist Magazine are calling for it, why are there very few captive-bred Banggai Cardinalfish available to hobbyists?

The short answer is that, for a variety of reasons, commercially breeding Banggai cardinalfish is not at present considered profitable by most of the larger commercial breeding operations. Enter the hobbyist breeder who, through his or her efforts, can provide captive bred Banggai Cardianfish to friends and other hobbyists through local aquarium clubs and via the Internet. I even know of one breeder who is now providing captive-bred cardinalfishes to relatively large-scale retail outfits.

Captive Bred Fish for New Hobbyists

While there is little doubt that hobbyist breeders can have a profoundly important influence on the sustainability of the industry, breeding marine fish is more than just a mitigation tool for threatened species. Captive bred fishes are, in fact, hardier fishes better suited for many beginning hobbyists. Captive bred fishes do not have to be weaned onto a captive diet, and the adjustment to the hobbyist’s aquarium is usually much easier, as the fish was born and reared in an aquarium. A robust hobby with many new hobbyists will benefit from a large number of captive bred species.

Breeding Saltwater Fish Improves One's Own Husbandry Skills

In addition providing an alternative to wild collection for certain threatened species and giving new hobbyists hardy fishes on which to gain initial success in the hobby, an interest in captive breeding dramatically improves the hobbyist’s husbandry skills. While volumes could be written on this point, suffice it to say that the hobbyist intent of successfully breeding his or her fishes will quickly develop skills that will dramatically improve husbandry.

The Future of the Hobby

Please don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating (as some have) that the marine aquarium hobby of the future will be (or, for that matter, should be) based entirely on captive bred animals. For the hobbyist with the right experience, knowledge and system, a large number of wild-caught fishes will be appropriate, especially when it comes to those that have stable wild populations and for which no reasonable captive breeding protocol exists.

And, after all, those species for which captive breeding is currently not possible, they will be the frontier for the next generation of marine ornamental fish breeders!

Powder Blue Tangs and the Pros and Cons of Being a Popular Tropical Marine Aquarium Fish

When you buy a powder blue tang—one of the hobby’s most beautiful fishes—do so knowing that you are fully prepared to provide for the health of this species. This blog entry will hopefully help those of you who are ready for a powder blue tang to have success with this amazing animal.

Popularity and Ethics

I’ve been having a number of conversations lately with people who are on the cutting edge of the hobby in terms of breeding tropical marine aquarium fishes. Our discussions have been, at times, technical in nature, and I marvel at what these people have been able to accomplish. There is, however, another side of the conversation to which we consistently return: ethics. Anyone on the business side of the marine aquarium trade must address ethical considerations every single day, and perhaps nowhere is it more complex then when discussing the risks associated with making a more-difficult-to keep species popular.

The Powder Blue Tang

Clearly the issue goes well beyond captive breeding. Today’s special on Saltwaterfish.com is, for example, the powder blue tangs (Acanthurus leucosternon), one of the most commonly offered and popular fishes in the trade. It also is a fish that continually poses a great challenge for beginning aquarists who don’t have the right information at their disposal.

The reality is that too many powder blue tangs die needlessly because of their popularity and the fact that people buy them based mostly on that popularity instead of sound knowledge about what it takes to keep them successfully. Let’s see if we can change some of that today with this blog entry that looks at what you need to know to have success with this animal.

Acquire a Healthy Specimen

To begin with, you must acquire a healthy specimen. If you buy from an online retailer like Saltwaterfish.com, they take care of that part for you. In reality, initially unhealthy animals are a leading of mortality in hobbyists’ tanks. The trained staff at Saltwaterfish.com only ships the healthiest animals because it is the right thing to do and their reputation depends on it.

Quarantine

All serious marine aquarium hobbyists should have a quarantine/hospital tank on hand, and this is particularly true with many tang species. Regardless of where you acquire your specimen, being fully-prepared to keep a powder blue tang means being able to isolate the fish in a quarantine tank for two weeks before introduction to your display tank. If you don’t have a quarantine tank, it is easy to set one up quickly and relatively inexpensively. Do it now, whether you plan to purchase a powder blue tang or not.

Tank Size for a Powder Blue Tang

While a juvenile powder blue tang may do fine in smaller quarters, a hobbyist considering one must know that he or she is prepared to house the adult fish. How big of a tank does an adult powder blue tang need? Plan on at least 100 gallons with plenty of swimming room, as these fishes may grow to 12 inches and they like to move as they continually graze.

Power Grazers

Powder blue tangs give new meaning to the term “grazer,” and, as such, their tank should have plenty of live rock on which to graze. To have success with this fish, you really should possess a mature aquarium of at least six months. Finally, the aquarium should not be “too tidy,” and some algae growth should be evident on the rocks.

