What to feed, how much?

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I_Like_Fish

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jan 3, 2022
Messages
8
Hello,
I just put two gold dust mollies in my 20 gallon aquarium.
I'm a bit confused how often I should feed my fish. The internet is all over with how much should be given, my mother who has had fish for over 30 years (her two clown loaches are in their 20's) says once or twice a day. The pet store I got my fish from said twice a week.

.... I'm at a loss. I currently only have flakes for them, I have algea wafers on the way from an online order.

We intend on getting more mollies (3 of them) and eventually otocinclus (5 of them) for the 20 gallon. We don't want too much of a variety of fish as the tank isn't that big and controlling the PH level can be a pain. Took a while for the PH to get where I wanted it (unplugged a pump. There was too much water movement going on).

Any or all advise should help. Also... should I add salt to the water since mollies are from brackish water, or does that not matter?

The fish themselves seem to be fine. Added them a day ago. Today when I got home from work I found them floating upright at the tank sleeping. Turned the light on and they started swimming around. Now they're swimming around together picking at the decorations. Seem to be a bonded pair (got them together at the petshop).

Edit: the pet store said to feed them on Thursday this week since I got them on sunday to help avoid polluting the tank with amonia.
 
Under normal circumstances feed once daily as much they eat in 2 to 3 minutes. Or feed half that twice a day. Its really up to you. Some people will recommend not feeding them one day per week, but im not sure there is any benefit to that.

However it seems that you arent cycled. What do you understand about the nitrogen cycle? Do you need advice on how to cycle a tank?

While cycling, especially early in the process you should feed lightly. Feed daily, as much as is eaten in 1 to 2 minutes, or every other day as much as is eaten in 2 to 3 minutes. This might be where the pet store is coming from when they say twice a week.
 
Under normal circumstances feed once daily as much they eat in 2 to 3 minutes. Or feed half that twice a day. Its really up to you. Some people will recommend not feeding them one day per week, but im not sure there is any benefit to that.

However it seems that you arent cycled. What do you understand about the nitrogen cycle? Do you need advice on how to cycle a tank?

While cycling, especially early in the process you should feed lightly. Feed daily, as much as is eaten in 1 to 2 minutes, or every other day as much as is eaten in 2 to 3 minutes. This might be where the pet store is coming from when they say twice a week.

Thank you for your help.

Yes I did cycle the tank. Fed the fish. One molly is now doing fine but one is still remaining at the bottom. Once in a while it'll curl it's tail fin and vibrate the fin. I'm not talking about shimmy. I'm talking vibrate like what a female cat's tail does when she's ready to mate. I'm only experienced with betta fish so this is a whole new thing for me.
 
How did you cycle the tank? Your comment about only feeding twice weekly to avoid polluting the tank with ammonia makes it sound like you arent cycled. If you are cycled ammonia wont be polluting the tank.
 
How did you cycle the tank? Your comment about only feeding twice weekly to avoid polluting the tank with ammonia makes it sound like you arent cycled. If you are cycled ammonia wont be polluting the tank.

That's what the associate at the pet store said. The pet store also said they feed all of their fish twice a week.

I've checked the amonia levels daily since I have gotten the fish and they're fine. The PH has remained the same as well (7.5). I keep the temperature at 80. Fed them yesterday and they ate. Gonna feed them again tomorrow. Saturday they'll get fed again and I'll start feeding them daily on monday.

I used the fishless cycling process by adding amonia drops and bringing up the nitrate levels. I keep my tank at 80 F degrees and the PH at 7.5.
 
My experience has evolved my thinking to believe that as long as your fish look and act normal, that feeding every other day is fine. .
I either feed just on even or odd number days to keep track of feeding
I also like to vary the type of food fed..

How much you feed a given tank can depend of how a tank is set up and the fish in it .
Detritus plant matter in a plated tank can be eaten by some fish
 
The fish stores usually don’t feed as often as you ‘should’ because in most cases their tanks are heavily stocked. If they fed daily or twice daily they would end up overloading their tank and filters. They’re just trying to keep them alive till they sell, they aren’t trying to grow them out!

At the end of the day I think one feeding or 2 smaller per day is fine for most scenarios. If you have a fairly new tank or marginal filtration, you may want to feed once one day and skip the next (or just do very light feeding once daily) to avoid overloading your filtration

If your tank is fully cycled, you shouldn’t have to worry about ammonia at all, but it will contribute to more nitrate buildup
 
I feed my big fish blood worms twice a day morning and evening. And I feed mid day a little flake for any small fish that can't eat. But anyway my mollies eat both and are getting big. Not sure I think 2 might be pregnant. I'm way under stocked for a 75g tank so I never see ammonia and I have plants. My 4 mollies seem very happy lots of room and everyone gets along. I have 3 zebra danios 2 out of the 20 electric tetras my smallest fish seem to be thriving. 2 angels, 4 albino Cory 1 misc Cory 4 oto, common pleco, dwarf pleco, black ghost knife, 2 powder blue guarmie, and a paradise fish. I feed generously because of all my bottom feeders and snails seems to be working for me. I do plan on getting at least a 125g in the future for my bigger fish that may out grow this tank. But I have years for that. Even so I almost pulled the trigger on 125 yesterday and still might just so I can take my time and do it up nice.
 
I do kinda learn as I go, then research why I have issues after the fact so... my input is just my experience today. I've only been tanking for almost a year. Like yesterday I was wondering why all the new guppy grass seems to be declining. Research, research and I heard something I never heard before root tabs, so I have freaking 80$ worth of different plant crap coming from Amazon [emoji849]
 
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