You've poured over Blog posts, forum posts, books and online articles researching your setup and how you're going to go about the task of setting up a marine aquarium. You've been to your local fish shop a few times now and you've got a fish list in your head. You may even have decided on THE fish and are getting it bagged up ready to go home. But wait. What do they eat? You've spent all this time researching the setup and observing the fish in the shop, you want your new fishy companions to get what's best for them. I know, this was my exact situation when I picked up my first fish. What they eat was a complete oversight on my part.. but fear not, by the end of this blog you'll be a fish food connoisseur!
Let's get straight into it, there are a few broad categories of fish food. These are;
Dry Food
Dry food covers a few sub types, these are the likes of pellet, flake, press on and seaweed/nori (left to right in the images below). Dry food is arguably the most convenient option when it comes to feeding your fish. It doesn't need to be kept in a fridge or freezer, they're quite simple to use and they don't make a mess. Pellets are developed to be a blend of ingredients, mostly proteins, that offer a high nutritional content to your fish. They are designed to slowly sink which gives fish at all depths of the tank the opportunity to grab some. Flake food is mostly the same content but pressed into thin flakes instead of pellets. This means when you drop some in the water they will float about more, take on water and generally break up a bit. The benefit of flake over pellet is if you have really small fish that can't take the smallest size of pellet then you can feed some crushed up flake which small fish will more likely be able to take. There are often two types of pellet and flake and that is marine or algae. Marine pellets and flake are comprised of more meaty ingredients whilst algae pellets and flake are made from more plant and algae based ingredients which will be more suitable for herbivores like Tangs.
Press on shots are sort of newer to the hobby. They are often made of the same type of ingredients as flake and pellet but are formed into small balls that are slightly sticky/tacky. The idea of press on shots is that you push them onto the glass below the water line so that stick there and fish will come up and take pieces of them off. The benefit to this is the food is less likely to get blown under rocks or into dead spots where it will break down thus polluting the tank somewhat. There are different flavours/types of press on shots which are based around the ingredients used. You can get Copepod press-ons, Algae press-ons or Marine press-ons plus others. Each type has a time and a place depending on what else you might be feeding into the system and what fish you have. There's little point feeding lots of herbivore food into a tank of predator fish.
The other type of dry food is Seaweed or Nori. This is just dried out seaweed often pressed into sheets (similar to what is used in sushi). This is great for grazing herbivores who naturally cruise the reef looking for algae to graze on. In the case of herbivores, particularly large Tangs, Seaweed/Nori is often the best way to deliver the algae needed for a healthy diet and there is often a noticeable difference in fish that are fed good Seaweed/Nori and those who aren't. If you decide to feed Seaweed/Nori you'll need a Seaweed clip to clip in strips of Seaweed in the tank so that grazing fish can swim over and graze on it throughout the day.
Live Food
Live food is food that is alive, it's mostly small invertebrates like Mysis, Brine and Copepods but also includes Phytoplankton. The inverts often come in small pre sealed bags which are kept in the fridge. They are kept in the fridge because it slows the metabolism of the critters so keeps them alive for longer, if they perish in the pre sealed bag then they could pollute the water in the bag causing more to die which then results in a bag of rancid water. So, keep them in the fridge! Phytoplankton is much the same except it's cultivated in the shop and bottled as and when it's needed. You can then take the bottle and keep it in the fridge to keep it longer. Fresh phytoplankton shouldn't have an odour however phytoplankton that is going bad will have an odour, usually eggy. The exception to the live food in the fridge rule is River Shrimp. These need to be kept in water with an air stone at a minimum. River Shrimp are kept to feed predators such as Lionfish, Frogfish etc. Live Mysis Shrimp are a great option for live foods, they have a good nutritional content and are readily accepted by pretty much all fish and critters. Brine Shrimp are the other shrimp option, they have a lower nutritional content but are sometimes accepted by other fish that aren't keen on Mysis. The way to make Brine Shrimp more beneficial is to 'pre load' them. This is when you keep the shrimp separately and feed them the likes of Spirulina. Their stomachs will be full of spirulina so when they are the fed to the reef tank the fish will get both the Brine and what's in the shrimp's stomach. This is why you often see 'Brine Shrimp with Spirulina' or 'Enriched Brine Shrimp' when you buy Brine frozen (sometimes live) so you know that these Shrimp will have a higher nutritional content based off what's in their stomach. The other two live options left to discuss are Copepods and Phytoplankton. Now my view on these are more of a 'food web builder' rather than a direct fish feeder because when you add shrimp to the tank the fish will rapidly consume nearly all of them straight away whereas Copepods may cause a bit of a fish feeding frenzy at first but they wont all be consumed. Instead the Copepods will then make their way into and around the rock work to live on and reproduce thus creating a longer term food source for the tank and Amphipods, hence 'food web builder'. It's worth noting that this isn't a one shot kind of thing though, fish will pick at copepods on the rockwork over time, some more than others (Mandarins, Wrasse, Copperbands etc) so it's worth replenishing live Copepods every now and then. The other 'food web builder' in my mind is Phytoplankton, this isn't quite the same as Copepods because Phyto isn't really going to cause a feeding frenzy but it is a big food web builder. It is essentially the base of the food food web so it supports everything above it and linked to it. In my experience I think live Phyto was one of, if not, the deciding factor when beating dinoflagellates in my reef tank but that's another blog post for another day. Phyto also directly feeds some filter feeders such as clams, sponges and some corals.
