Feeding

[Sandzee23]

Hi, i have 4 tiger barbs and 4 platys.

great fish and very enteraining however i'm not sure how much to feed my fish, my tiger barbs look hungry all the time and are trying to eat gravel and things of the rocks and plants, is this because i'm not feeding them enough?

to add to my problems my platys look fine and are happy to swim about without looking everywhere for food.

i have flakes if it helps

Thanks, Tom

 

[arobinson1984]

If you are feeding flake food then one or two pinches is normally enough, you only want to feed what your fish can eat in 2/3 minutes.

Fish always appear hungry and many will eat well beyond their means, overfeeding is an issue as fish wont normally stop eating when full, they will carry on eating.

Try feeding a variety rather than just flakes such as frozen bloodworm, daphnia, brine shrimp which can all be bought cheaply in frozen cubes

Also feeding vegetables will help your fishes digestion systems, most fish are partial to cucumber, courgette, peas (deshelled, only feed the inside part)

Andy

 

[Sandzee23]

If you are feeding flake food then one or two pinches is normally enough, you only want to feed what your fish can eat in 2/3 minutes.

Fish always appear hungry and many will eat well beyond their means, overfeeding is an issue as fish wont normally stop eating when full, they will carry on eating.

Try feeding a variety rather than just flakes such as frozen bloodworm, daphnia, brine shrimp which can all be bought cheaply in frozen cubes

Also feeding vegetables will help your fishes digestion systems, most fish are partial to cucumber, courgette, peas (deshelled, only feed the inside part)

Andy

Thanks Mate,
So I Can Feed Them Vegtables Aswel??

 

[antb1983]

after reading this i just dropped a piece of cucumber into my tank and my angel fish and sword tail went mad for it ha ha

 

[GuppyGoddess]

My guppies always act hungry and pick at rocks, algae and the plants. Take it from me, regardless of how much they appear hungry, you should stick to the less-is-more philosophy. I overfed my fish for about a week and my water quality went down hill. After that, I changed about 1/3 of the water (which had loads of left over food - clearly they won't eating it all!) and had the fish fast for two days and the fish look more healthy and the one fish who started swimming in a funky fashion is back to normal.

What I like to do is take the flake food and grind it up, so in the water, it appears there is more food even though it is only a flake or two.