# How much food?



## Greywitch (Jan 8, 2012)

I know that overfeeding results in poor water quality, and worse, but how much is enough? I know you are only supposed to use what they can clear in 3 mins, but what about community tanks with fast and slow eaters? What about wafers, eg for Corys? What about weather loach?

Sorry if this seems obvious, but I really don't want to screw up. I thought the hard bit was over with cycling, but now the fish are in and happy I am really stressing!


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## drunkenbeast (Nov 13, 2011)

What they can eat in 2 mins is generally the rule of thumb, if some falls to the bottom its prolly best to scoop it out.
but with bottom feeders like you have you can prolly leave it for them to eat, if you are going to feed algae wafers or something its different i believe my package says what they can eat in 2 hours? which is a long time but its always good to just make sure that they eat all of the food you will get the hang of how much when to feed them and everything then can experiment with different types.


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

Greywitch said:


> I know that overfeeding results in poor water quality, and worse, but how much is enough? I know you are only supposed to use what they can clear in 3 mins, but what about community tanks with fast and slow eaters? What about wafers, eg for Corys? What about weather loach?
> 
> Sorry if this seems obvious, but I really don't want to screw up. I thought the hard bit was over with cycling, but now the fish are in and happy I am really stressing!


One thing to remember on food is that fish can go up to three weeks or longer with no food being added. And definately a week or so.

During my "cycle" period after the first single fish is added I add no food for a week. Then when other fish are added I feed only a flake or two per day.

After a few months when the tank has matured I do feed more and at that time also probably have more fish as well. But the 1 flake per every fish or two per day gives you a general ball park.

my .02


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

I feed more than Bob does (Jeez Bob, I was afraid you were going to say you got by without food too ).
The big thing to remember is that flake is rich, and obesity is a major killer. I feed a tiny pinch once a day, twice or more for young fry, and have a day a week with no food. I feed flake a couple of times a week, and home cultured/hatched food in about equal measure. I'm into breeding fish though, so nutrition is key.
However, with quick metaboloism fish like Xiphophorus (platys and swordtails) I feed every day - they do poorly unless they eat a lot.


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

navigator black said:


> I feed more than Bob does (Jeez Bob, I was afraid you were going to say you* got by without food too *).
> 
> 
> ....
> ...


Na.

some people I know reported that the fish died after 10 months or more of no food. *old dude


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## drunkenbeast (Nov 13, 2011)

beaslbob said:


> Na.
> 
> some people I know reported that the fish died after 10 months or more of no food. *old dude


did you just say i fish lived for 10 months with no food? impossible even if it lived it was getting food some other way


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## Rob72 (Apr 2, 2011)

how can a fish go 10 months with no food bob, you talking about ina fish tank or pond


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## Summer (Oct 3, 2011)

I don't stress feeding too much. I feed a pinch of flakes every day, every other day some earth worm sticks for hte coyrs and pictus cats, and every other day some veggie sticks for the plecos. Once a week I put zucchini in for the plecs as well


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## Marci99205 (Dec 13, 2011)

I need to cut back on my feeding, my parameters are fine but my cory's are chunky


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

drunkenbeast said:


> did you just say i fish lived for 10 months with no food? impossible even if it lived it was getting food some other way


Yep. some even over a year.

mainly people sold those betta vases with plants and told customers the betta would eat food from the plant roots. so they just took the vase home and set it someplace expecing the betta to live forever. LOL


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## Summer (Oct 3, 2011)

That's insane and cruel.


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## dante322 (Jan 15, 2012)

I always heard a fishes stomach is roughly the size of its eye. Thats the rule of thumb I go by. It basically equates to a pinch a day



> However, with quick metaboloism fish like Xiphophorus (platys and swordtails) I feed every day


you aint a kiddin, When the food hits the water they are on it! I usually put food on one side of the tank for them. When they attack it, I pop another flake on the other side for the gourami. If I didnt do that he wouldnt get any. He just isnt as aggressive an eater as the platys.

