Am I feeding too little??

[NorCalAl]

I know the old adage of feed no more than they'll eat in 15 minutes. Now I hear it's feed no more than they'll eat in 5 minutes. Well, my fleet eats everything within about 1 minute. Usually two brine shrimp (frozen) cubes two or three times a day. I add some sinking pellets most nights for the plecos and add some flakes/pellets two or three times a week. Anything else I add seems to go mostly unnoticed.
OK, so what's happening is it seems that they are STARVED! They come from everywhere to feast and go crazy when the food is introduced. I know they should, but now the plecos are involved (where before they hung out under a log waiting for the current to bring them leftovers) and all seem to fight each other. I know 18 mouths is a lot to feed, so am I underfeeding?

 

[Apocalypse_Gold]

2-4 minute of food per day is appropriate. Break the cubes up more or feed with flakes or other food and supplement with the cubes. New Life Spectrum and Omega one are popular food brands but watch out for bone shards in omega one. You may need to add some veggies to your fishies diet. You've got a lot of protein but that can make them constipated. Veggies give them something to nibble on all day.

 

[NorCalAl]

I completely break up the cubes before feeding. How do I include veggies? I've wanted to do that, but I'm not sure how or what ones to feed.

 

[TwoHobbies]

I feed peas by droping 3 or 4 frozen peas into a glass of hot water for about 5 minutes, then remove the outside skin with a knife and drop them in.

The first 2 times I feed them they seemed to be ignored, but were always gone the next morning. Now they don't last 2 minutes.

 

[joannde]

Another way to do veggies is to cut them into long strips (I'm thinking zucchini and the like) and attach them to a suction cup and put it on the glass. Or you could drop it onto the bottom and just pick it out after awhile.

I feed peas every Sunday - the fish go NUTS for them ! I honestly never thought the bettas would go for them but WOW do they. So now I give some to everyone and its a feast LOL

 

[QTOFFER]

It's MUCH easier to overfeed than it is to underfeed. How do your plecos and other fish look between the eyes? If this area is sunken, then you're underfeeding. Don't go by their behavior alone. Fish always act hungry -even the overfed ones.

I read somewhere that most fish have stomachs that are roughly the size of the eye. If you feed more than can fit in the stomach, it will just pass through undigested. I use this rule of thumb to gauge what volume of food I should add to the tank daily.

I second the veggie suggestions. You can leave fresh veggies in the tank for 24 hours - then the uneaten food should be removed before it rots.