When Should I Feed Them Again?

[JK515]

A week and a half ago i bought an 8 gallon (30 litre) fish tank and let it cycle for a week before adding 5 white cloud mountain minnows (yesterday).

I fed them a small amount of food an hour ago which is 24 hours after I released them into the tank, but i'm not sure if they ate any of it. Should i feed them again later today or wait until tomorrow morning, so ammonia levels don't rise to high?

 

[drobbyb]

Welcome to TFF!

You only need to feed your fish once a day, so you can just wait until tomorrow.

Sadly, waiting a week doesn't cycle your tank at all and you are now in a fish in cycling situation. Have a read in the beginners resource center at the top of the New to the hobby forum.

Cycling a tank takes 4 to 6 weeks with an ammonia source in the tank whether that be fish or pure household ammonia.

 

[fluvial]

Agreed - I feed my fish once a day, and they seem fine on it.
Try for a varied diet which will help keep them healthy and colouful !

 

[JK515]

Welcome to TFF!

You only need to feed your fish once a day, so you can just wait until tomorrow.

Sadly, waiting a week doesn't cycle your tank at all and you are now in a fish in cycling situation. Have a read in the beginners resource center at the top of the New to the hobby forum.

Cycling a tank takes 4 to 6 weeks with an ammonia source in the tank whether that be fish or pure household ammonia.

Thanks for your reply but the packet that the food comes in says feed twice a day, is that true?

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum JK515.
I am sure the packet the food comes in would say feed 6 times a day if they thought you would do it. An adult fish only really needs to be fed once a day and only as much as they will eat in the first minute or so. Any added food after that is too much. When you are trying to grow new fry, the feedings get a big increase in numbers, mine get 3 or 4 feedings a day, but the amount of food each time is microscopic. Be very careful feeding your WCMM, if they are not eating the food, you have fed too much. Since you have an uncycled tank, you can easily recover the uneaten food with the gravel vacuum during your large daily water changes.

 

[JK515]

Welcome to the forum JK515.
I am sure the packet the food comes in would say feed 6 times a day if they thought you would do it. An adult fish only really needs to be fed once a day and only as much as they will eat in the first minute or so. Any added food after that is too much. When you are trying to grow new fry, the feedings get a big increase in numbers, mine get 3 or 4 feedings a day, but the amount of food each time is microscopic. Be very careful feeding your WCMM, if they are not eating the food, you have fed too much. Since you have an uncycled tank, you can easily recover the uneaten food with the gravel vacuum during your large daily water changes.

Ok, where can i find more information about "the daily water changes?"


thanks

 

[OldMan47]

With a fish in cycle, you will end up there. There is a link in my signature area called Fish-in Cycle, that will take you to a thread that describes the whole process of doing a successful fish-in cycle.
Unfortunately you have arrived here the same way so many people do. They get poor advice from a fish shop or product literature, fill a new tank and let it stand a day or two and then put fish in it. The problem is not obvious at first because the new water is a great environment for the fish. After a few days of having fish in the tank, sometimes even less time, the fish start looking sick or dying. When that happens, we get to explain that fish put ammonia into the water by several means including respiration at their gills, having their wastes decay in the tank and having fish food decay in the tank. Ammonia is poisonous to fish in concentrations as low as 0.25 ppm so it must be removed. An established tank's filter will do that very nicely using some bacteria that have built up in the filter media that can convert ammonia into nitrites. Another unfortunate circumstance is that nitrites are also poisonous to fish in about the same 0.25 ppm concentration. There are other bacteria that can convert the nitrites to nitrates. These other bacteria are also present in a mature filter's media. What you are presently faced with is that neither one of those bacteria have had a chance to develop yet. The only way to remove ammonia and nitrites effectively is to physically remove them with a water change. The size and frequency of that water change is determined by testing your water with a liquid type test kit like the API master freshwater test kit. All new water added is first treated with a dechlorinator and is temperature matched to the tank's water to minimize the stress it causes the fish.