Filtration and Water Quality

To keep a healthy powder blue tang healthy, you need a system with robust filtration and excellent water quality. Stability is critical! These fish do not tolerate poor water quality or wildly fluctuating levels. Nutrients should be kept at a minimum and pH should be consistently high (8.1 or 8.2). Powder blues also do best in a tank that is kept on the warmer side (around 80-degrees F) and does not fluctuate more than a couple degrees in any 24-hour cycle.

Feeding a Powder Blue Tang

It is essential to make sure a powder blue tang has a nutritious and varied diet available to it, especially in the first few days and weeks after shipping. In addition to algae that should be present on the live rock in the tang’s aquarium, be sure to have a wide variety of other high quality marine aquarium foods when your new fish arrives. In addition to herbivorous foods (Nori from the Asian food section of the market is a winner!), meaty foods such as enriched frozen mysis shrimp should be offered as part of a varied diet. In a reef tank, keeping a powder blue tang well fed will also assist in keeping the tang away from your smaller polyped stony corals.

Compatibility Issues and the Powder Blue Tang

Powder blue tangs can be territorial, and they therefore should be the last fish added to most marine aquarium set-ups. They tend not to do well with members of their own species, so keeping one per tank unless the system is huge is the rule of thumb. It is a good idea to consider having the powder blue as the only tang in the system, as other tangs (especially those of similar shape, color and size) may elicit aggression.

Conclusion

The powder blue tang is a beautiful fish—some would say the most beautiful fish in the hobby—and while it may be a listed as a “difficult-to-keep species,” this does not mean that the dedicated hobbyist cannot have success with one. You should now have the critical information regarding system-specifications and husbandry to be set-up for success with this animal.

I know many hobbyists who keep this fish as the centerpiece of their saltwater tanks and have never had any problems at all with the species. The common denominator amongst those aquarists is that they are the type of people who ALWAYS do their research first and who NEVER acquire an animal they are not fully prepared to care for. If, after reading this blog entry, you feel like you are ready, then by all means get a powder blue tang, and, please, let me know how it goes!

Feed Your Tropical Marine Aquarium Fishes!

Today I’d like to talk a little about a favorite topic of marine aquarists—feeding. As marine aquarists, our hobby requires more consistent care than some other hobbies. If we stop looking after our aquatic charges—even for a relatively short time—their health may well suffer. Toward that end, and despite what you may have heard previously, feeding should be a daily endeavor.

Most Saltwater Tanks Should be Fed Several Times a Day

I’m pretty sick of hearing people recommend that saltwater aquarists underfeed their tanks. I even heard a speaker at a trade show tell a large audience to feed “maybe twice a week—that’s all they really need.” While it is certainly true that some animals commonly kept do not need to be fed daily, it is also true that the vast majority of community FOWLR and reef tanks should be fed at least twice a day.

If it’s true that most tanks should be fed twice a day, why is it that so many people harp on not overfeeding instead of not underfeeding? The answer is simple: Filtration. And, more specifically, insufficient filtration. When you add food to your aquarium, that food, in one form or another, is going to stay in the aquarium until it is filtered out. It follows that if you feed more, you are going to increase the nutrients in your tank, which may lead to decreasing water quality and algae blooms—the bane of many aquarists’ existence.

Filter More Instead of Feeding Less

The solution to excessive nutrients, however, is not to feed less. Instead, the responsible aquarist truly concerned with appropriately caring for his or her animals will ramp us the system’s filtration to be able to handle the nutrients associated with suitable feeding. It’s simple—increasing feeding and increasing filtration is, more often than not, a good thing in the tropical marine aquarium.

Long Term Effects on Health and Behavior

Why is this? I mean you may know someone with a beautiful tank who claims he or she feeds every third day or even less. While it is possible for many marine fishes to go for periods of time without proper nutrition, the long term effect is cumulative and will result in stress and health issues.

On the reef, there is a near constant supply of food in the water column and fishes are nearly always feeding. In our closed systems, especially ones that are less than a year old, this is clearly not the case. While a certain amount of foraging occurs in the tank, the fishes are very dependent on when you—the aquarist—feeds the tank. Feeding infrequently is not natural, and it will affect everything from the health to the behavior of your animals.

An Approriate Feeding Schedule

In a future blog entry, we can talk a little more about what to feed, but, as a general rule of thumb, try to feed a varied diet appropriate to the animals you keep 3-5 times per day. Each feeding can be relatively small (the old trick of feeding as much as is consumed in 5 minutes is an okay metric if you are feeding 3 or more times per day). Be sure to target feed any animals that are not aggressive feeders (e.g., jawfishes) at least twice a day, and be sure to use high quality foods (or even fresh table seafood) that will not unnecessarily increase the nutrient levels in your system.

Feeding more frequently is in the best interest of your animals in terms of their health and behavior—do it! And if you need to increase your filtration capacity, do that too.