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EDITORIAL
by TERRY SIEGEL
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couple of days ago I received a phone call from my sister in law
concerning the death of her fighting fish (Betta
splendens). She explained to me that her fish, which she had
only for a week, developed cottony stuff on its body, torn fins,
and that it turned a pale color before it died. After some questions
from me I found that she kept the fish in a small bowl, and that
she made sure to feed it every day. She was clearly upset, and
wanted know why her fish died. I’m aware of the fact that many
people keep Siamese fighting fish in small bowls for years, but
those people know how easy it is to pollute a small bowl by overfeeding,
and act accordingly. It is my educated guess that my sister in
law overfed the fish to the point where the water in the small
container became toxic due to decaying food. I’m not interested
here in discussing the ethics of keeping Bettas
in small containers or even discussing stores that sell Bettas
to the general public, without providing information about how
to keep the animal healthy. However, the phone call got me to
thinking about how we feed our animals in our reef tanks, and
I began to wonder what governs our feeding regiment.
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Some
of the editor’s hungry fish. |
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To put it another
way, is the quantity we feed determined by our desire to feed our guests
because it’s satisfying to us, or to keep our aquatic guests healthy?
Most experienced reef keepers know that for a reef tank to be successful
it is necessary to maintain a balance between the produces and consumers
of metabolic waste. Toward this end we use protein skimmers, live rock,
sand beds, water changes, and lately macroalgae refugiums. Even with
all of this, if we have too many fish, or feed too much, orthophosphate
and nitrate levels begin to rise beyond those levels found on a wild
reef, and may even rise to the point where our corals begin to suffer,
and nuisance algae begins to flourish.
I
must confess that I love to feed my fish, and in general I try to feed
enough so that the most undernourished fish gets enough to eat. Even
though mine is a 10-foot tank, I have a lot of large hungry fish, and
consequently have had my own battles with nutrient buildup. There are
limits to how much waste removal even the devices – and I use them all
– listed above can have. It is clear to me that feeding is a problem,
and that the reef keepers who are very careful not to over feed have
the least problems.
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One
thing that I have done, and recommend to others, is to skip feeding
one day a week, then another day, and it may be that eventually you
will discover that you can feed your guests every other day without
any suffering from malnutrition. Of course, it is important to
carefully observe your fish to be sure that none are suffering. The
bottom line is that I suspect that our fish need less food then we
think to remain healthy.
For our first issue of the
New Year we have a new Beginner’s columnist. J. Warrick
professionally setups and maintains aquariums and ponds of all types.
In his first column, entitled Advanced
Beginnings, he discusses the considerations involved purchasing
one’s first reef tank. Welcome aboard, J. Warrick.
Also
in this issue we use some videos for the first time. There are several
video clips in the Featured Aquarium. Please be aware that if you are
using a dial up modem viewing these video may be time consuming to
download. |
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Copyright 2003 Advanced Aquarist's Online
Magazine |
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