Feeding

[annabel_roo]

Hi just wondering how much you should feed fish, everyone says "not too much" but I'm not sure what that is! At the moment I only have 5 neon tetras and 2 peppered cory cat fish (70L tank).
Thanks )

 

[leafs]

What you should do is feed a pinch of food and wait until it's gone and continue this way for a few minutes. The most important thing is to make sure food doesn't just fall to the bottom and rot. Overfeeding can quickly cause poor water quality.

 

[modernhamlet]

Hi just wondering how much you should feed fish, everyone says "not too much" but I'm not sure what that is! At the moment I only have 5 neon tetras and 2 peppered cory cat fish (70L tank).
Thanks )

[snapback]913435[/snapback]​

5 neons and 2 corys are going to require very little food. Give them a small pinch of flake and watch them. As leafs said, if they finish the first small pinch quickly, it's ok to give them a bit more. But in general, your average fishkeeper is about a billion times more likely to overfeed than underfeed. Food for thought...

 

[leafs]

I tend to overfeed at times. I have Tiger Barbs that eat like theres no tomorrow, so I tend to give them a little more. You have to be careful not to get carried away.

 

[Tolak]

It's always better to underfeed than overfeed. I read somewhere that a fish's stomach is about the size of it's eye. Something tells me this doesn't apply to blind cave dwelling fish with no eyes, or octopus, with enourmus eyes.

Tolak

 

[paulioo]

It won't do any harm to miss a day or two when it comes to feeding. On average I probably feed my fish 5 days out of 7.

Paul.

 

[dwarfgourami]

To give a rough idea, I feed my platies and guppies (so bigger than your neons, and probably greedier) 2-3 tropical flakes each a day (split up into 2 feeds), or just under half a pea each, or a small squirt of bloodworm, with one fasting day a week.
I found 1 catfish tablet twice a day did 5 peppered corys very nicely, in fact it was just a little too much. With only 4 corys left I am putting in more fastings.
I can't get over how much my fry eat though!
The bit about seeing how much is left after a few minutes doesn't really apply to corys as they are very slow eaters- and of course the food has to fall to the bottom for them to find it in the first place. I find it often takes mine 5 minutes just to find the food, let alone finish it. And I use tablets, which they suck as they dissolve; this too makes it slower.