"Fish have a stomach the size of their eye"

[Snuffleupagus]

I keep reading various peoples' claims that a fish will have a stomach approximately the size of one of its eyes -- I really am beginning to doubt this. I'm assuming this little tidbit of wisdom is claiming that the stomach is about as big as a sphere whose circumference matches that of one of their eyes. In my short time keeping them, I've seem many a fish eat, within a couple minutes, a much, much greater volume of food than would conceivably fit in such a space.

I've tried not to overfeed them, of course, but some fish do a better job getting to food than others, and the others still need grub too. For instance, I recently aquired some live blackworms, and had to put a really impressive amount in there before any even fell past the 3 small zebra danios and 3 small tiger barbs to where the clown loaches could get at them. Even after every fish in there had eaten about five times the size of its "eye" in blackworms, they kept zooming around like creatures possessed, looking for more. I've never seen those clown loaches so unconcerned with their own safety, as they dug around in the substrate in a mad worm-crazed frenzy. I'm gonna have to try to raise a blackworm culture, I think. I'd always heard that fish love live food, but I had no idea to what extent. Plus it's really fun to watch them suck them down like spaghetti.

 

[Toirtis]

Yes, you can file that tidbit of ageless wisdom with 'they only get as big as their tank'.

 

[greenmaji]

it is a little bit of a misnomer.. in thought.. fishfood compacts into a very small amount of space anyway.. but.. feeding them what they can eat in one minute is good insurace against overfeeding. the blackworms have the added benifit of not spoiling if they are not eaten right away.. they just live in your tank untill they are found..

 

[Puriti]

Is that one of those things where fish will eat until they die?

 

[greenmaji]

any animal that has come close to starving will eat and eat until its stomach ruptures.. fish seem to behave like this IME.. Im not too sure if it's absolutly true though..

 

[Puriti]

well...I find that my fish are CONSTANTLY looking for food.. so it might be in some cases.

 

[Snuffleupagus]

Is that one of those things where fish will eat until they die?

any animal that has come close to starving will eat and eat until its stomach ruptures.. fish seem to behave like this IME.. Im not too sure if it's absolutly true though..

well...I find that my fish are CONSTANTLY looking for food.. so it might be in some cases.

Does anyone have any actual experience with fish that died from eating too much? Especially too many blackworms or other live food? Obviously there are other reasons for not putting too much dead food in, but as far as blackworms go I hear two things.

1) Blackworms are nice because you can put a bunch in and they'll live there until the fish eat them
2) Fish like them so much they might eat themselves to death.

Fish definitely like them a lot, and my clown loaches root out every last blackworm from the substrate, from what I can tell, and all my fishes are constantly searching for food. But will fish actually eat themselves to death? What do they do in nature when a whole nest of something falls in their pond, or when a bottom feeder is in an area with a rich soil full of critters?

 

[Toirtis]

Some catfish, etc will eat an obscene amount that will kill them, but it is uncommon at best....the 'eat until they die' thing is probably from people overfeeding and the fish dying from water conditions brought on by the leftover food in the tank.

 

[Snuffleupagus]

Some catfish, etc will eat an obscene amount that will kill them, but it is uncommon at best....the 'eat until they die' thing is probably from people overfeeding and the fish dying from water conditions brought on by the leftover food in the tank.

Aha! I suspected as much. Thanks for confirming it, even if you're the spokesperson for a weaselhead society.

 

[mobiusnu]

Tell that to oscars that eat goldfish.

 

[sirBubbly]

even if a fish is not hungry, it is in their nature to constanly look for food.

 

[talloulou]

I think it's best to feed small amounts frequently vs large amounts once a day. Also I recently read an article in discovery magazine that talked about eating and longevity. And supposedly the more you eat the less long you will live. Apparently that is true for everything that lives. The higher the daily intake of calories the lower the lifespan. So perhaps your fish will live longer if you don't let them pig out. Now how much longer....that's the question.

 

[Skuseman]

A fish in the wild has to constantly search for food. cause food isn't as easy to find in the wild. That is why they seem to eat and eat whatever they can. Its in there nature to eat cause they do not when there next meal will be. I've read that fish have short attention spans . I do not know it this is true. But it makes a load of sense when the fish could easily think . Hey I just ate five minutes ago. Let the neighbor have it. So I do not think a fish will eat himself to death but it is in there nature to eat whatever they see. Cause they are designed that way buy They creator himself.