Urgent: Will Fish Stop Eating When They Are Full?

[Suleika]

Hi,

I have an urgent question: will fish stop eating when they are full?

We have used the JBL Artemio set to rear brine shrimp, however I'm not sure it has worked properly as the final product is tiny (each the size of a grain of salt) and didn't move anymore after a day of settling, but that is another matter.

Either way I have rinsed the brine shrimp with fresh water in the sieve and then fed them to my fish - not realising that they would fill the whole aquarium! We now have tiny tiny grains all over the tank and the fish just keep eating! Especially the cardinals look like they're pretty bloated already.

Will they stop eating or do we need to take action?? we cannot remove the brine shrimp with the net though, as they go through the mesh, even though it's a very fine net!

 

[Cazgar]

Fish will just keep on eating, they don't know when to stop.
I wouldn't feed again for a few days, then give them some deshelled peas.
Get ready to do a lot of poop syphoning!

 

[Suleika]

I'm thinking maybe we need to do a big water change? There are still SO many little grains in the tank, I think that if they don't stop themselves they will die??

 

[Cazgar]

A big water change wouldn't hurt, you may be able to get some of it out

 

[CezzaXV]

Fish have no concept of being full, they just don't have a mechanism in their bodies that tells them that. So yes, it is theoretically possible that they could eat themselves to death. Not sure if this has ever happened though.

 

[smokeyjo]

I can tell u that they will eat them selves to death. I made the mistake of showing my fish off to my father I had fed them a frozen cube of bloodworm. It was so cool when my father came to my house about 30 mins later I put another 1 in 2 neons eat so much their stomachs broke through their skin.

Personally I'd do a water change to egt as much out as possible but your fish may be different to mine.

Hope u don't lose any fish. Let us know what happens