Effects of feeding too much on tank water quality

[RD.]

I have been discussing total digestibility, feed conversion ratios, and the typical result of overfeeding fish, for decades. lol

 

[Nilsafeller]

So take my scenario... have a giant red tail gourami.. I feed once a day the whole tank... but when I do that the gourami eats all the plants and eats algae off glass throughout the day... not a big deal but if I feed twice a day he doesnt destroy the plants as much

 

[RD.]

So take my scenario... have a giant red tail gourami.. I feed once a day the whole tank... but when I do that the gourami eats all the plants and eats algae off glass throughout the day... not a big deal but if I feed twice a day he doesnt destroy the plants as much

A common scenario in community settings, where the feeding and/or dietary needs of one group of fish, doesn't match another. In nature these fish don't typically feed side by side, so sometimes in a glass box we can't always create a perfect scenario. My advice, feed the GG a lower nutrient dense food, lower protein. lower fat, more algae based, on the surface, while those fish feeding at a lower level in the tank can consume what you typically feed, once a day.

 

[RD.]

This is from a past discussion that another member posted about his poly that was eating too much, in his mixed tank.

No worries Steve, I know exactly where this all came from. Methinks you are more easily offended than you let on. Either way, feel free to ignore, or not, it certainly won't be affecting me.



All excess calories have the potential to be converted to fat, but typically in fish food a fatty liver condition is caused by excess crude fat. As an example, someone feeding trout chow to a cichlid, as most trout chow has a higher protein level, and much higher lipid levels. That's why I asked what the crude protein, and crude fat levels are in Steve's food. (not fiber) Years ago there was a paper written on this exact thing by Ruth Francis-Floyd et al, at the University of Florida where trout chow was fed to African cichlids, including a carnivorous species, and even the short term results from this 12 week study were alarming.

Also from this paper;

"Fatty infiltration of the liver has also been designated "the most common metabolic disturbance and most frequent cause of death in aquarium fish"

"With prolonged feeding of a high-energy, lipid rich diet, degenerative changes of the liver and death can occur unless the diet is corrected."

This study came about after some cichlid farms in south FL suffered from some large mortalities in both 1998 & 1999. When the dead fish were examined they showed fatty infiltration of the liver, heavy vacuolation, and severe necrosis of the liver, pancreas, and spleen.

It was suggested to the farms that they replace their feeds with one that had a lower lipid content (less than 10%) and supplement the feed with a vitamin premix. Clinical signs in the affected farms were resolved after implementation of these recommendations.


And yes, one can purchase lower protein/fat food, but honestly it sounds to me like this fish is simply a very aggressive eater in the tank and fish that it is currently cohabitating in. If target feeding becomes an option, I would personally feed gel food to this fish, as it mostly consists of water. That might help get things under control.

 

[RD.]

Key words - all excess calories have the potential to be converted to fat.

It's impossible not to discuss raw ingredients, and/or guaranteed analysis, in a formula, when discussing food, and/or feeding. What's IN the food will generally determine how MUCH one should be feeding. That, and the energy level of the fish, and approx. how many calories each fish typically burns up in a day. Whether ones fish lays there like a log all day, or zooms around like the energizer bunny, will also determine "how much" one should be feeding.

 

[RD.]

My friends GG was mostly raised on algae wafers (on the surface), with the carnivorous species fed below, on food designed more for carnivores/omnivores. This mix seemed to work well, with none of the various species consuming excessive calories, and becoming obese.

 

[Rocksor]

Whether it's uneaten food rotting in a corner, through over feeding, or eaten food coming out of the fish as poop, which one is more damaging, who knows, seems like the lesser of two evils to me. We know what happens to the water quality as a result of either one, or both. And our superhero water changes save the day, for a short period anyway, until we have to do it all again.

A point i'd like to make about feeding. When people go on vacation and they say they haven't fed their fish for the whole duration, no automatic feeders or neighbours popping in. How many of those people make a thread about how they didn't feed their fish for a week, 10 days, a fortnight, whatever it is, and say they went on holiday, came back and all the fish were dead. They looked really skinny, they must have starved to death? I've never seen any threads regarding this.

Threads about how people went on holiday and came back to all their fish being fine? Plenty of threads on this. This tells me hell of a lot. Fish simply don't need as much food as we think they need. Yes, they beg, and we unfortunately deliver. Most of us feed once per day and maybe miss a day or two, as I do. What's to say that our fish won't be fine if we only fed twice a week, or once a week?

Water quality certainly wouldn't go downhill as fast.

To expand on this. If I feed my adult fish 3-4 times a week, I have to do 2-3 water changes a week to keep my nitrates below 20ppm (tap has close to 5ppm nitrates). This includes substrate vacuuming. If I wait until the 7th day to change the same amount of water, the color on the nitrate test is a dark orange past 20ppm, maybe on the order of 20-30ppm. After coming back from vacation for 1 week (fish are fed the day i left), nitrates are still between 10-20ppm and a much lighter shade of orange. So feeding more often, and amount of decomposition of waste during a week the does affect water quality.

 

[skjl47]

Threads about how people went on holiday and came back to all their fish being fine? Plenty of threads on this. This tells me hell of a lot. Fish simply don't need as much food as we think they need.

Hello; I do not travel so much any more but back in the years this was my experience. After a few days away I would come home to fihs in good shape and tanks that looked good.

 

[jaws7777]

This is from a past discussion that another member posted about his poly that was eating too much, in his mixed tank.

Can you link us to the entire thread ?

 

[fishhead0103666]

If you click on the area where it says "RD. said" then it will take you to the original post.

How fat is too fat?

One of my dels is "blue", she's a big girl, but has a nice personality :naughty: All kidding a side, she's always been thick which I've heard is normal for a CB del, but she's got even bigger now in the year that I have had her. So I'm starting to wonder, is there a point where a poly is "too...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com