Choosing the best food for your fish and coral: What is the preferred meal for your reef tank?

[Peace River]

Choosing the best food for your fish and coral: What is the preferred meal for your reef tank?

The choice of food for a reef tank can vary based on the specific requirements and goals of the tank. Each of these options-frozen Mysis shrimp, live phytoplankton, high-quality pellet food, and homemade fish food recipes-can be beneficial in different situations. For example, Mysis shrimp and pellets provide a balanced diet for fish, while live phytoplankton can nourish corals and promote zooplankton growth. Homemade fish food recipes can be customized to cater to the specific dietary needs or your tank’s inhabitants. The best choice depends on your tank’s unique setup and the species you keep. What is the preferred food for your reef tank?

Photo by @Mikey-D


This QOTD is sponsored by Nutramar: https://www.qualitymarine.com/nutramar/

“Nutramar’s 100% natural food products are used by public aquaria and breeders around the world. They offer superior nutrition to your most finicky and delicate fish and invertebrates.

 

[SPS2020]

Homemade would be best, but I have not ventured into that as of yet. So for me, it's pellets and LRS.

 

[kevgib67]

I like variety to cover all the bases. Flake, pellet, roe, mysis, brine and reef frenzy.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I would love to get into making homemade food one day!

 

[EricR]

LRS Reef Frenzy Nano is my goto for quick and easy.
I dabble with home-made a bit but don't get too complicated,,, mostly fresh/live clams and mussels from the grocery store with some other, random things mixed in.

 

[o2manyfish]

For the fish one of the best foods I found was live black worms. 3 or 4 days of feeding live black worms and the colors on the fish really started to pop. The red Eyebrows on the yellow assesors get's brighter. The Fridmandis started to glow, The Goldflakes glittered more than normal. And within a week after feeding the live black worms - the spawning levels in the tank went way up. More pairs of Bangai going for it. More Pairs of Angels spawning. More clowns laying eggs - In my tanks with heavy fish populations the clowns laying eggs is not clock work and happens sporadically.

For feeding fish and corals together I found one of the best foods is Fresh Oyster. Buying a jar of oysters at the super market fish counter and throwing one oyster at a time into the blender for 30 seconds. For my 400g tank I poured about a shot glass worth of Oyster soup into the the tank and then waited 15 minutes. In that time every coral went into feeding mode. Oysters have one of the highest concentrations of blood in their tissue and it really drives the corals wild. After 15 minutes I dump the rest of the Oyster into the tank and then turn off the in-tank pumps. The tank looks like a milky soupy mess. But the fish tear into the bits of flesh - All the fish - From the Omnivores to the Herbivores. Even my planktivores - the Genicanthus angels go after the oyster flesh. And the corals - of all types LPS, SPS are fully opened and ready to intake food.

I leave the in-tank pumps off for as much as an hour and then kick them back on. It will usually be overnight till the water is crystal clear again. The oyster doesn't make the skimmer flip out. Salmon does a number on a skimmer.

The downsides to the oysters are the smell. Especially if the jar goes foul in your fridge. For those with smaller tanks like 50g I imagine 1 full size oyster blended would feed your tank for 3-5 feedings. It's a lot of meat and tissue.

On the west coast there was only one supplier for live black worms and the story is unclear as to whether he has retired or passed on. But the farm is still operating and producing flake and pellet black worm foods. I purchased some about 3-4 weeks ago. And have added it to my dry food mix. I haven't seen much change in my salt water fish but in my freshwater angels the colors are getting really bright on the Orange/Red Koi Angels.

Dave B

 

[jkcoral]

Reef Nutrition ROE is hands down my favorite. Anything and everything in the tank can eat them, and the “snow globe” effect in the tank gets the fish really excited.

Mysis, of course, and TDO pellets round out the top 3 staples on the menu. Other things like reef frenzy are also mixed in throughout the week.

 

[Azael]

Frozen brine and also pellets

 

[Syntax1235]

Pellets along with the occasional clam on the half shell, and a homemade food recipe: clam, shrimp, scallops, salmon, nori, fish eggs, freeze dried mysis, Reef chili, and selcon.

 

[Reef Stallion]

Wanted to chose more than 1 answer LOL.

 

[iron_mike_gt]

Flake, mysis, reef roids, phytoplankton and copepods. What a bunch of picky eaters!

 

[vetteguy53081]

I feed a wide variety of both fresh, frozen and dry. With near 50 fish- I assure everyone gets a favorite.

 

[JoJosReef]

Variety is the spice of life! But I don't stray far from Reef Nutrition foods, now. ROE + Oyster Feast + Phyto Feast + Tigger Pods is fed 5x/day from my liquid food dispenser, TDO small pellets 3x/day from Eheim autofeeder, and I target feed Mysis Feast + TDO medium + NLS thera+ pellets usually once per day Mon-Fri. Oh, and I give the pitho crab a piece of nori every day or two. And sometimes smash a press-on to the glass. Actually, I'm going to go do that right now.