I just wish I could find the food I used a couple years ago, before I got out of the hobby. I dont remember what it was called or who made it but it was basically like small wafers that would sink at different rates. Some would stay on the top for the top water feeders, some would sink slowly for the middle feeders and some would sink quickly for the bottom feeders. One little shake of the can and the whole tank was fed. If I remeber right, it was a high protein food and they only got it once in a while but they sure liked it.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

I don't believe that crap at all! I can take that the fish wasn't being fed by anyone, but they were eating something.

I feed my fish 4 times a week, but they do get a little extra when I do feed. I have a couple of heavy competition tanks where all of them enjoy the same foods. It can be challenging with bottom feeders when you see no food is reaching the bottom. There is a big difference between enough to survive and the fish thriving, IMO.


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## Marci99205 (Dec 13, 2011)

dante322 said:


> I always heard a fishes stomach is roughly the size of its eye. Thats the rule of thumb I go by. It basically equates to a pinch a day.


Wow, I just watched my Cory's eat about 4 blood worms a piece... They are little piggies. Time for cut backs.


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## vdanker (Jan 3, 2012)

I use a variety of foods, including some that stay at the top, and some that quickly sink to the bottom. Some, such as micropellets, will sink very slowly, giving everyone a chance to eat something. Shrimp pellets will sink to the bottom quickly, for the Cories, but even some of the Tetras will go to the bottom and pick them up.


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

As long as all the fish are getting some food and the water isn't getting dirty from too much food it's probably okay. After a while you get the hang of seeing if the fish are looking a little too skinny or a bit on the plump side and adjust accordingly.


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## z1200 (Jan 26, 2012)

I feed all my tanks a pinch in the morning and again at night, corries and ghost shrimp do all the clean up. It did take a while to get amounts right, but now it takes no thought at all.


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

You're still best to feed fish daily and lightly, with a day off per week. 

Watch it with corys - they have armour, so they will always look chunky. With them, you have to look along the belly behind the gills. If it is sunken at all, they are underfed.
Barbs and tetras seem to have the biggest tendency to obesity. Zebras are a good example of a fish to watch - they are shaped like torpedos, which says they have adaptations to 'running- they come from very fast moving water. Watch how happy they are in freshly changed water or in a filter outflow. 
We usually keep them in slow moving tanks with little circulation, and they can gain weight because they are wired to move with nowhere to go. 
You have to research each fish. An underfed swordtail loses weight fast. A Goodeid or molly needs high fiber plant food. Protein foods kill Goodeids, while predators don't want plant food.
Cichlids need to eat, and will show weight loss behind their heads, on their backs, not on the gut. 

Bob's attempting to rattle everyone's cage with his long slow starvation anecdote, I'm afraid. After about 3 weeks, a fish begins to suffer. In a heavily planted, lightly stocked tank, it will hunt small organisms that will always be there, but it will first lose its reproductive ability, then begin to move very slowly and unnaturally. Young fish will be stunted and spinal deformities will begin to develop. They starve to death like any animal, ourselves included.
I wish Bob would be more specific, as once again, with vague general statements, a fishkeeping myth can be created. 

What fish species? What kind of tank? When and where? 

I admit, I don't feed my unicorns, and they thrive. With no food, I don't need to clean their pen, either. They're great pets, and I love playing xylophone on their ribs!


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

navigator black said:


> A Goodeid or molly needs high fiber plant food. Protein foods kill Goodeids, while predators don't want plant food.


I wish you could convince mollies of that, lol, given the chance they will eat as much meaty, fatty food they can get their mouths on, and push other fish out of the way to get it. For me that's the only tricky bit about feeding, trying to get the right balance for all the fish when you have ones with different needs, habits in the same tank.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

beaslbob said:


> Yep. some even over a year.
> 
> mainly people sold those betta vases with plants and told customers the betta would eat food from the plant roots. so they just took the vase home and set it someplace expecing the betta to live forever. LOL


This is very cruel.The poor fish is barely getting by on eating the microscopic organisms that feed off the roots(not the roots themselves,as bettas are not herbivores)I have seen many betta fish slowly die off in those conditions.One reason they last so long is their metabolism slows from the lack of warmth.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

navigator black said:


> I admit, I don't feed my unicorns, and they thrive. With no food, I don't need to clean their pen, either. They're great pets, and I love playing xylophone on their ribs!


