Changing water & testing

[Tifftastic]

How many times per day to feed, my lil buddies seem hungry all the time. I've been feeding Tetramin flakes two times per day.

Think about your fish more like dogs than cats. They will beg because they know you have food and will easily over eat. Not like a cat that will portion its food and (generally) only eat what it needs. IMO, you're over feeding. I would cut back to once a day, or even every other day until the tank is cycled.

 

[Betts Baby]

Think about your fish more like dogs than cats. They will beg because they know you have food and will easily over eat. Not like a cat that will portion its food and (generally) only eat what it needs. IMO, you're over feeding. I would cut back to once a day, or even every other day until the tank is cycled.

Yep over feeding will cut back. You're the bestest!

 

[Duckie]

Yep over feeding will cut back. You're the bestest!

You can still overfeed if you feed once a day or every other day. It matters more how much you feed than how often. Obviously the more often you feed the less each time to give them. Fish eat amazingly little compared to how big they are body wise.

 

[Tifftastic]

You can still overfeed if you feed once a day or every other day. It matters more how much you feed than how often. Obviously the more often you feed the less each time to give them. Fish eat amazingly little compared to how big they are body wise.

Very true. I think I read somewhere that a fish's stomach is roughly the size of its its eye. New keepers are more likely to be giving large amounts of food, which is why I am quick to tell them to feed every other day. The amount of people I trained to feed the fish at the store that resulted in crazy amounts of food on the bottom of the tanks, a snail explosion, and too much gravel vacuuming has made me assume everyone new to the hobby overfeeds.

I would suggest feeding about a quarter of what you would think they need and watch them eat. If there is no food that falls to the bottom and the fish are acting like they are still looking for food, then give them about half of the amount you gave the first time.

 

[Duckie]

Very true. I think I read somewhere that a fish's stomach is roughly the size of its its eye.

That is not true, not as a general "fact" across the board for every fish. Volume wise fish need to eat more in the wild compared to in an aquarium as it is necessary to spend time and energy to hunt down and find the food in the first place. It is a good starting place to somewhat gauge how little prepared food fish need. Usually fish food is more dense calorie wise than wild food.

How much candy can you eat that will fit in your stomach. See how fast you gain weight when replacing all normal food with same volume of high calorie dense food like candy. Similar with fish when I look at it.

 

[Tifftastic]

Makes perfect sense to me. Stomach size and digestion are going to, obviously, vary with species as those that are adapted to grazing on algae, eating readily available insects, or piscivorous fish will all have variations in digestive anatomy. Feeding a tank with a variety of species should be so much more complicated than we make it.

It seems to me like we have, say, a bunch of seed eating small finches, a fruit/nut eating parrot, a group of larger seed eating finches, a group of insectivorous swallows, and a random crow and we toss them all a mix of pelleted "bird food" and expect them all to eat the same thing, at the same rate and the same amount:weight ratio. It just doesn't make sense to apply a general rule of "this is exactly how much/how often" to feed these animals.

I think the best way to determine overfeeding is by how much food is remaining un-eaten, the body condition of the fish, and how quickly nitrate levels rise. Not a single one of those factors can be used alone, but all can be used together to determine if you need to cut back on feeding.

 

[Duckie]

Variety is also important, IMO. Some feed different food type at different times of day or week. I personally feed the same every time - but it is still a variety. My FW tank gets flakes, small floating pellets and shrimp pellets each time. Sometimes they get a treat of frozen brine shrimp or bloodworms maybe once or twice a week. My SW tanks always get frozen mysis, brine, bloodworms, and flakes. The same fish usually go get their favourite food first - and preferences differ.

 

[Betts Baby]

Very true. I think I read somewhere that a fish's stomach is roughly the size of its its eye. New keepers are more likely to be giving large amounts of food, which is why I am quick to tell them to feed every other day. The amount of people I trained to feed the fish at the store that resulted in crazy amounts of food on the bottom of the tanks, a snail explosion, and too much gravel vacuuming has made me assume everyone new to the hobby overfeeds.

I would suggest feeding about a quarter of what you would think they need and watch them eat. If there is no food that falls to the bottom and the fish are acting like they are still looking for food, then give them about half of the amount you gave the first time.

Thanks for the 411 Duckie & Tiff