A day of fasting?

[mustangmp96]

Quick question. I was told by a friend that I should take one day out of the week, every week, say each Wednesday, and not feed my fish. Has anyone else heard this? And, should I practice this? OK, two questions actually! Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[mfdrookie516]

I take 3-4 days out of the week and dont feed my fish. Every other day usually, or sometimes I'll go 2 days without. No need to feed fish every day, unless you're feeding fry or growing out certain fish.

 

[BBradbury]

A Day of Fasting

Hello mustang...

I've heard of this procedure. My understanding is including a fasting day once a week, forces the fish to do a little house cleaning and eat any leftovers in the tank.

I've never done it because I keep large tanks of Fancy Guppies and constantly have a lot of fry in the tanks. So, for the sake of the fry, you want to make sure the little ones are well fed. The adults are always well fed too. It's been my experience with the Guppies anyway, that well fed adults seldom bother the fry.

B

 

[jcolon]

I just started this practice. I feed my fish twice a day 6 days a week enough for them to finish in under 2 min. I'm slowly going to do fasting 2 days a week and do 1x a day.

 

[Shadowraven]

Not a bad idea. I don't feed my fish every day, it tends to foul the water. Not feeding your fish 1-to-2 days a week won't hurt a thing. Some folks only feed every other day. Depends on how much you are feeding them and how detritus it is producing.

 

[mustangmp96]

Thank you to you all! I think I'm gonna start off with going with 1 or 2 days to start, and then maybe down the line feeding every other day.

 

[warthog76za]

You will be surprised when they have the fast day how they will sniff out food. In the past when I was guilty of overfeeding the fish I had a serious pond snail problem. Through members advice here I cut back on the feeding and noticed after a while on the fast day, the mollies/swordtails would eat the pond snail eggs, now Im at a stage where I have to bring in pond snails to feed my assassin snails lol.

 

[aquabeast]

i dont even feed my fish everyday.. i go about every two days, it makes it easier on yourself to clean it up when youre cleaning gravel or whatever the case may be.. certain fish can go longer than others when not being fed.

 

[BBradbury]

Feeding Tropical Fish

I like these posts...

Most tropical fish can go up to two weeks without food and manage very well. That would be the longest. I don't think I'll ever test that theory.

I keep large tanks of Livebearers and a good protein based diet with a variety of meaty and plant based foods is best and needs to be fed daily.

If you want to breed and keep good-quality Livebearers you must feed a quality diet daily. These tropicals are very active and have a very fast metobolism.

Guess I'll continue to feed daily and sometimes twice daily when I have little ones and just do larger and more frequent water changes to keep the water conditions good.

B

 

[jcolon]

I like these posts...

Most tropical fish can go up to two weeks without food and manage very well. That would be the longest. I don't think I'll ever test that theory.

B

One time in college, I guy in my fraternity left his goldfish during winter break (about 1 month total) without feeding (he went home for break)... he completely forgot about the poor thing. When he got back he blurted out "oh S*&T forgot about the fish"

But it was still alive ... a few flakes later ... it was back to swimming normally!!