I think you over feed your fish!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
ad88 said:
I currently have only a congo puffer who gets fed 3 days a week. Before the puffer when I had cichlids I would feed twice a day with a fast day in the week. My puffer is very attentive to me, but when I first got him I was trying to feed everyday and he would refuse to eat then I stopped feeding so often and now he comes out of the sand to the glass when I approach the tank.
Click to expand...

Yup good point, feeding is more than half the fun of keeping fish, I want them to be hungry (a bit).
 
I feed my Oscars one or two times a day during the week, then I don't feed on the weekends. My six are kind of crazy at feeding time too, if the food doesn't hit the water fast enough, they'll jump for it. The water level has to be kept about 4-5" below the rim because of this.
 
I am definitely guilty of overfeeding. Sometimes I just cant get enough of watching my fish eat. I do vary it up though, and water change as needed... my fish are all very fat.:D
 
Depends on the type of fish you are feeding. I realize this being a MFK, big fish site....minimum feeding is required. Yet move into killifish, livebearers, very small tetra's and rasbora's and you will soon have wasted, dead fish. Same for fry. Heck even young discus need to be fed at least twice a day or they will never grow to potential. Not to mention that the smaller the fish, the more livefood required.

I started keeping cichlids and followed you advice about skipping days and minimum feeding. Then when I started keeping other more difficult fish, that advice was bad news. Heck even tropheus need to be fed at least once a day to get good growth.
 
Mymonsterfish said:
I feed my 2 armatus on Saturday and Sundays then they starve for the rest of the week until feeding time again. They are on live minnows only (that's all they want and aim for :)
Click to expand...

Seems a little light for young and growing fish...I feed in reverse of this as I feed my fish once daily through the week and they fast on the weekend.
 
fuzzlebug said:
Think about how offten a fish will feed in the wild? Its sporadic, some days they get little to no food, and the next day they could get a feast. I think that random, unscheduled feeding is best(unless like stated your fish have a tendancy to go all crazy killer when not kept well fed). Alot of people get worried if there fish goes a day or two without food, a healty fish should last days or in some cases weeks without food. And another benifit of light feedings is when they do get fed you get to watch a true feeding frenzy, but if you have overly aggressive fish id be wary of this.

Sent from my GT-S6810P using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
Click to expand...

It depends on the species. Watching lots of terrestrial animal documentaries left me with this impression, but food is actually much more abundant in most aquatic environments than in terrestrial settings.

Lots of wild fish spend the entire day eating and burning calories without stopping. Healthy aquatic ecosystems are bristling with life. I took part in a bio diversity study that surveyed a few local bodies of water last semester. The healthier ecosystems were teeming with inverts, small fish, salamanders, tadpoles, frogs, ect. For a tertiary consumer, the water is the place to be. Its a never-ending buffet/triathlon combo.
 
the lion who ate the sun said:
Lots of wild fish spend the entire day eating and burning calories without stopping. Healthy aquatic ecosystems are bristling with life. I took part in a bio diversity study that surveyed a few local bodies of water last semester. The healthier ecosystems were teeming with inverts, small fish, salamanders, tadpoles, frogs, ect. For a tertiary consumer, the water is the place to be. Its a never-ending buffet/triathlon combo.
Click to expand...

+1 bingo!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom