How often should my fish be feed while I'm gone?

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allaboutfish1996

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 29, 2012
358
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memphis tn
I'm leaving for 9 days and my grandpa will be feeding the fish. He will have preportioned bags and clear instructions my Maine problem is my 55 and 120 my jd may try to eat my rainbows in the 120 if he gets hungry and one of my bichirs may try to kill my small leopard ctenopoma if they don't eat. So how often should they be feed to avoid deaths? Also for normal fish how often should they be feed ( I don't wanna leave them without food)? I'll be doing large water changes on all tanks.
Thanks

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I generally do every other day while I'm gone, because I don't want to worry about possible water quality issues. It is hard to know if your fish might turn on each other, but I doubt it....
 
When I am away I limit my feeding to once in two days. Even the portion of the food is reduced. I've had bichirs with rather lil over the bite sized dats. Nothing happened.
 
Hello; Do a search of the topic. There have been many threads over time. One within the last two weeks that I posted on. My experience mirrors that of others in that the only time I have lost fish while away is when some non-fish keeper over fed my fish. They tend to over feed and sour the water.
Nine days is well within the fast time my fish have faced while I was away. They have doen well many times for such periods during the fifty plus years I have kept fish.

As a matter of normal practice for the last few decades I have been skipping days of feeding each week. At least two days a week I do not feed at all. This has proven to be a benefit for the water quality of my tanks and seems to be fine for the fish. My take is that fish do not need to feed like we warm bloods do. My experience is that they can fast with no ill effects. A period of no food from time to time has the added benefit in that the fish and snails, if you have them, will scour the tank for any overlooked bits of food.

I have found after several days away that my tanks look better and that the fish are fine. For the first few decades of fish keeping I did overfeed and this led to isues with my tanks that I no longer have since going to smaller feedings and regular no-feed days. Snail populations are kept in check, the water quality is better and the tanks can stay set up for much longer.
 
My grandpa knows about fish and it would be preportioned food. I know I could search but I need to know how to specifically keep my jd and bichir from trying to eat some of my other fish.

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Could you separate the fish whilst you are away?

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No unless they could go in my 30 breeder. It has
3-Bolivian rams
3-cherry barbs
4-kuhli loaches
1-clown pleco.

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Adult fish can easly go 9 days with out eating so if they are feed 3 or 4 times while your gone there will be no health issuse and your water quality remain better. As far as aggresion goes I doubt they will get hungry enough with that schedule to eat each other especially if they are pellet feed fish and not raised/feed on feeders. I don't think you'll have and issue, I can't garentee it though fish will be fish.
 
allaboutfish1996 said:
My grandpa knows about fish and it would be preportioned food. I know I could search but I need to know how to specifically keep my jd and bichir from trying to eat some of my other fish.

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Click to expand...

Hello; My take is that if the jd and bichir were to consider the other fish as food, then it would make little difference. That they have not so far eaten the others is a good sign.
Fishermen have long thought that predatory fish can be triggered to strike and that such strikes may be instinctual. I have fished with topwater fly lures and have noted that the strikes on artifical lures often happen immediately as the lure hits the water. Also that the fish will ignore the same lure if not hooked after the first strike. If the tank mates of these fish happen to swim by at some point and trigger a strike, then it may well not matter if the jd or bichir are otherwise well fed. I have watched fish well fed fish gorge them selves to the point of puking what they just ate and then start eating again. My guess is that if the jd or bichir ever decide to snack on a tankmate, that it can happen under circumstances other than not being fed for a few days.
That said I have learned that some fish do not make good tank mates and have had those that ate others. To answer your specific question, I do not know of any way to protect the fish other than some form of separation.
 
every other day... ime community fish need to be fed more frequently then larger predatory fish. cut what you usually feed in 1/2.
 
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