How much should we feed our fish?

coderabit21 · #1 10/16/2004, 01:59 AM

I have been thinking about how much I should feed my fish since I started this hobby two years ago. I know I feed my fish a lot more than most, but in turn it takes a toll on my tank by adding excess nutrients, phosphates, etc. I feed my fish once a day and seems that they are always starving when I go to the tank. Yet they are all really fat fish. I know people who do just fine with feeding their fish just once a week, but yet I feel bad when I only feed them once a day. And I've read books that say to feed your fish up to 5 times a day.

So say you have a single yellow tang that is approx. 4" in a 100 gallon tank. How often and how much would you feed it in terms of frozen food? Keeping in mind that you want to have a healthy fish as well as keeping your tank as healthy as possible.

krucial · #2 10/16/2004, 01:38 PM

I feed myne about 3 times a day but i feed them a small amount. Its better to do that in my opinion. I think the enjoy it also.

DgenR8 · #3 10/16/2004, 08:19 PM

Feeding small amounts more often is far better than feeding large amounts, less often. The problem is that most people don't have the option of feeding multiple times daily.
My fish get fed almost every morning. Sometimes life gets in the way, and I miss a day or two. They don't seem any worse for the wear.
Feeding once a week to me is not nearly enough, but that depends on what kind of fish you're feeding. If they are herbivorous, and there's algae in the tank that they eat, you can obviously feed less often, as they have a natural food source.

nic-bass · #4 10/19/2004, 08:10 PM

i feed once in the morning and night, small amounts. works around my schedule.

jumatomar · #5 10/21/2004, 06:07 AM

before I fed 3times daily, after the algae bloom i reduce it to ones daily only small amount. now they are used to eat, I seldom see my yellow tail damsel fed on algae.

jthnhale · #6 10/22/2004, 07:14 PM

I feed them three times a day, small amounts.
I try to give them a frozen cube every other day or so,
and give them some seaweed as well. I have a auto feeder
to drop some pellets in the tank for the second feeding of the
day. they all look healthy and keep gowing.

Putawaywet · #7 10/23/2004, 04:14 AM

FWIW, I read a paper a while back advocating the bennefits of feeding smaller amounts more frequently. 5x-8x a day. The Reader's Digest version of the study was that fish metabolize food differently than we humans do along with the belief that they lack the same kind of fat stores the we have evolved over time.

Feeding smaller amounts several times a day showed (a least for the purpose of the study and this paper) a decrease in species agression, an increase in overall health, growth and coloration, as well as more natural behavioral mannerisms in the form of swimming and environment interaction.

Brett

proenca · #8 10/23/2004, 09:03 PM

yes, I agree that fish should be fed as many times as we can ( reducing dosage when feeding times increase ) ;

When I had my aquariums for the first time I had huge stress : I often go away on the weekends to my beach house, so I bought myriad of things from automated feeders to dissolving food to the fish bear the weekend.One day I saw somewhere that fish should go for a couple days without feeding per month : it was benefitial to them, because sometimes they cant food one day or two per month and that would "cleanse" their system.

Well, I tried that and I never saw a decrease in health... and long years have passed and I regularly leave my aquarium with no food in the weekends , but feed 3 to 4 times a day during the week

coderabit21 · #9 10/24/2004, 02:05 AM

One problem I have with feeding small amounts is that some of my fish are dominant and will eat the majority of the food before the others have a chance to get it.

I agree that you should feed many small feedings. However, I usually can't feed just a pinch.

Fluker · #10 11/02/2004, 05:48 PM

If I'm going away for the weekend I'll put a medium piece of broccoli on a clip. The clip is stuck onto the glass with a suction cup. All the fish seem well fed when I return.

rspar · #11 11/02/2004, 05:55 PM

I also don't feed on a weekend away. My cardinal wouldn't even glance at a piece of broccolli in the tank.

Fluker · #12 11/02/2004, 06:39 PM

I had a yellow tang and a naso tang and even a niger triger that used to tear that stuff up like it was candy.

kenny77 · #13 11/14/2004, 03:51 AM

well i have anthias on my tank and nono a permanet schedule. when im off i feed them about 3-4 time a day. but very little amount. teh rest of the they i only feed them twice. with a couple of hour between

DrHarryLopez · #14 12/06/2004, 04:43 PM

tangs feed on Nori daily, fozen food every other day

easttn · #15 12/09/2004, 03:51 PM

My tank has been much cleaner since I've been feeding every other day. The fish tend to "find" a lot more things they will eat from what is growing naturally on the rocks than when feed every day. None are any skinnier, and when I do feed my 5 fish, its 3 cubes of various frozen cubes and Selcon. Cyclopeeze 2X a week and Aminos 2X a week.

KT & SJ · #16 12/17/2004, 05:37 PM

Putawaywet, I couldn't agree more with your comment.
"Feeding smaller amounts several times a day showed (a least for the purpose of the study and this paper) a decrease in species agression, an increase in overall health, growth and coloration, as well as more natural behavioral mannerisms in the form of swimming and environment interaction."

I feed about 5 times a day, small amounts, varing at each feeding the food I give them. They are less ravanous and don't fight over the food much so even the subordinate fish don't have a hard time getting fat. When I started feeding this way they reacted just like you wrote. Who would have thunk it, the more natural to them my regimin and system is the more they thrive. Another result from feeding like this is that when ever a person is in the room every one in the tank is front and center, even my mandarin, anthias, and purple fire fish who used to be in hiding all of the time before I switched over to this method of feeding.

Shauna

Frankysreef · #17 12/21/2004, 11:25 AM

Ehiem automatic feeder...

runs on batteries, has a timer, and feeds measured amounts.

Awesome

rspar · #18 12/23/2004, 12:59 AM

Slightly off subject how long would you leave a freshly thawed cube out?

Ti · #19 12/23/2004, 01:39 AM

I also notice my tang returning to algae grazing when I reduced the meals per day (due to work).
I used to feed it like 4-5 times a day (small portions)
but lately it's been in the morning before work and after work, but I catch it nipping at algae again, which is nice.
BUT i have noticed the aggression of the tang going up since I feed it twice a day now.

KT & SJ · #20 12/23/2004, 05:08 AM

I notice the same thing, when ever there are days I can only feed a couple of times the rabbit fish and yellow tang get more aggressive but the pay more attention to the algae, if there is any left, growing in the tank.

staticfishmonger · #21 12/25/2004, 07:33 AM

lately i have been feeding every other day at most, most of the time it ends up being every 2 days. the tangs have really gotten busy on the grazing and have since wiped out a little HA prob i had. they are all fat and happy and that tank has never looked better.

Frankysreef · #22 12/25/2004, 03:31 PM

You really should feed small amounts several times a day. It is highly recommended. I feed 4 times a day, and I have the happiest fattest fish in the world.. No aggression problems also.

I feed a mix of 3 different foods in my auto feeder and then mysis 2wice a day.

But I have 3 anthias, a longnose butterfly, a blue tang, a maroon clown, a rabbitfish and a rainbow wrasse. Kinda picky eaters sometimes

F

Frankysreef · #23 12/25/2004, 03:34 PM

It is also interesting that you have so much algae for them to graze on? Mine pick at the film algae, but I have an algal scrubber in my fuge that sucks all the nutrients out. Are u doing that also?

F