so today i picked up my first cleaners. got some hermit crabs, some snails and a red coral banded shrimp, so just wondering since they are the only thing in the tank, should i put food in the tank daily? and if so what kind of food?
feeding new criters
- Thread starter expkeeper19
- Start date
expkeeper19;4543054; said:
Well first, for the hermits - they are excellent scavengers, but must have something to scavenge. If they are the only ones in the tank, and the first ones in there to boot, you'll need to make sure you have an abundance of quality live rock, live sand, and I'd also suggest some macro-algae. They are omnivores, so they'll eat both plants and meat, but I wouldn't suggest just dropping chunks of meat into the water every day. Instead, grow the foundation of the reef with the above, and that will not only provide them with plenty of nutrients, but will also maintain and strengthen the integrity of your reef system as a whole.
For the snails - depends on which ones you have, but they too are scavengers and will thrive off various algae. You can purchase cultured-algae and also to grow your own quickly, place flat stones in a shallow container of saltwater (from your tank) and place it in a window that gets at least 6 hours of direct sunlight. Algae will grow rapidly on the rocks and provide cheap and easy fresh buffets for the snails in-between their glass surfing. Just take them out and place them on the sandbed to be picked clean. Collect about 5-6 flat stones so that you can always have some in the container culturing and some in the tank.
When it comes to the coral banded shrimp - They are more specialized cleaners and have a bit of a more refined pallet. They generally clean off dead tissues, parasites and algae from larger animals and shells. While they will surely pick off meat added into the tank, you'd fare much better with mature live rock rich in life, and the flat rocks with algae. These are ones which really come in handy once the reef has truly been established and is teaming with life.
thanks for the tips, the algae growing in sunlight is a cool idea, ive got 30 pounds of live rock in the tank, i do believe live rock is thriving quite well in the tank, i can see a growth difference from week to week, so the coral banded shrimp should be able to find food in there, as for other food sourse i do have frozen food, tubifex worms, ocean plankton, squid, and mega tropical(a little bit of everything), would all of these be good for feeding my new guys?
I agree with Water_baby also how old is the tank and do you have live rock and if so how much and how big is your tank?
mr.reef24
mr.reef24
the tank is a 90G and its been up and running with lights, filter and rock for a month. and i have 30 pounds live rock and 80 pounds base rock
As long as you have lights running on your tank...most of those things should be fine. I would try and target feed your coral banded though. Mysis.
just mysis no other options.im only asking cuz i have this stuff right now.tubifex worms, ocean plankton, squid, and mega tropical(a little bit of everything), if none of these will work thats fine, ill just have to go get some mysis
No to be honest all of those should work...just watch your portions, no need to over pollute your tank.
no im worried about over feeding, i hate dealing with ammonia and nitrites and nitrates, so im careful. and i wouldnt feed all of those the same day, just one type of food a day. i went out and bought mysis shrimp just cuz you said i should have it lol. ive got quite the buffet now . thanks for your info