How Often Do You Feed Yours

[jamesmacc]

hey folks, only had my fish 9 days and im currently trying to get the right amount of food at feeding times. NLS recomend feeding them twice a day as much as they eat in 1-2 minutes but i know some people only feed them for as much as they eat in 30 seconds once a day. i would like to keep them as happy and well as i can, i dont mind the cost of food feeding them twice a day but dont want them to devolp bloat.
can you advise me on how you feed yours and if they have coloured up well and not got bloat.
cheers, james

 

[blagger]

Alright James, no expert because I have no fish yet! But have been reading a bit, apparently the less you feed them the less the aggression as well as they will spend most of their time looking for food then.

Also over feeding will give you a dirty tank which can cause a rise in ammonia and other diseases.

When I was running my parents tropical tank, I first started by feeding them twice a day, the ammonia levels used to go through the roof. We now only feed them once every two days. Probably not the same for Cichlids though.

Haven't answered your question though sorry..........

 

[jamesmacc]

cheers for the reply, yeh i heard a few folk say that you have to keep them on the hungry side so that they concentrate on looking for food and not starting fights . im running 2 large external filters so it should cope fine with 2 lots of feeding per day but i only want to that if they need it to be healthy and strong

 

[mike455555]

i feed mine whenever i remember... / feel like it (i dont think they have ever gone without food for more than 4 days and no less that 1)
i only feed once a day...

fish in the wild dont get fed all the time... so i dont feed mine all the time... im not sure if its the right thing todo but its more natural and thats why im in fish keeping

 

[Malawi MaD]

Also depends on what food mate, some foods can be fed little and often and others in larger quantities but less times.

 

[fishguy2727]

African cichlids tend to graze all day long, like many small community fish. This means that more frequent feedings is more natural.

Twice daily is pretty standard, but if possible 3-4 is even better. How long it takes them to feed varies by how aggressive they are about eating, how many fish are in the tank, what types of fish are in the tank, etc.

You shouldn't feed less to cause less waste, that means you aren't doing enough water changes to begin with. You water changes should change based on the needs of the tank, not vice versa.

The problem with frequent smaller feedings is that if you have fish that are more aggressive eaters than other fish in the tank they will eat all the food every time and by the time the lazy feeders realize there was food it is all already gone. In those situations it is best to feed one or two larger meals daily so that the aggressive feeders can become full and there is still food around for the other fish.

Another trick I have learned has to do with the size of the fish and the size of the food. I also feed NLS and I will feed the 2mm or 3mm food first and let the larger fish and aggressive feeders fill up on that, then offer a 1mm for smaller fish. Since the larger fish filled up on 3mm they don't take all the 1mm from the smaller fish. The larger pellets also fill up the larger fish much better.

 

[rifty]

I use nls have done for around 5 years now. I feed once a day all my fish get 1mm even my 30cm+ monsters I feed 5 out of 7 days with no pattern just miss a feed when working late. I have never had any issue of some fish being underfed as nls sinks and scatters well in my tanks due to a good current.