Feeding my new friends

Well....

My 80 gal has some of it's first residents: 5 shore crabs, and oyster, some mussels, scads of barnacles and 2 starfish. How to feed them? The crabs are simple enough, but the star fish are harder. Most of the time all I can see is a square inch of starfish though the rocks. How do I get food to them?

How is the best to feed all my filter feeders? I was think of just turning the filter off for a bit and adding some pulverized fish flakes and stirring them around with a powerhead? oysters and barnacles are not picky eaters

What kind of starfish do you have? Their diet depends on the species. Crabs will eat just about anything in my experience.

Now all of your filter feeders will probably eat the same thing. I wouldn't do flakes. You might have some luck in buying food meant for tropical filter feeders and feed them that.

Yeah i would have to say Coral Frenzy and true Cyclop-eeze would be a great combo.

As long as its accessible. Is there a DIY solution?

I now that I see them, I would like to see the barnacles proliferate. I don't think that would be too hard. I often see them mating.

I have an ocher seastar, and another one that I don't know (green-grey, slender arms. They are very common. I myself have wound in many seastars while fishing the bottom with bait. Everything seems to eat scallop too and shrimp too. They seem to sit tucked away for a long time, then move a bit and stay again. I will target feed them when they are active.

It looks like I have to wait a long time for a VERY low tide. That is when you get the best stuff! I think anemones only live at the lowest end of the inter-tidal zone. No?

BARNACLES will not eat fish flake? Hermit crabs? I'm pretty sure a lot of things in a tank will eat these things. I should ask the people at the Vancouver Aquarium.

I was thinking I could try running frozen seafood through the grater blade of my food processor.

some commercially prepared foods are accepted by such small organisms.

Take a look at some of Jons experiences, http://www.jonolavsakvarium.com/blog/200902/blog200902.html, as well as where he talks a little bit about barnacles, http://www.jonolavsakvarium.com/blog/200809/blog200809.html and then Steve talks about feeding his tank here http://www.oregonreef.com/sub_coldwater.htm.

Hopefully that should help!

Thanks !

I like the barnacles in the skimmer, but your first and last links are broken. hehehe

Oh. They weren't before. Weird. Well you can just go to Oregon Reef to find out what his feeding was and I think the first like was for the 2009 month of February?