I have a bichir that Loves to eat. He's only about 5'' now but eats till his belly is quite plump. I know that by giving fish too much food it'll just go to waste and eventually break down causing problems with the water etc. But if he's eating everything I give him is that still bad? Plus can he eat too many feeders at a time? Today he ate 4 fairly sized Rosie Reds (I don't give him live food often, only as a treat. Usually he gets shrimp pellets).
Overfeed?
- Thread starter cartisdm
- Start date
Angler;1495825; said:
Today was a real surprise. Usually he eats the live stuff at night and I notice the next morning there's less fish in the tank. But today he went to TOWN soon as the feeders were in the tank. I dunno what got into him
I have had a bichir that had been plumped permanently even though it has an empty stomach,at first I thought it may have had swallowed a stone until after a year it died from a skin disease that live food brought him(guppy)..so i decided to dissect it and found no stone in its belly....his belly is just really stretched due to frequent overfeeding...and it is not a good view,dont overfeed him..
As a general rule...it's difficult to over feed fish but it's all too easy to overfeed a tank...
My advice would be to back the feeding schedule down to a sane level and not base it on what the fish WILL eat. About half your present level would be a good place to start.
Fish are oppertunists and are programed to EAT EAT EAT when foods available in preperation for those times they can't find any food. The problem is that they can always find food in our aquariums. Skipping at least one day a week can only help the fishes long term health IMO.
My advice would be to back the feeding schedule down to a sane level and not base it on what the fish WILL eat. About half your present level would be a good place to start.
Fish are oppertunists and are programed to EAT EAT EAT when foods available in preperation for those times they can't find any food. The problem is that they can always find food in our aquariums. Skipping at least one day a week can only help the fishes long term health IMO.