Interesting read for those who feed fish multiple times a day

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Question: My fish fast for days at a time during the week (due to my schedule) and get small frequent feedings over the weekends. I've notice some of my fish purge waste at feeding time. What are the long term negative effects (if any) of a fast and purge metabolism where the fish purge while feeding then fast, then repeat?
I'm sure part of it results from an inconsistent feeding schedule but it seems that, for the most part, I feed according to the recommendations of the OP. Anyone else notice the same? Is ot something I should look to change?

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I have an interesting DVD by Willem Heijns filmed in the great lakes of Nicaragua. In it, wild managuense are shown feeding (with no small effort), they miss prey 9 times out of 10. In our tanks, fish hardly ever miss anything. Especially when it comes to predators, I believe many of the diseases we are seeing in our tanks, may be due to a bit too much love on we aquarists part.
And as with many of the other fish, that normally live on detritus, or algae, we kill them with excess protein kindness. I try to miss a day of feeding every 3 days or so.
 
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I agree with the above posters very useful information here. My biggest question is how do you know when your fish are mature/large enough to where they should be cut back to say once a day or once every couple day feedings? I think most people see full grown as the biggest size they will get? So for example if I am growing out a male jag would I wait until he hits 16" to cut back on food or should I start much earlier than that? I think most new fish keepers(not new, but including myself) have the mentality sometimes of more food= bigger faster growing fish, which isn't the case.
 
The only reason I don't use floating pellets is because they get sucked into my overflow, which leads to me having to clean the wet-dry floss out more frequently. Plus, my geos refuse to eat from the top of the tank. The only ones who'll eat from the surface are my psittacus and my pike cichlid.

It's interesting that we've discussed wild vs. tank-raised fish because my experience is that they'll all gorge themselves, not just tank-bred fish. About 50% of the cichlids I have are wild and they are big eaters from day one. They'd probably eat the same way in the wild if food were as abundant as it is in a tank. It's like when I used to go to the lake as a kid and dipnet for mosquitofish -- toss in a handful of bread and watch them all go crazy. ;)
 
In the wild, any time an opportunity is presented, it must be taken, there may not be another meal for few days, or a few weeks. That survival need does not change in a tank, but at least we can control the negatives of overabundance in captivity.
 
Very interesting . I've never had a small fish die of over feeding and I always feed my juvies twice day but small portions . As they grow larger ill feed less and gradully get to one large feeding .

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Well I'm really bad then I feed twice a day everyday I'm guna start cutting back.
 
Bumping an old thread for anyone that missed it first time around.........
 
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