I know it's stated over and over about feeding fish small amounts twice or more daily. I know all about leaving no food left in the water after a certain time frame. But I have been experimenting and want to take a poll.
Now of all my tanks, my 80 gallon brackish has the largest, messiest eaters in the form of scats, eels, silver sharks and datnoids. I feed them a variety of foods and even "hand" feed the eels and datnoids to avoid competition from the sharks and the overzealous scats. I was feeding the fish twice daily in the small recommended amounts and really have no health problems. But another problem dominates in this tank... the waste.
I don't have the complete list and specs of all my fish vs the sizes and the filtration of the tank now, but I will post them later. But I can say I DO have ample filtration for this tank. I also consistently did water changes weekly, to avoid health problems that arose when I did not change the water in a two week period. But heaven forbid if I skipped a week, I'd have serious water cloud and sickness. (*note: I can say this because I know how they behave when they are completely healthy)
Now to my point in all of this jabber. I have had a catastrophe once too many times when I had to leave for more than a week. So I decided to do something a little different this time. I told my wife to feed my fish only once during the week I was gone. I almost doubled the amount of food I normally give the fish and stayed on the phone with her until the food was consumed and was ready to instruct her on the removal of the extra food. I gave the fish more time than normal but my wife told me that all the food was gone.
On my return I was prepared to do an EWC (emergency water change) to save any ill looking fish. But nothing. The water was clear, the parameters were great, the fish looked superb! hmm...
So now, I'm feeding twice a week instead of twice a day. I do a water change once a month instead of once a week. (a lot cheaper than buying a bucket of salt once a month) The fish look great!
My Question: Am I doing wrong by feeding twice a week?
Now of all my tanks, my 80 gallon brackish has the largest, messiest eaters in the form of scats, eels, silver sharks and datnoids. I feed them a variety of foods and even "hand" feed the eels and datnoids to avoid competition from the sharks and the overzealous scats. I was feeding the fish twice daily in the small recommended amounts and really have no health problems. But another problem dominates in this tank... the waste.
I don't have the complete list and specs of all my fish vs the sizes and the filtration of the tank now, but I will post them later. But I can say I DO have ample filtration for this tank. I also consistently did water changes weekly, to avoid health problems that arose when I did not change the water in a two week period. But heaven forbid if I skipped a week, I'd have serious water cloud and sickness. (*note: I can say this because I know how they behave when they are completely healthy)
Now to my point in all of this jabber. I have had a catastrophe once too many times when I had to leave for more than a week. So I decided to do something a little different this time. I told my wife to feed my fish only once during the week I was gone. I almost doubled the amount of food I normally give the fish and stayed on the phone with her until the food was consumed and was ready to instruct her on the removal of the extra food. I gave the fish more time than normal but my wife told me that all the food was gone.
On my return I was prepared to do an EWC (emergency water change) to save any ill looking fish. But nothing. The water was clear, the parameters were great, the fish looked superb! hmm...
So now, I'm feeding twice a week instead of twice a day. I do a water change once a month instead of once a week. (a lot cheaper than buying a bucket of salt once a month) The fish look great!
My Question: Am I doing wrong by feeding twice a week?
