Increasing Feeding for Anthias?

[FishyReef]

After a lot of debate and research I finally decided to add a trio of lyretail anthias to my tank - 2 females, 1 male. All are settling in nicely and are healthy, even the females who are on the small side (probably not quite 2"). Up to now I've fed 1 cube of frozen every other day (on occasion 2 cubes), and nori sheets 3x per week. With the anthias I know I need to up feedings to twice a day, though have heard that once healthy and settled lyretails will do okay with once a day (can anyone confirm this for me?). Anyhow, I'm wondering how best to up my feeding schedule without shocking my tank from the increased bioload? Yesterday I fed 2 cubes of frozen in the morning and a large sheet of nori in the afternoon. My poor tang looked like she was gonna pop from eating so much!

 

[d2mini]

I think if you feed what your fish can consume (small amounts) it shouldn't add much to the tank. I used to broadcast feed the tank a small chunk of rods food every night. Now that I added anthias, i add an extra feeding when i first get home from work of some flake or pellets. I add small amounts at a time, trying to make sure everybody gets some but not so much that the majority is falling to the ground.

 

[little_fish]

I would just split what you would normally feed everyother day into the 4 feeding that you want to happen in those two days. You arent adding more food, just spacing it out better so that the anthia get a more constant stream of food.

Also, i would think you could cut down once they get bigger

 

[FishyReef]

Thanks guys, this is helpful! I do need to increase the overall amount I'm feeding just because of the number of fish I have, but knowing I don't need to double or quadruple the feeding is much more rational! Should be interesting to see how this works (or doesn't) - so far the bigger fish are outcompeting the females for food. Hopefully with time they will settle down.

In (potentially) sad news, the male is MIA today. Of the fish I added, he was the largest (3 1/2+ inches) and settled right in with the rest of the tank - holding his own against my other fish and readily eating. I have no idea what happened because he looked very healthy and other than a few chasing or nipping instances from the wrasses or tang was otherwise pretty much ignored. Checked the HOB overflow, sump, filter sock, and all around the tank and don't see him, so I don't think he jumped. Checked behind the rock work with a mirror and no sign of him there either. I was very surprised he didn't come out since he has been out swimming pretty much since I added him on Friday. Fingers crossed something spooked him and he's just holed up somewhere but I am not optomistic.

 

[FishyReef]

I found him! He was stuck - and I do mean stuck - between a rock near the top of my tank and the glass. He somehow wedged himself back there and couldn't back up enough to get unstuck. I had to pry the rock forward just a nudge so he could swim out. Broke my monti cap (which has been growing up the glass) in the process but no biggie there, it will heal in no time. More worried about how much of the epoxy I disturbed, but things still feel pretty solid. I might stick some more in the places where the rock is resting on other rocks just to be safe. Anyhow, the poor lyretail is very scraped up on the side that was against the rocks, but is otherwise out and about and pigged out on dinner. I'm very glad he's okay and as healthy as he is so that his scrapes can heal up. Silly fish!

 

[AmberSunrise]

I feed mine same as I feed all my fish, he thinks he is starving but he has been in there for months just fine. He wont touch pellets or seaweed so he just gets to eat at dinner time