i don't know how you guys can stand watching your fish beg for food, if i feed them twice there as happy as a pig in poop, but once everytime i walk past the aquarium they are all at the top of the tank just begging for me to feed them. how do you get past that?

Welcome to being a "parent" It's just one of those things that goes along with the privilege of being responsible for another life. As a parent, I know what's best for my child and sometimes that means saying no when he wants something. Same thing with fishkeeping - sometimes you just have to say know when you know it's in their best interest!

By getting into the routine of not feeding them more than once a day and as I spend a lot of time maintaining my tanks the fish don't really associate me with food so don't 'beg' when i'm at the tank.
By feeding once a day (missing every 7th day) my tanks are clean and free from food debris and my water quality is near perfect

We feed the community tanks twice a day, but for a different reason.

Once is daylight hours for the diurnal feeders, and again after lights out for the nocturnal guys.

The only fish that begs for food is Martha, But she's just a fat pig.

Hi fishface33

The most important thing to take into consideration when feeding your fish is that you do not want to put in more than they can eat at one time. Fish have rather small stomachs in proportion to their size and cannot eat a lot. The extra food will then rot and feed possibly harmful bacteria at the bottom of the tank.

If you want to feed them more often, just divide the total amount of food they will eat in one day into however many feedings you want to give and feed them accordingly.

I like to feed my fish and watch them eat, so I usually feed them more than once a day. Young, growing fish and fry benefit greatly by small and frequent feedings.

I feed mine twice a day but only a tiny bit - they still beg whenever I go near them though

this is a bit OT but does anyone know, seeing as fish straight from the lfs are usually still juveniles, is it beneficial to feed them more often than usual till they reach adult size?

Yes, as Inchworm said.

Little and often is the key.

Ta I've been thinking it would make sense for a while now but never got round to checking it out

I used to feed my fish once a day, skipping the seventh day also. Now I feed once every two days. My tanks are much cleaner come cleaning time and my fish don't miss the daily feeding. My fish never begged for food, or if they did I simply ignored it (as a "parent" of fish, cats or children if I ever had them, no means no, and no amount of begging will alter that, so they can beg all they want. It won't change the fact they are getting fed when I want to feed them). I never fed my fish twice a day. To get around to feeding day-feeding and night-feeding fish I simply feed about 5-10 minutes before lights out. That way the day feeders get food in the day, and the night feeders still have food to eat when they are more comforatable eating. I have watched my fish and have learned the proper amount to feed to ensure everyone gets enough to eat, and that there is very little, if any, wasted food.

\Dan