Feeding Habits....

[Steffyboy]

Just wanted a bit of info on what and when you feed your fish.
I have a 4ft tropical and a 3.4ft cold water and i usually feed them once in the morning around 8-8:30am with flake and then around 5pm with either frozen blood worm, brine shrimp etc.
Once a week i feed the tropicals earthworms or maybe 4th brown crickets (usually every 2-3 weeks) and some fresh prawns (not all at once!) instead of the frozen stuff.
Maybe once or twice a week i feed them both various veggies too.
I vary the tea time feedings and sometimes just feed them flake with other dry stuff too.
Any thoughts on how I'm feeding them and does this diet sound ok to you?
The fish are fine and healthy and i have no problems that i know of.
Thanks guys.

 

[techen]

I feed my fish flakes once a day, With one or two days without feeding.
 
Flakes are the best thing ever for fish unless you are trying to breed then livefood/frozen stuff is fine.

 

[Steffyboy]

You got to feed your fish more than just flakes?!
They need more protein and vitamins than flakes can provide.

 

[fluttermoth]

No, flakes are formulated to be a complete diet for fish; they could live on flake and nothing else, although a variety of foods is better.

Anyway, your feeding looks fine to me, although live/frozen foods shouldn't be fed more than once a week, unless you're trying to bring fish into spawning condition.

 

[wrightt3]

It depends on the type of fish. For example, predatory fish such as bichirs will require a meat based diet in order to thrive or at least specialized carnivore pellets.
But yes. Most fish can cope with just having flakes but I still think it's nice to give them a treat once in a while. I give mine some sort of frozen food (bloodworm/daphnia) every 4 days apart from my cichlid/Bichir tank which gets frozen food every other day.

 

[fluttermoth]

It depends on the type of fish. For example, predatory fish such as bichirs will require a meat based diet in order to thrive or at least specialized carnivore pellets.

Oh, well spotted; I hadn't thought of that 

 

[Steffyboy]

I've got a proper mix of fish in my tropical so i mostly try to feed them meaty type foods every other day.
Plus my albino African clawed frog is a hungry bugger so he deffo needs his meat fix!!

 

[Chad]

I feed once a day. I don't skip. I feed primarily Formula II flakes from Ocean Nutrition. I like them because they are a blend of algae and meat so they work very well as a general food source. They work for my FW fish as well and the cherry shrimp and pygmy cory eat the leftovers.
 
I have a good variety of meaty foods I occasionally put into the tank.
 
The reef tank, due to it's special needs, gets a local live food product called Reef Stew (reefstew.com) that's made by a local clownfish breeder. It's a mix of algae, rotifers, adult and baby brine and copepods. Everything in the tank (including the sea apple) goes nuts over it. I do that once a week.
 
I like a flake that has a mixed ingredient list as all my fish (even the tangs) enjoy a bit of protein from meat.

 

[EthanF]

My community fish get colour enhancing flake once a day and frozen bloodworm on Wednesday and Sunday

 

[stanleo]

I feed once a day. Usually it is flakes from Omega One. Once a week I feed frozen brine shrimp to the FW and a food ring with meat and algae in it for the SW. Not sure of the brand and the bottle is downstairs and I don't feel like going to get it. In my shrimp tank I put an algae wafer every other day and about 3 times a week I put flakes in there for the 3 endlers. On WC day I don't feed anything.

 

[Ny82]

I feed my fry tetramin baby flake food 4 times a day, brine shrimp on a sunday first and last thing (I do water changes twice daily)
My main tank however I feed once a day, flake mostly, treat on a sat and brineshrimp on sunday.

 

[sputnick]

Is it bad that I don't really have a regular feeding habit? Don't get me wrong I feed my fish everyday except for the occasional day when I'm gone from morning to night. But like some days when I know I'll be home before lights out I'll feed two times but in smaller amounts. Then days that I'm not sure or know I wont be home I feed once with a bigger, but not too big, amount. I just started a new job last week, so I'm always gone early in the morning to later in the night. (around 4-6) Is it better to have a normal feeding time and amount? Should I change my lighting period to fit my new job schedule? 

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I feed flakes to my midwater swimmers (harlequins, bloodfins, zebra danio and neons).  Sinking shrimp pellets to my cories and ram, and algae wafers for my BN - once daily, skipping once a week or so.  Occasionally they will get frozen bloodworms as a treat, generally on national holidays, after large water changes (as an apology, I suppose) and whenever else I feel like it - roughly twice a month or so.
 
Now, do they all eat the right things? Kind of.  My BN will also munch the shrimp pellets.  The cories, no doubt will get an occasional flake that makes it all the way down, and the midswimmers nip at the pellets as they sink past - and even come down to scavenge the remains of the pellets if the cories aren't quick enough to them (which is why I feed close to lights out).

 

[Steffyboy]

I'm feeding mine virtually every other day of a tea time frozen blood worm, brine shrimp etc.
By the sounds of it, i feel like i'm over doing it with the meaty stuffy but i don't think i am??!!
I give them earthworms as a treat once a week and 4th brown crickets once every 3 weeks or so (They're messy little buggers!)
The smallest fish i have is my albino cory's and my German Rams so every other one is quite large (Syno, Clown loach, Frog, Black Ghost etc) so i couldn't just feed them on flake.
I think I'm doing ok...the water is fine, the filtration is spot on and no diseases so think I'll carry on as i am and thanks for the input guys.

 

[wrightt3]

I'm feeding mine virtually every other day of a tea time frozen blood worm, brine shrimp etc.

As I said, I do the same with my cichlid/Bichir tank.
Every other day sounds like a lot but when you think about it, its only about a quarter of their diet (3 flake feeds per meat feed) which is probably similar to what omnivorous fish eat in the wild.