Can overfeeding kill fish?

[Angry_Platy]

Over the last few weeks I have lost 4 fish...one platy to finrot/ich, one platy to dropsy, one neon tetras to ?? and one platy reason unknown!!

I began to question my maintenance schedule....25% water change every week....gravel vac every week (at wc time). My nitrites are 0, ammonia 0 and nitrates never get above 10ppm (yes, the tank is cycled). I also came to the conclusion that it couldn't be anything bad in my water as I have 5 platy fry growing healthy and happy.

Then, with the help of my chat buddies (Mollymomma, Tolak etc...you know who you are) I figured it out....overfeeding......my fish WERE getting fed twice a day....frozen food in morning and flakes at night (plus a food tablet for the catfish, which the platies seem to want more than he does). Their frozen food consisted of bloodworms one morning and brine shrimp the next.

Anyone with any common sense would have figured out that this is WAAYYYY too much protein for them. Hence the dropsy, hence the other 2 unknown cause deaths!...the reading I did afterwards lead me to the conclusion that too much protein/overfeeding causes organ failure.....dropsy....fish death.

SO....I was the ultimate cause of the death of 4 of my fishies (lucky I discovered when I did). As a result I have imposed a diet on my fish....flake food once a day only and frozen food once a week...MAX. That said, at the moment they are in the middle of a 60hour fast....to clean out their systems...they will be fed tonight for the fist time in 2 full days!!!

The lack of food has also resulted in my fish being more active...the tetras schooling and the platies not bullying each other. All in all....they may want to be fed everytime I walk near the tank (what fish don't)....but they are happy fish and will not die from overfeeding!!!

Anyway....I thought I'd share this with you guys so no one else does the bad things I did....and before you all yell at me...yes I know...I am a bad fish mommie letting that happen. But at least I have learnt from my mistake!!

Cheers

Angela

 

[Cheese Specialist]

I am very aware about the problems with overfeeding. I only feed my fish once every second day and my fish are generally very happy and healthy and my tank is very clean.

Good advice

 

[De Plano]

That is the problem for me with live foods. I don't want to waste it, so I try and feed it all before it goes bad. I wind up feeding my fish too much. I do purposely let them go a full day once a week, and only feed them once a day half the week.

I mentioned this in another post. I read that a fish stomach is about the size of it's eyeball. You don't want to feed more then a chunk of food the size of half the eyeballs (one per fish) at each meal. It may be once per day, I can't remember. He did suggest feeding three times a day, but make each feeding REALLY, REALLY small.

Good luck

 

[White Whale]

The lack of food has also resulted in my fish being more active...the tetras schooling and the platies not bullying each other. All in all....they may want to be fed everytime I walk near the tank (what fish don't)....but they are happy fish and will not die from overfeeding!!!

Also, less food helps keeps the water cleaner. No food, no poo.

 

[fish lady]

Good advice, maybe that's what killed mine off. I lost a load of fish in a couple of weeks, they all started to show different signs of infection, some no signs at all though!

I now ensure I only feed them a very small amount, just enough so that all the fish in the tank get a nibble.

Have also found that I can make sure they all get to eat wthout over feeding the greedy (or speedy) ones by distributing the food in different place on the tank surface instead of in just one place.

 

[Cheese Specialist]

As usual different people say different things. All I can say is that I feed my fish once every other day, for a couple of minutes or until I think they have all had enough. I feed all different things from cucumber to flakes and bloodworm.

I wouldn't feed my fish twice a day as I think this could easily lead to overfeeding. Fish have small bellies and so only need a little food but people seem to feel that they are not giving them enough. What we have to remember is the size of a flae in relation to the size of them, not to the size of us!!

By the way, IMO never follow manufacturer's guidelines on how much to feed your fish as I have never seen one that doesn't look like way too much. After all, they don't want the food to last a long time now do they?!

 

[Tolak]

Glad you finally found out what it was Chook!

Tolak