Feeding Coral Shrimp

[droth]

Hi guys I was hoping someone could help me. I have a 45 gallon aquarium with a Spotted Yellow Wrasse and a Coral Banded Shrimp as well as numerous corals. I've had these for about a month now and was feeding fish pellets and frozen coral food but when I started to have algae problems I quit feeding the frozen coral food and reduced the pellets to one feeding every two days. For the last couple weeks I've noticed that the shrimp is coming out much more during the day than he ever has and also noticed that when ever I have a feeding the wrasse darts around and eats all the pellets before the shrimp has any chance of getting food. Should I be worried about this? Is there a way to feed the shrimp without the fish eating all the food?

David

 

[BigAl07]

David your pellets (loaded with preservatives) could also be leading to some water (aka algae) issues. Might want to evaluate that as well.

As far as "feeding" goes feed the wrasse on one side and at the same time get some food down to the shrimp a couple of times a week.

 

[droth]

BigAl can you tell me what and how you feed your fish & corals? I'd love to have this bubble and red bacteria algae to disappear. I've added an additional power head and a Tunze Skimmer but I still have this stuff growing.

temperature: 78°F
specific gravity: 1.023
pH: 8.0
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 20 ppm

Started adding RO salt water and live rock January 08, 2010.
45 gallon tank
53lbs fully cured live rock
60lbs of live sand
Aquaclear 70 Filter
3 Power heads
Tunze Skimmer
Current Nova Extreme Pro Light (6 – T5 Bulbs, 4 white & 2 blue)
Heater
(1) Three headed pink tipped coral
(1) Two headed frog spawn
(1) Bubble Coral
(1) Brain Coral
(4) Neon Green Mushroom Coral
(1) Spotted Yellow Wrasse
(1) Coral Banded Shrimp

 

[BigAl07]

David,
below is my "Canned Speech" for Algae

Algae is best battled from every angle possible. Here's what I'd suggest:

• A) Test RO/DI for elevated TDS (time to replace filters)
• B) What are you feeding, how much, and how often?
• C) What's your water change schedule and amount?
• D) Start MANUAL removal often and accompany it with an immediate water change to help export some of the algae from your system.
• E) What type of lights, how long are they on and how old are the bulbs?
• F) Evaluate your Clean Up Crew
• G) Evaluate any mechanical filtration you have on your system (filter socks, sponges, bio-balls, etc)
• H) What are your current test results?

It's almost futile to fight the symptom and not the root cause. This is like getting a nasty cut on your neck with blood pouring out on your new carpet. Instead of stopping the bleeding (and saving your life) you pour stain remover on the carpet and start scrubbing the carpet. You're gonna keep bleeding and eventually over-power the stain killer. In the end you'll bleed out:explode: AND have badly stained carpet. :smack:

As for how I feed...

I'm the extremist as far as feeding because I feed very lightly. Some people have gone as far as to say "You're starving your fish to death. They are short lived and during that time they will be sickly." Well many of my fish are 3 years old and almost all of them are at least 2 years old. I'd think that "starvation" or "malnutrition" would have kicked in by now . . .

One side note... I pick my fish because they fit into my feeding regimen and don't need to be fed several times a day.

• A) I put an algae clip in 1x a day with short strips of shredded Nori (Red, brown and or green).
  
• B) I put a thumbnail sized piece of Rod's (Original & Herbivore Mix) into a container and thaw with tank water. I put about 1/2 of this into the tank every other day or so. This is about what my tank can consume in 2-3 minutes.
  
• C) 1x - 2x a week I feed some "other" type of food... Mysis, Krill, or San Francisco Bay Multi-Pak. Each of these are thawed in RO/DI water, strained through a tea strainer, the water is discarded and a portion fed to the tank.
  
• D) 1x in a blue moon I'll get something fresh from the deli (shrimp, scallop, clam etc) and cut into small pieces and feed to the tank.

Don't fret the Algae. It CAN be defeated but it's a slow deliberate process. Just be sure to attack from every angle possible and stick with it.

Happy Reefing