dirrtybirdy

How much do you feed your fishes? How many times do you feed them in a day?


I have 30 green neons and about 13 other fishes. how much should i feed them?

I feed them about 50 like blood worms every day. is that too much?

hoppycalif

I feed my fish once a day, and always have done so. I occasionally let a day or two go by without feeding at all. I don't feed bloodworms though, except the freeze dried variety. I alternate flake food, freeze dried bloodworms and freeze dried tubifex. I also feed my Yoyo loaches a sinking pellet food once a day, about one pellet per each of 3 fish.

davemonkey

My feeding routine is pretty much the same as Hoppy's. Most people tend to think that fish NEED to eat 2-3 times daily and should be left satiated. In reality, it's better to leave them a bit 'hungry'. If you fill them up, they'll just wind up 'pooping' out undigested food.

Even at once a day, and skipping a day or two each week, they are still getting plenty (and more than they would in the wild). And for vacationers, fish can go up to a week without food if they are healthy and plump before you go.

-Dave

FobbyBobby23

To add onto that, when I'm gone for winterbreak and my fish are still at school and no one has access to them, I just literally, don't feed them for the whole month.

When I come back they look fine and healthy! But, you have to be very sure that they're well-fed beforehand. Depending on your stocking levels, I think most fish are capable of doing this since in the wild food isn't abundant all the time. It also helped that most of my fish were omnivores so there was probably plenty of algae and stuff around for them to peck at.

Certainly I don't suggest doing this, it is just if you have to, it is possible to not feed them for a few weeks and for them to be relatively healthy.

davemonkey

Wow! I didn't know they could go that long! But, it makes sense with algae being ever present.

ranchwest

Mouthbrooders (fish that hold their eggs in their mouth) sometimes hold their eggs/babies as much as 4 weeks or even more without eating. However, they are usually very weak afterward. When I was breeding African cichlids, I didn't like leaving the babies with the mother for more than 4 weeks because the mother usually started weakening fairly quickly beyond that point.

However, I feed my fish twice a day. This leads to me doing partial water changes at least twice a week as I have a heavy fish load. I alternate feeding frozen bloodworms and frozen spirulina brine shrimp. I also feed Tetra Veggie flakes and TetraMin. I may mix in other foods in the future.

My concern about DirrtyBirdy's feeding routine is not the frequency, but the variety. I would be inclined to feed a vegetable flake and a general flake with at least some if not all feedings.