What are the benefits of Live Food though I hear you say? Nothing beats fresh food and you can't get much fresher than alive. Plus Live Food if it's not eaten will simply swim or scuttle away to live in the reef tank until its eaten so it won't pollute the tank in the same way as other food that will break down. The third benefit of Live Food is that I think it's enriching for your fish. Being fed pellets or frozen food is fine but chasing down some live food every now and then like they might do in the wild is mentally stimulating and enriching for the fish, or at least I think it is.
Frozen Food
Frozen food tries to keep the benefits of Live Food but with an extended shelf life plus as a general category it also includes more obscure foods that are beneficial to your fish and critters such as Mussel, Krill, Lance fish (for predators), Lobster eggs, Fish eggs, Calanus, Cockle, Squid and many many more. The main ones are Mysis and Brine Shrimp which we've already covered. The other really good foods are Calanus which are a type of Copepod and eaten by filter feeders, coral, fish and critters so it makes for a really good occasional addition to your system. I include it once a week as part of a 'flood feed' which is when you make a mix of different foods including particulates and liquid foods mixed in together to form a slurry of sorts which is then dumped in the tank. The intention is that it creates a feed for everything from the fish, the coral, the critters and everything in between. Lobster or Fish Eggs are another great food for picky eaters or fish that need to put some weight on seeing as eggs are full of fats and nutrition. Cockle and Mussel are also great foods for bigger fish and predators such as Pufferfish, Lionfish, Triggerfish etc.
The main thing to remember with frozen foods is that they need to be defrosted before being fed to the tank, you can do this by using a defroster like the AquaMedic one. Essentially you put tank water in the main tub and the frozen food in the sieve. You place the sieve in the water and let it defrost. When it has defrosted you lift the sieve out of the water and let the dirty water drain off, you're then able to add the defrosted food to the tank. Alternatively you can defrost the food in the Aquarium but be aware that this will likely raise your phosphates somewhat and may add some pollutants, depending on how the food was frozen by the supplier. The other option is to use something like Reef Feast which is a slab of mixed frozen foods which can be added straight to the reef tank without the need to defrost separately. Simply break a chunk off the slab and pop it in the tank. The Reef Feast is very meaty however there is a veggie option for the herbivores and grazing fish like Tangs called Veggie Feast.
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Liquid Food
Liquid foods almost exclusively contain foods that are small enough to be poured from a bottle. So this really only includes the likes of Copepods and some other small zooplankton. There are some options out there that are more like a pulverised blend of foods to create a liquid but then that's moving into the coral foods realm which is a different blog post all together. Liquid foods then are probably most beneficial to filter feeders such as Clams, Sponges, Gorgonians and some coral. They will also often need storing in the fridge when opened to prevent it from going foul but other than that they are easy to use and keep and can be a good addition to a well rounded healthy reef tank feeding regime.
Enrichments
Enrichments are just additives you can add to the food in order to give it a bit of a nutritional boost like amino acids or vitamins which can help build a strong immune system. A fair few processed foods are enriched anyway so its worth having a look at the packaging of the food your interested in to see what's in it. Garlic Oil is another popular enrichment often added to food. It is thought to help fish beat Ich or White Spot. Whether it directly helps combat fish disease or just encourages fish to eat thus helping them to build strength and their immune system as a result is up for debate but you will find a fair bit of food enriched with garlic in the trade.
What to feed?
Check this blog out on specific food options for fish types 'Food Glorious Food!'
Essentially your want to be feeding a healthy balanced and well rounded diet. Try to incorporate different food types and mix it up every now and then. Pellets make for a good foundation with Frozen Mysis or Brine separately. You could then add Live food once a week as a treat or some Calanus or Copepods. You could dose Phytoplankton every other day or once a week depending on the aquarium size and stocking density. Then of course any special fish you might have such as Eels, Lionfish, Copperbands, Mandarins etc that require extra care and attention or specific food will need to be fed that food but there will still always be options to mix it up a little bit.
Have a browse on the website here at all the food options available or better yet pop into the shop and have a look at it on the shelf and see what the team are feeding to the system. The team are always happy to help talk through all the options as well so if you can, pop down and have a look and a chat!