I think you missed my point entirely. Interesting that you respond as though I've somehow singled you out... haha
Who else feeds 3 times a week?
- Thread starter DDK
- Start date
Hello; Working from the premise that a fish keeper using either method does not underfeed or overfeed sort of misses the actual case from my personal experience. I have fed both daily and skipping days. I started with daily feeding and moved from a tendency to overfeed for a number of years to attempts at strategies of daily feeding that often approached underfeeding. In some setups it was fairly easy to manage.
In setups with a wider variety of fish types (how and where they feed or being more or less aggressive about it.) it proved more difficult to do a daily feed schedule and get everyone properly fed. I could manage it for the most part as I tend to have live plants and snails in most tanks. I managed it for a couple of decades but was generally closer to overfeeding than not.
Perhaps I like the skipping (fasting) day feeding schedule because it is easier to manage over time. During the last couple of decades I have tended to move to less involved tank management and fasting days have fit in quite well. I am also fairly convinced that in addition to a personal benefit, there is a benefit for my tank conditions. Some already mentioned.
I agree in that neither feeding schedule should be labeled "bad". Either can be made to work. While I would welcome the data from a dedicated experiment and perhaps adjust my procedures accordingly, I am unlikely to set one up. I imagine commercial fish farms have answers with regard to maximizing growth with minimal cost. I wonder if this would apply to home tanks not aimed at maximizing growth?
I'm sorry but I don't really understand your argument here. You seem to agree that underfeeding and overfeeding are both possible with either type of feeding schedule (which is why I say it is an irrelevant issue), so what do you mean when you say that it "misses the actual case?"
Agreed; I would think the research has probably already been done and is already out there somewhere. Surely feeding schedules implemented by hatcheries, public aquariums, etc. aren't arbitrary... Someone would just need to take the time to do some searching and dig up the information. I actually keep expecting someone like Oddball to show up and provide something substantial to fuel the debate. Lol
Hello; I was not clear enough. My point was to be that the underfeeding /overfeeding issue that can be common with daily feeding is not a problem with fasting days. I can feed a bit extra at one feeding so that all the fish in a tank get a decent chance at having enough food. That extra would be overfeeding if on a daily schedule. By having a fasting day next, the excess is scoured by the fish and snails without my adding any more food the next day. My kuhlis, catfish and snails for sure get a fair share. Even the neons in a tank set up for them are seen searching the tank on a fasting day. My contention is that having fasting days each week has pretty much minimized both underfeeding and overfeeding issues.
To put it another way, when I was daily feeding it was more common to be either underfeeding or overfeeding over time. While I agree that my opinion is just an opinion, it is based on a few decades of trying the various feeding proceedures. I did make daily feeding work for many years, but have found fasting days to work better in the ways already mentioned. Fasting days seem to make both my tank chores and the tank conditions somewhat better and with no apparent harm to the fish.
Hello; Interesting. How do you know they are complaining?
My observation is that my fish exhibit the same sort of "looking for food" behavior pretty much any time I approach the tanks. I have been around fish keepers who view this as meaning the fish must be hungry and need to be fed. My take is that the fish will eat more than once a day with gusto. I have seen them on occasion eat untill they up-chuck and then start eating again.
When fishing I have seen just caught fish up-chuck a belly full of food. Even tho already well fed they will they will take what they think is more food. That fish will eat every day or even several times in one day does not, to me, indicate they need to eat on a daily time schedule.
I find a slightly heavy feeding, which would be too much on a daily basis, followed by fasting day(s) to work quite well. I tend to not respond to the "looking for food" behaviors of the fish on fasting days.
Depend on species I'll setup a feeding schedule, for example if I feed my exodons tank 3 times a week then I would have only 1 exodon left in the tank after few weeks lol I have to feed them daily and must do 3 times a day to keep the salvation between them at minimal. For other juv. predators I feed them 2 times a day before/after work, I keep that schedule until I noticed their growth rate slowing down then I'll feed them 1 time a day and I'll skip a day when I saw my fish hit the food slower then usual.
I think what you feed and what you are feeding are the determining factors. A whole fish or shrimp, swallowed whole will take longer to digest than pellets which take longer than flakes. A predator that has eaten a large meal gets lethargic, while a grazer never slows down. If you feed goldfish exclusively, the nutritional value is low from the start. My 20" knife and 10" Oscars get fed every 3rd day with whole shrimp or tialpia chunks injected very lightly with vitamins. As much as they will eat (stuffed). The oscars are fat, and the knife has grown 6" in a few months. My Africans get 3 of 8 different assorted pellets every other day, changing pellet type each feeding. My 5 gal nano with tetras, rainbows, shrimp, snails, and dwarf crayfish get fed flakes twice daily. Pellets are very nutritious, so daily feeding is too much. After years on the schedule, fish don't even beg on fasting days. My mbuna is very fat. The tetras and rainbows are midwater feeders exclusively, so the flakes drift around in the current for quite a while. Since they digest easily, not very nutritious, and the fish are grazers, twice a day the fish eat voraciously. Big tanks are bare bottom with an almost constant ro water drip, and water change weekly. Nano gets a 1gal water change 3 times a week. All tanks are over filtered. Every tank is different, every fish is different, every person is different.
I think it still boils down to species...some omnivores will graze on algae so even if "you" didnt feed them they are still eating.
True, I didn't feed my royal pleco for months if not close to a year and its still alive and healthy (I meant I didn't drop algae waffer in for it), it's just carving on driftwood and poop....
