12 hour work/feeding schedule

Bobby2415

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Aug 12, 2019
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I work 12 hour shifts for my job (6am - 6pm) and am trying to figure out the best lighting/feeding schedule for my fish. My fish are all Central American cichlid grow outs, ranging from 3” - 6”. Evening feeding isn’t a problem, I just feed when I get home. The morning is the problem. I try to be out of the house by 5:15 am, which of course it’s still dark out and the fish still seem to be sleeping (or at least not active yet). I would think to turn the light on and feed them but I also don’t want to freak them out by going from basically pitch black to bright LED lights. Also, they don’t even seem too interested in food yet at that point. Any ideas on the best way to approach this? Would it be better to just feed once a day?

Also, the schedule I work is 2 on, 2 off, 3 on, 2 off, 2 on, 3 off...repeat. So I do have plenty of off days to try to do a more regular schedule. Any input is appreciated
 

duanes

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I don't feed many adult centrals every day. (juvies need more) Usually one meal every other day, or two days on, one day off with no food. I consider 2 feedings per day almost always excessive.
In nature many fish won't get a meal every day anyway, so one feeding may be enough, especially for predatory species.
With vegetarians, daily feeding may be more important, and constant grazing on algae helps (one reason why I let it grow).
As far as light goes, I always had lights on timers (sometimes two per tank).
Where one dim light would go on about an hour before I got home from work, the other one, half hour before.
In that way they were ready to feed when I got home, and times to go off were when I was generally in no position to watch them during the other part of the day..
The only time I'd have lights on for 8 or more hours is for planted tanks, and then only the hours I was home and could observe..
 
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Bobby2415

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Aug 12, 2019
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I don't feed many adult centrals every day. (juvies need more) Usually one meal every other day, or two days on, one day off with no food. I consider 2 feedings per day almost always excessive.
In nature many fish won't get a meal every day anyway, so one feeding may be enough, especially for predatory species.
With vegetarians, daily feeding may be more important, and constant grazing on algae helps (one reason why I let it grow).
As far as light goes, I always had lights on timers (sometimes two per tank).
Where one dim light would go on about an hour before I got home from work, the other one, half hour before.
In that way they were ready to feed when I got home, and times to go off were when I was generally in no position to watch them during the other part of the day..
The only time I'd have lights on for 8 or more hours is for planted tanks, and then only the hours I was home and could observe..
What you are saying is what I was hoping was going to be the case. My fish are juveniles still (JD, RD, Jaguar, Dovii) so I wasn’t sure if the one a day would be ok. So it probably wouldn’t hurt to feed only once on the days that I work. On those days, I won’t even turn the light on until I get home because there will be nobody home to view the fish all day.

Then on my off days I could feed twice and have the light on longer (for my viewing pleasure).

Right now I have my lights on from approximately 11am - 8pm (my light can’t operate on a timer). My next investment will probably be a new light.

Thanks for the reply!
 

duanes

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Once per day is probably enough, the pics I saw of yours, seem to be slightly older than juvies anyway.
At this point if you overfeed, you may need the 300 gal for the dovii very much sooner than you've planned, and a couple 100 plus gallon tanks, for all others but the JD.
 
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Bobby2415

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Once per day is probably enough, the pics I saw of yours, seem to be slightly older than juvies anyway.
At this point if you overfeed, you may need the 300 gal for the dovii very much sooner than you've planned, and a couple 100 plus gallon tanks, for all others but the JD.
Yahh I will probably start dwindling down the pack here soon. Would head to my LFS today and start that process if it wasn’t for all this Coronavirus stuff.
 
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