How Frequently Should Brackish Fish Be Fed?

[Dave Legacy]

I just got my hands on the "Aqualog Special: Brackish Water Fishes" book and I was noticing that it says that brackish fish should be fed very frequently in comparison to freshwater fish. Seems that they should be fed at least two times a day and maybe in large quantities. Is this accurate? I used to feed my archers once a day on a daily basis. After my wife started up with puffers I got into the habit of fasting and feeding only every other day in fear that I might be over feeding.

Now I feed four 2.5" T. Jaculatrix a cube of bloodworms, or mysis, every other night or make sure they get a cricket or 2 each.

Am I not feeding enough? How much are you guys feeding your fish? I MUST KNOW!!

Thanks,
Dave

 

[Dragonscales]

Personally I think that book is being a little too general in it's application to ALL brackish fish. Feeding should be at a rate according to species, not enviroment.

A good general rule of thumb to keep in mind is that the more active the fish, the more frequent it will need food. This isn't to say the fish needs large quantities either though, just that it's meal should be split up into several smaller ones (in most cases anyhow. Again, the amount of food is species related too in alot of cases).

As for your puffers, I personally wouldn't know as they are illegal to keep over here and I try not to delve too deep into them as I would kill for a few and it's just a tease

I'm sure someone else can help you out in regards to them though

 

[nmonks]

Dave,

It depends on the species. The critical factor to remember with brackish water fish is that are "jacks of all trade, but masters of none". If you think about why fish are adapted to either fresh or salt water, it's because they can become super-efficient at living in just that medium, leaving energy and resources for other things like growth and reproduction.

Brackish water fish have to maintain two "sets" pf physiologies, one for freshwater, and one for salt, and at any one time they may need to run both at once (i.e., in brackish water). The upshot is that they cannot specialise for one set of water conditions, and they have to carry a lot of anatomical "overhead" relative to purely freshwater or marine species.

This is one reason brackish water fish do not -- in nature at least -- exist in either purely freshwater or marine habitats. Blackchin tilapia, for example, don't occur in freshwater, even though they can live and reproduce happily in freshwater conditions. While they are "adequate" freshwater fish, "specialised" freshwater tilapia simply outcompete them. Conversely, while monos do well in marine conditions, they are only really common in places with variable salinity or some other non-standard factor, like high levels of pollution or silt. In the nice stable marine environments like coral reefs they are outcomepeted by things like pompanos and pomfrets that have the same body shape and feeding mode but have a purely marine physiology.

So, brackish water fish trade efficiency for versatility. This explains their greediness and willingness to eat most types of food. This is also why they need more food per unit mass than a purely freshwater or marine fish. I'd suggest feeding once a day is too infrequent, and would propose feeding at least daily. "Fasting" fish makes sense with top predators like big catfish or garpike, but not really with animals adapted to eat numerous relatively small morsels, such as archerfish.

I personally prefer to feed my fish frequently but not to the point where they are completely full. I feel this helps to acclimate them to me personally, so they get used to me as the feeder and they do all that fun "begging for food" thing. This is useful with skittish species I have at the moment, like halfbeaks, hatchetfish, and glassfish.

Cheers,

Neale