The Puffer Forum

RTR, I'm sure you're right about overfeeding causing tons of problems. I was feeding Spot twice a day, and he (in hindsight) was FAT. He's looking slimmer now, and I definitely plan to cut back on his feedings. I'm just so excited that he's eating at all; I could have easily started overfeeding again. I'm glad you posted about overfeeding. It's a really good reminder! Thanks

Stress and over-feeding (or incorrect feeding) seem to be major factors in the short lives of most captive fish.

On reef fora you often see peope mentioning they feed their fish 3-4 times a day . From what I can make out these are full portions each feeding. Never sure what to make of that. If it's one portion spread out over the course of the day then I guess its not to much an issue. Ofcourse there are also people that will overfeed a fish to make is "compatible" with corals or other fish so it won't eat the aforementioned. Not sure what to make of that either.

On liveaquaria.com I have seen a few fish where they claim the fish needs multiple feedings a day.

Feeding little and often could be beneficial to a lot of fish as this is how they would likely feed in the wild. A regime like that would massively overfeed the dominant fish though. Feeding lots and often is just a bit rediculous IMO. Fish food packets often say to feed multiple times daily but this is just to line their pockets

Especially for a reef, where water quality is extremely important.

Pufferpunk wrote:Especially for a reef, where water quality is extremely important.

The poor-man's (though I suppose the rich man's) solution is to then run all sorts of media reactors to keep the water in check.

bertie 83 wrote:Feeding little and often could be beneficial to a lot of fish as this is how they would likely feed in the wild. A regime like that would massively overfeed the dominant fish though.

I suppose a solution would be multiple autofeeders on different sides of the aquarium and of course proper stocking.

All the reactors available will reduce the levels of pollution, but are unlikely to come anywhere near restoring the water's full profile to what it was originally, even if the support system is several times the volume of the display. That in effect is likely to mean that water changes would long-term be more cost-effective and healthier to boot. Biological systems are too complex for simple solutions. Which is why we have at best semi-closed systems, not real closed systems.

Hey, everyone--

Just wanted to give you an update on Spot. He's doing great!! He's never been healthier. I feed him more live foods than I used to, and I feed him less often. I really think overfeeding was a big part of whatever caused him to "hunger strike." He's growing and looking great.

Now that I'm feeding him less, it's easy to keep the nitrates under 20. They were always creeping up in the past...even with weekly water changes. Now I realize how important really good water quality is. It matters!!! I'll never know exactly why he stopped eating for so long, but now I don't buy it when he acts like he's starving if I don't feed him every day. He went for weeks without food. I know he can skip a few feedings and be fine!

In hindsight, I think I was feeding him way too much too often and not enough live food. This all contributed to fluctuating/not great water quality. I was relying too much on frozen food. He's really thriving on live food, and it doesn't seem to pollute the water as much. I usually defrosted his frozen blood worms, etc...but I really think you have to be careful putting those frozen cube foods in a tank. There's so much small stuff that just floats around and fouls the water. If I put an earthworm (he loves them) or cricket in the tank, there's nothing left when he's done! I am also still feeding him snails to help wear down his beak.

I hope others can learn from my mistakes. I've learned so much from reading this forum.
Thanks again for all the advice! I'm so happy that my fish is still with me

That's great to hear. Good job