Most of the crew here feed everyother day. I feed everyother day and about every two weeks I'll skip a scheduled feeding. The polys and rope are more active on a feeding schedule like this seems counter intuitive but seems to work for me.
How fat is too fat?
- Thread starter Steve_C
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I presume she is passing everything fine and not acting weird? If she is acting normal, then I think you might just want to cut down on the feeding (IMO, I don't have much personal experience with bichirs aside from holding onto one for a friend when his house caught fire)
Now that's a story that we want to hear.
Anyway, fatty liver is a real and common killer of fish. It's especially common in zoos apparently since they have to use disproportionate amounts of food to make sure everybody gets fed. I know my poly's eat the most in my tank so I sprinkle the food along the whole length so they can't gobble down as much at a time. Feeding midwater for my knives and gourami also reduces the amount the polys can gobble down
Edit: A link to fatty liver: http://www.saltwatersmarts.com/fatty-liver-disease-captive-marine-fishes-4836/
Yeah she is fine far as passing everything and she's very active. Tank isn't really overfeed or anything at all, it's just that she loves to eat and when I put food in she will fly all around the tank grabbing everything she can find. I'd say she grabs twice as much food in the same amount of time it takes the rest of the crew to grab what they do.
I've thought about cutting back feeding to every other day but there's other fish that are "normal" size like my ornate, datnoid, geos and sens and I don't want to have them start to become underfeed. I might try doing two fasting days a week rather than one and see if that does anything at all perhaps.
I've thought about cutting back feeding to every other day but there's other fish that are "normal" size like my ornate, datnoid, geos and sens and I don't want to have them start to become underfeed. I might try doing two fasting days a week rather than one and see if that does anything at all perhaps.
Could she have parasites that makes her really hungry? I think feeding her on her own would be better to make sure she only gets a certain amount, or feed very slowly so she can't reach the other foods?
If parasites are involved I doubt the fish would get so big in a captive setting, and catching a fish to make it eat may well put the appetite off.
Do you have another tank you could put her in where she’s the only bottom dweller? That would be an easy solution as to her weight problem because then you could control her food intake without having to worry about anyone else going hungry.
I doubt it's anything like parasites. I believe she just loves food lol. I've had her for a year and I know the guy that owns the shop I bought her from and he told me when I bought her that shes doesn't miss any meals. She's always been a big girl, just seems lately she's a tad bigger than when I got her.
Don't really want to have to remove her from the tank because she's my first poly I ever bought and that tank was set up for her originally. She gets along great with the other fish in the tank and doesn't even bother the smaller sens so I'm not really too keen on taking her out for any amount of time and chance messing up the "mood" of the tank unless it becomes a necessity to do so for her health.
Don't really want to have to remove her from the tank because she's my first poly I ever bought and that tank was set up for her originally. She gets along great with the other fish in the tank and doesn't even bother the smaller sens so I'm not really too keen on taking her out for any amount of time and chance messing up the "mood" of the tank unless it becomes a necessity to do so for her health.
Yep, what these guys are mentioning. The vast majority of the experienced poly owners here, UJ and LJ feed every other day unless they have babies.
I feel that most fish benefit from an every other day feeding, no matter what the species. It can also help with keeping your tank water easier to maintain - bonus!
Okay thanks, I'll switch that tank over to an every other day schedule then and see how that goes.