 

[Buckster]

Frozen Mysis, Krill, bloodworms, live brine, nori, and pellets are what my 3 tanks get within 3 days. I also periodically give the corals food.

 

[Ghostweim]

I had been feeding LRS, cyclops, and mysis - my crew never took to Rod's. I just recently picked up Prime Reef and my fish and corals go nuts over it.

 

[ReeferSamster]

I'm going to date myself with this post, but thats ok. I'm an old fart.
EDIT: Wow, this ended up being pretty long winded. Sorry. I'm at an airport bar waiting for a flight.

I'm a shopaholic for food for my reeftank. I think I have a mental illness.

It's like my second hobby: Try out ALL coral and fish food. I have collections of food spanning a range from 1 to 25,400 microns. A lot of my stuff has past the expiration date and collecting dust in the dark back corner of my reefing cabinet, because after trying out the newly released "Ultra Coral Food" and found that it sucked, I stopped using it.

"Micro encapsulated for buoyancy!" !
Sold. I want it.

"It has astaxanthin to promote color!" !
Gimme. I need it.

*Notices picture of a Blueberry Gorgonian on the packaging of the new coral food* !
You had me at 'Hello'.
This time I shall not fail with the blueberry gorgonian! Yes. This time, I have found the perfect food for you!
As it turns out, the problem wasn't actually the food size or type. the problem with blueberries, IMHE is the frequency of feedings. (Duly noted for the next time I try again! I shall succeed one of these days!)

(It died btw. Blueberries will forever be my cursed unrequiting love of my life. Sigh. )
EDIT2: WOW. Out of curiosity, I just checked for the nostalgia of it all, and I can't believe it's still there in the dark, haunting me... in the old, dusty archives of the internet. A reminder of my lost love.
https://mrblooboo.blogspot.com/

I've tried it all in the last 30 years with this new annoying mental illness that masqueraded as a hobby and have acquired some favorites based on observation of the coral/fish. It's all purely anecdotal, so take this with a grain of Instant Ocean salt.

Here is the current menu for my little world of different types of foods I use on a regular, but random basis. I pick a random food at random times at random days, and just either broadcast feed or target feed depending on the food and my mood. Or both! . This could change at any time, if I notice a new "Ultra Coral Food" in the market.

Although it may seem like I'm overfeeding, my motto when feeding the reeftank is: quality/variety is priority over quantity. I am pretty stingy when it comes to the amount of food per feeding. Besides, with over 120 lbs of OG natural liverock from Fiji, Marshal and Vanatu islands, Indonesia, and Bali. Yea, reefing was very different back then. Real natural live rock from skeletons of corals thousands (millions?) or years old. It was so porous, it was like a sponge for water. Not the dense terrestrial limerock nowadays. Comparing the inside of artifical live rock vs OG Natural Live Rock . Yellow tangs were $20 bucks back in the day!

1 Live Blackworms
The best live food in my opinion for fish. I've heard possibly valid theories on why blackworms shouldn't be the majority food, due to its freshwater nature, but IMHE the colors on my fish get brighter fins grow longer extensions (especially where some fish have 'trails' in the corner edges of their tails such as anthias and midas blennies. ) and after a few weeks of feeding black worms, fish in general, get nice and plump and get more 'perky'. Although all that could just simply be anecdotal, my belief became firm when I procured my first successful copperband that i've had for over 10 years. Willie the Copperband ate only blackworms for a few months until I pavlov conditioned him to accept other foods. During this time, Willie the Copperband gained significant weight and started exhibiting natural foraging behaviour (he was rail thin and really skittish with a concave belly, but swimming normally at Petland Discounts, so I risked it. Besides. I had to save him from Petland Discounts!
Handfeeding Willie the Copperband over 10 years ago
Willlie the Copperband now after 3 tank upgrades in 10 years

2 Reef Roids
Back in the day it used to be cyclopeeze squished with mortar and pestle, but they've switched to calanus which I find bleh. It just looks like translucent empty shells of shrimp that are way bigger than cyclopeeze, so I don't know why they changed up the line from cyclopeeze. That was a great food, 100% pure natural and especially when you crush them with mortar and pestle, the corals went absolutely bonkers.

3 Mysis Shrimp (and all its skanky smelling juices for the corals and filter feeders) Nuff said.

4 Bloodworms Mostly for variety as well as training Willie the Copperband to accept other foods besides live blackworms in case the LFS was out of stock. I've only been able to train him for bloodworms and mysis shrimp. Never accepted flake. In fact, I have never seen a copperband eat flake in my entire life.

5 Oyster Feast. I love the fact that this food has a range of particles ranging from 5-200 microns. It's not just oyster eggs, it's the ovarian tissue all blended together as well.

6 When I'm really bored. I'll fire up my 30 year old Pepsi bottle brine shrimp hatchery and start squirting artemia in any creature that has an orifice in my tank.

OK. Gotta go board the flight. See ya guys later.
@Peace River I think you are missing alot of good food types in your voting poll. What about commercial frozen foods?