feeding less often in tanks with mature fish…

[Magnum Man]

again, with being a sudden caretaker for my wife, with her new illness, I’ve been having to do less tank maintenance… and I honestly can’t believe how good most of my tanks look… yep, they are all due for a glass cleaning… but I have begun just feeding once a week on tanks with mature fish… and every other day on tanks with babies, and the fish are all looking amazing… even the marble hatchets, that a member suspected they may need feeding more often, are looking great, and thriving in my open topped tetra tank, getting fed once per week… in reality now, I’m topping off twice between water changes, and everyone looks no worse for the wear… I am now retired, and aside from taking Mrs. in for dialysis 3 times a week, and doing half the “house chores” that Mrs. used to do, I’m hoping to find the time to get back into a regular tank routine again soon… It’s just amazing the fish seem to be doing better with less intervention from me right now???

 

[Magnum Man]

everyone seems more colorful than usual, and no one has eaten my morning buddy…

 

[GaryE]

In a busy period, I'll go down to 2 or 3 times a week. I don't think once a week'll be sustainable, but we do what we have to do.

 

[bgarthe]

Sorry about your wife’s situation……hope she gets better soon. It is really none of my business, but once-a-week feeding is (imho) too infrequent. If it’s possible, I would politely suggest at least 3 times a week or every other day. Again, I hope your situation improves.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Every other day is ample for most fish, so you might as well do that while you're already in there feeding the babies every other day?

 

[Whitecloudminnowguy09]

This may seem blasphemous, but at the end of the week (when I am most busy) some days I simply forget to feed. But, I still at least feed 5 days a week. Not that I do not care about my fish, I do, but when you are so busy in this hobby it can seem easy to just.. "get by" so to speak. Most fish are forgiving in this situation (although we might not really know how they feel about not getting fed every day) of feeding, so I usually can convince myself when in my bed, oh well forgot to feed today, but its too dark now anyways and I bet the fish are asleep . But I am just kind of getting on myself here about inconsistency when I do not have good reasons why not to be inconsistent. @Magnum Man you do, and I think as long as you feed 3 times a week, and keep a good pattern going, you will be in good shape, and I do hope your wife gets better!

 

[gwand]

I feed once a day but never feed on Wednesday and Saturday. All is well.

 

[Magnum Man]

this actually makes me wonder how healthy it is to feed the “high test foods” everyday… both for the fish , and their contained environment they live in… in the wild they likely much all the time on a varied diet, some things likely better than what we feed, but probably lots of other things less nutritious , and higher in roughage… my tanks are all highly planted, and all the fish munch around on “things” just like they would in the wild… I’m not saying once a week is actually good for any fish, but I was at twice a week, prior to Mrs. illness, and my fish were doing great… I would suspect most people feed more often than what is really needed for sustenance, and thus are working the filters harder than needed…

 

[EmmaS]

I feed my nano fish ever other day mainly live food. Flake food on rare occasions. When I'm on holiday they get fed only a couple of times per week.

 

[gimme30]

Have you looked into home dialysis for the Mrs? My brother has end stage renal failure and was able to get equipment setup at his house. It takes up a lot of space, but at least he isn't driving an hour each way and confined to someone's office for several hours a day-he hooks up before bed and can live a normal life during the day.

By some accounts they seem to be flaky (no pun intended) but maybe consider an automatic feeder?