*r2


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## ZachZaf (Jan 26, 2012)

I think feeding is a matter of setup and opinion, most people i know that have a 'fishtank' feed every day.
Most people i know ( including board members here) that have 'aquariums' and actually have plants/fish/an ecology, and have set up little worlds in glass (and plastics..) have a system of feeding. 

I tend to set up full ecology systems, that is to say, feeders bottom feeders cleanup crew and filter feeders. 
I feed the bettas daily a couple balls in the am and thats it. I feed the other fish every other day. i use a quarter tablet of algae tablets for the little feeders on the deck. and a pinch of tropical granules. the high med fish pick the granules as they drop, and anything that hits the floor is eaten by bottom feeders/inverts. and the left overs are usually picked out by the inverts again, and the plants trim off/die off is typically picked out by the filterfeeders/Oto cats. works for me so far...


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

navigator black said:


> I admit, I don't feed my unicorns, and they thrive. With no food, I don't need to clean their pen, either. They're great pets, and I love playing xylophone on their ribs!




OOh can you ship me some when they breed?Ive always wanted unicorns!

Oh wait a minute are the the unicorn with the horn on their head thats spiraly and stuff,or the other kind,the ones with the little trumpet?It does make a difference.


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

majerah1 said:


> This is very cruel.The poor fish is barely getting by on eating the microscopic organisms that feed off the roots(not the roots themselves,as bettas are not herbivores)I have seen many betta fish slowly die off in those conditions.One reason they last so long is their metabolism slows from the lack of warmth.


Yea it would appear that way.

But I actually think it is more out of ignorance then any cruel intentions.

I have also heard of 55g marine tanks with 55g refugiums full of pods, macro algae and so on. Which only required very very infrequent food additions. Of the order of weekly food additions. And even fish that feed off the pods like madarian gobies, thrived and lived for years.

But that is a totally different setup with sufficient balancing refugiums provided the necessary food for the fish. No our much smaller more normal tank setups.

my .02


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## dante322 (Jan 15, 2012)

I dont feed for a day or two after adding fish either. Let the chemistry of the water and the bacteria colony have a chance to adjust to the increased load before adding any other source of ammonia.

I also give a feeding before doing a water change but not for at least 24 hours afterwards.


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## Wattser93 (Feb 6, 2012)

beaslbob said:


> One thing to remember on food is that fish can go up to three weeks or longer with no food being added. And definately a week or so.
> 
> During my "cycle" period after the first single fish is added I add no food for a week. Then when other fish are added I feed only a flake or two per day.
> 
> ...


Just because the fish hasn't died yet doesn't mean it's getting enough nutrients. There's a big difference between surviving and thriving.

I feed my fish a small pinch daily, an hour before a water change, and not within 24 hours after. It took a couple days to figure out the proper amounts, but it's pretty easy to feed them now. My Pleco gets a couple of the pellets twice a week (going to add greens to his diet soon), and spends most of his time on the driftwood I added.

Do Plecos get a decent amount of nutrients from driftwood? The Pleco is the only fish that I worry about getting good nutrients to.


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## debisbooked (Jan 7, 2012)

Greywitch said:


> I know that overfeeding results in poor water quality, and worse, but how much is enough?...
> 
> Sorry if this seems obvious, but I really don't want to screw up. ....


Feeding fish is not obvious to me! It takes a while to get to know your fish and their feeding habits. I usually feed once a day and skip one day a week. I have a community tank of neon and skirt tetras, cories, plus one bolivian ram. I used to stress out about how much to feed but decided on once a day after reading these forums and that has worked for me for several years now. I've noticed that the black skirts have got into a pattern of eating every other day at that. I never see the cories eat but they must because they are still alive and healthy...I've also noticed you can 'train' fish to eat in a certain spot of the tank. Even the black skirts will forage on the bottom, looking for a stray pellet that rolls off the 'feeding rock'. I put New Spectrum community pellets in a net and sprinkle them over a large rock. The fish know where to go and where to come back to if they want more. *pc


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