Frequency Of Feeding Larger Fish...

[Conqueror]

Hi all!

I know that, generally speaking, the conventional wisdom is to feed fish twice a day, whatever they can eat in a couple minutes, blah blah blah.

However, I was recently admiring a large FW tank in the hospital where I work, and I noticed the feeding schedule called for feeding the fish just once a day, and only three times a week (ie, three total feedings per week). The fish in the tank had some ragged fins, so I think the hungry fish were nipping each other, but overall they were in decent health and had grown to considerable size.

That got me thinking about my tank: I have a 55g with some larger denizens (total of 5 fish, but all of them are sizeable). I absolutely cannot get the water polished. The chemistry is fine, but there is a lot of very fine particulate matter in the water that even the activated charcoal in the filter isn't removing. I'm thinking that I may be feeding too often, resulting in excess particulate matter in the water? I never see uneaten food though; the fish eat everything before it hits the bottom, and whatever's left gets vacuumed up by the pleco. Do y'all think I might see an improvement in water polishing if I changed their feeding schedule to every-other-day, or only fed once a day, etc.?

Thanks,

CQ

 

[Alex_]

What types of fish are they?

if there huge they propaly

are producing to much waste

and yuo need to do more gravel

vaccuming.

-Alex

 

[Conqueror]

6" Oscar
5" Moonlight Gourami
4" Pacu (don't worry, I know he'll get huge, he'll be out of this tank before then)
5" Pleco
7" Striped Peacock Eel

That's the tank right now. Like I said though, the tank chemistry is completely fine, which leads me to believe that it's not a waste problem (NH3 etc. are at 0ppm). I vacuum the gravel weekly and keep it relatively clean.

CQ

 

[teaker1s]

small amounts twice a day better as plant eating fish digest better this way

 

[andywg]

I feed all my fish twice a week. Hungry fish are not that likely to fin nip just because they haven't been fed twice a day.

Larger preds will normally need to be gorged once a week and then spend the rest of the week digesting it.

Feeding less often certainly won't hurt those tankmates. The only fish that need feeding daily are fry.

 

[Synirr]

Hungry fish are not that likely to fin nip just because they haven't been fed twice a day.

While I agree with the 'twice a day' part, my oscar gets really cranky if he hasn't eaten in two days or more... normally he never bites his tankmate, just displays, but if he hasn't been fed he has been known to take a plug out of her...

The best thing for a fish is almost always what most closely mimicks their natural environment. Fish like oscars don't normally get large meals, they pick off tiny things like shrimp and bugs when they can find it, and aren't really built for taking on larger prey items. For this reason I feed mine sparingly once a day. He gets just enough to keep him from constantly begging me for more, I never gorge him on food. Some fish that are primarily piscivores probably do do better on less frequent larger meals, but for your fish I'd stick with small feedings once or twice a day.

 

[Conqueror]

Well, the eel gets a cube of bloodworms once a day, at night (I slip it into one of his hiding places where the other big fish can't get to it first).

Normally at feeding time, I put in a pinch or two of medium Hikari Gold pellets for the Oscar (the Pacu eats a few of them too), a pinch of flakes for the Gourami, and about 4 algae wafers for the Pacu and the Pleco. As I said before, there's rarely any leftovers, and whatever makes it to the bottom gets vacuumed up by the pleco.

CQ

 

[CFC]

There is no hard and fast rules to feeding bigger fish.

Herbivors should have access to vegetable matter all day or at least be fed twice every day, their low protein diet means they have to eat more in order to stay active and healthy.

Non predatory omnivors (bala sharks, large barbs etc) should also be fed every day, just once is enough but their diet needs to be varied with small benethic inverts (bloodworms, daphnia etc), flake and vegetable matter.

Predators only need two or 3 meals a week, and in the case of the really big fish like Redtailed catfish one large meal every 7-10 days is enough, but here we are talking about feeding a fish a whole 1lb trout which takes a while to digest. Smaller predators need to be fed enough at each meal time to make their stomachs swell considerably and not be fed again until the stomach is flat again.

 

[dwarfgourami]

There is no hard and fast rules to feeding bigger fish.

Herbivors should have access to vegetable matter all day or at least be fed twice every day, their low protein diet means they have to eat more in order to stay active and healthy.

Non predatory omnivors (bala sharks, large barbs etc) should also be fed every day, just once is enough but their diet needs to be varied with small benethic inverts (bloodworms, daphnia etc), flake and vegetable matter.

Predators only need two or 3 meals a week, and in the case of the really big fish like Redtailed catfish one large meal every 7-10 days is enough, but here we are talking about feeding a fish a whole 1lb trout which takes a while to digest. Smaller predators need to be fed enough at each meal time to make their stomachs swell considerably and not be fed again until the stomach is flat again.

This should be pinned!

 

[lljdma06]

This should be pinned!

I agree, very good writing CFC, truely inspired, especially at 1:02am. This is of course, according to my clock.