Interesting read for those who feed fish multiple times a day

[Modest_Man]

Especially those who keep piscivorous species like dovii, pikes, cichla etc.

http://wfsc.tamu.edu/winemiller/lab/Arrington-etal_2002_Ecology.pdf

Abstract. We used a large data set of African, Neotropical, and North American fishes to examine the frequency with which fishes have empty stomachs (nspecies 5 254; nindividuals 5 36 875). Mean percentage of empty stomachs was low across all fishes (16.2 6 1.2%) but varied from 0% to 79.4% among individual species. Nocturnal fishes had empty stomachs more frequently than diurnal fishes. Trophic classification was strongly associated with the percentage of empty stomachs, a pattern also revealed from an intraspecific analysis. Fishes appear to adjust their feeding intervals relative to the energy density, conversion efficiency, and particle size of their food. Piscivorous fishes seem to be the only trophic group that regularly experience long periods of empty stomachs, with species that consume prey whole and those that provide extended parental care having the highest proportions of empty stomachs. Activity patterns and life histories of some piscivorous species probably have evolved in partial response to energetic benefits of large, energy-rich food resources.

Here's the info on the CA/SA cichlid species they looked at.

Species	Collection location	Diel feeding behavior	Trophic category	Number of individuals analyzed	Proportion with empty stomachs
Aequidens diadema	Central/South America	Diurnal	Invertivore	103	0.56
Amphilophus citrinellus	Central/South America	Diurnal	Invertivore	88	0.01
Apistogramma hoignei	Central/South America	Diurnal	Invertivore	181	0.01
Apistogramma sp.	Central/South America	Diurnal	Invertivore	18	0.22
Archocentrus centrarchus 	Central/South America	Diurnal	Invertivore	182	0.00
Astatheros alfari	Central/South America	Diurnal	Invertivore	58	0.00
Crenicichla geayi	Central/South America	Diurnal	Invertivore	111	0.04
Mikrogeophagus ramirezi	Central/South America	Diurnal	Invertivore	240	0.11
Satanoperca daemon	Central/South America	Diurnal	Invertivore	49	0.14
'Aequidens' pulcher	Central/South America	Diurnal	Omnivore	677	0.04
Archocentrus nigrofasciatus 	Central/South America	Diurnal	Omnivore	223	0.02
Cichlasoma orinocense	Central/South America	Diurnal	Omnivore	271	0.17
Herotilapia multispinosa	Central/South America	Diurnal	Omnivore	11	0.09
Vieja maculicauda 	Central/South America	Diurnal	Omnivore	160	0.01
Nandopsis urophthalmus	North America	Diurnal	Omnivore	19	0.16
Astronotus ocellatus	Central/South America	Diurnal	Piscivore	99	0.10
Caquetaia kraussii	Central/South America	Diurnal	Piscivore	370	0.08
Cichla intermedia	Central/South America	Diurnal	Piscivore	16	0.69
Cichla orinocensis	Central/South America	Diurnal	Piscivore	96	0.60
Cichla temensis	Central/South America	Diurnal	Piscivore	365	0.50
Crenicichla saxatilis	Central/South America	Diurnal	Piscivore	14	0.14
Crenicichla sp. M	Central/South America	Diurnal	Piscivore	24	0.58
Nandopsis dovii 	Central/South America	Diurnal	Piscivore	156	0.13
Nandopsis friedrichsthalii 	Central/South America	Diurnal	Piscivore	493	0.06

 

[RD.]

So Jamie, are you insinuating that some people feed their fish too much?

 

[aclockworkorange]

So Jamie, are you insinuating that some people feed their fish too much?

No way! That's impossible!


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[Modest_Man]

No insinuating about it. 99% of tank raised cichlids are fed too much. A lot of the "My fish suddenly died and it was healthy yesterday" posts I blame on over feeding building fatty deposits around the internal organs, leading to sudden organ failure. We just dissected some Chinook salmon smolts that were hatchery raised and their organs tended to be surrounded by gobs of fat, while wild Chinook salmon smolts organs are not surrounded by fat (though we can't dissect those...ESA listing and whatnot). And this is with fish that are only 6 months old or so and are being raised in a study to stimulate the "natural environment" as much as possible.

If anyone locally has a "sudden unexplainable death" please freeze the fish and let me dissect it...I can almost guarantee there will be large fatty deposits in the body cavity!

A fat fish does not equal a healthy fish.

Did anyone read the paper? Pretty interesting stuff. Maybe if I had a video of my fish eating a mouse people would think I was a badass and comment more on my topics...

 

[BellycrawlerJaws]

No insinuating about it. 99% of tank raised cichlids are fed too much. A lot of the "My fish suddenly died and it was healthy yesterday" posts I blame on over feeding building fatty deposits around the internal organs, leading to sudden organ failure. We just dissected some Chinook salmon smolts that were hatchery raised and their organs tended to be surrounded by gobs of fat, while wild Chinook salmon smolts organs are not surrounded by fat (though we can't dissect those...ESA listing and whatnot). And this is with fish that are only 6 months old or so and are being raised in a study to stimulate the "natural environment" as much as possible.

If anyone locally has a "sudden unexplainable death" please freeze the fish and let me dissect it...I can almost guarantee there will be large fatty deposits in the body cavity!

A fat fish does not equal a healthy fish.

Did anyone read the paper? Pretty interesting stuff. Maybe if I had a video of my fish eating a mouse people would think I was a badass and comment more on my topics...

Very interesting read Modest, I've always felt that as fish get older that we should feed them less. But it's eye opening to see fish that are still very young to be overfed as well.

You have to feed multiple mice to get any comments now-a-days

 

[virgil2090]

thanks for the interesting read,i do agree that many fish in aquariums are probably overfed.i try to feed my 2 large fish 5 days a week.on vacations,if just a week,i don't feed.i would like to know what others feel about older,large CA/SA fish,what kind of schedules

 

[RD.]

I read the entire paper, and this is something that I have been stating on this forum & others since Al Gore invented the internet.

While I agree with what you are saying, I think that it's a bit of a stretch to state;

99% of tank raised cichlids are fed too much.

Certainly there are a LOT of people in this hobby that overfeed their fish, but 99%?
C'mon ........

 

[aclockworkorange]

How many mice a day should I feed my chiclid then?


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[BellycrawlerJaws]

How many mice a day should I feed my chiclid then?


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As many as he can eat in 30 seconds

 

[ryansmith83]

I only feed adult fish once a day, but I do find that fry develop better if you feed them multiple small meals. I've always been under the impression that most people slow down on the multiple feedings when the fish reach a decent adult size and switch to a once-daily "maintenance" feeding.