How Much Do You Feed Your Fish?

[sforzauk]

Hi, I've got a red tail black shark and two young angelfish- the thing is, I don't know how much I should feed them. One book says 3-6 flakes a day, a person at the fish store said one flake every other day, another one said 2 flakes a day and my friend said as much as it will eat. ><" I'm so confused!!! Any one got any advice on how much I should feed them- the rtbs is about 6-7cm long, and the angels about 5cm across. How much do you feed your fish and how big are they?

 

[WILDER]

I feed mine three times aday, it more down to what you feed them need a varied diet of frozen foods, and some fish need veg in there diet.

 

[Tolak]

Do not feed them as much as they can eat. In the wild fish live on the edge of starvation, and adult fish can go for 2 weeks without eating. It's better to underfeed than overfeed, when in doubt, feed less.

A fish's stomach is about the size of it's eyeball, count eyeballs, estimate the size, and feed that amount twice daily. Many people fast their fish one day weekly, it gives their digestive system a chance to clean out.

Think quality & variety more than quantity when feeding. What, how often, & how much I feed my fish depends on which tank containing which fish, and what I plan on doing with those fish.

 

[andywg]

As Tolak said, it depends on the tank's occupants and what you are doing with them.

I feed my reef once per day, occasionally more often (with smaller amounts). Most other tanks get fed every other day, occasionally every third with my frogfish really being fed every fourth day.

 

[Fishkeeper2004]

I feed all my tanks once a day before I go the bed. I feed a mix of flake, tablet, frozen bloodworm, brine shrimp, lettuce, and cucumber. Should be trying out some more live foods soon though.

 

[Betta5]

You can give them as much as you want realy. Not loads but as you learn more you will just be able to do it without thinking. Since you only have 3 fish i would say a few flakes, make sure you spread them about so all the fish get some as the RTBS can be very agressive.

Sean

 

[Silverlady]

If you feed to much food so that it lays on the bottom of the tank, this can cause the Nitrates to rise.

 

[Coomon10]

I too feed once a day and make sure that anything that falls is being eaten... I also like to check and make sure most of them get something since this means to me that they are still healthy.

When people feed 2 or 3 times a day i guess this checking becomes harder since it 'tends' to be the same fish that react first i.e. the biggest, so how do people make sure that everyone gets some if you only put in a small amount?

TIA

 

[Bullrock74]

I too feed once a day and make sure that anything that falls is being eaten... I also like to check and make sure most of them get something since this means to me that they are still healthy.

When people feed 2 or 3 times a day i guess this checking becomes harder since it 'tends' to be the same fish that react first i.e. the biggest, so how do people make sure that everyone gets some if you only put in a small amount?

TIA

Making sure all of your fish get enough to eat can be really tricky. My crayfish will not go very far beyond it's rock cave to get food (at least during the day...who knows what it does at night) so I have to feed it using a hard plastic tube and direct the food on top of it's cave. Also, my oscar and pacu fight for position when I feed them, so I have to make sure each gets enough to eat since they will try to block each other from getting at the food. Feeding your fish is not always easy, but as long as you actually see them eating something, they should be okay. Remember that they are cold-blooded animals and need nowhere near the amount of food you might think they do. I agree that it is much better to underfeed than overfeed.

 

[sforzauk]

At the moment I give a small pinch once a day so that its all gone in three mins. The rtbs is actually the most docile so all of them get a fair amount. Is this too much or ok?

 

[three-fingers]

I feed every evening, usually i just put in as much as they can eat in one minute, if they miss any food I'll leave it in till morning and if my syno hasn't eaten it I'll take it out.

I change daily between tropical flake food, tropical pellet food, algae flakes, catfish pellets(only 1/4 of them ever actually make it to the bottom of the tank), cucumber(gets munched on occasionally by my plec), frozen bloodworm(i put in a whole cube and its usually gone in about 5 mins), freeze dried tubifex(same as bloodworm), algae wafers(plec loves these) and live daphnia/bloodworms.