Do I need to feed my mobile inverts?

T

TheEdge

Member
I have a 65 gallon tank with about 55lbs of fairly clean live rock and the following fish & inverts:

1 flame angel
1 royal gramma
1 fire shrimp
3 peppermint shrimps
2 emerald crabs
5 small hermit crabs
4 snails (2 nas 2 asterea)

i feed mainly frozen mysis and brine shrimp and the 2 fish and the fire shrimp eat it right up. I'm not sure what the others eat, they mainly pick at the rock all the time but there isnt too much on it. Should I be feeding them anything special? Also all my readings are pretty good except I have a fairly high phosphate reading of about 0.5 or so, probably from initially overfeeding the fish. I dont have any corals yet.
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

Administrator
RS STAFF
Don't feed your "Mobile Inverts" (from this point on let's call them your Clean Up Crew (CUC). They do a GREAT job cleaning up after everyone else. You try to feed them you'll be poluting your tank majorly.

Phosphates are most likely coming from the WAY and amount you feed. I am assuming (and we ALL know how dangerous that can be) that you're feeding Frozen Mysis shrimp to the tank. Frozen Mysis is VERY dense and compacted so it's easy to over feed. What's potentially MORE important is that most are packed with "preservatives" to enhance shelf life. Preservatives are usually in the form of Phosphates. See the connection? What I like to do is thaw/rinse the food in RO/DI water and strain ALL of it out through a Tea Strainer. I push and press it to get ALL of the water out and then add it to a small bowl of Tank water. Then I feed from this bowl.

Also what is your SOURCE water? Tap water often times has elevated levels of phosphates.
 
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