Feeding my fish every other day

[AoiGSR]

I used to feed my fish (cherry barbs, brilliant rasboras, corys, and otos) once in the morning and once in the evening.

My LFS told me "we feed them every other day" . My fish had been dying for reasons unknown to me (overfeeding?) and sometimes they wouldn't eat. I started the feed every other day routine.

Now when I feed them every other day, (even though 2 cherry barbs died of no food?), corys and brilliants dart for the food.

Is feeding every other day drastic? I don't want to underfeed them either.

I noticed my tank is cleaner (but maybe because i just recently added ottos?) :?

-AoiGSR

 

[BrianNY]

I rarely hear of a fish starving to death (unless it's sick and just won't eat). But we can feed them to death. IMO the best way to avoid this is to feed several small quantities daily.

How often do you do water changes? What kind of filter do you have and how often do you clean and change the media?

 

[AoiGSR]

I have a 20 gallon tank with a Emperor 280. Media is changed every month and water changes every week at about 5 gallons. I have a bubbler with an air pump. i have several pieces of driftwood that I made a cave. no plants in this tank (my previous 40 had plants but I am redesigning that tank for Dwarf Cichlids)

So sounds like feeding every other day should be okay?

How about small fish that "hide" like my only cherry barb? she's about 3/4 of an inch. should I put her in those plastic breeder boxes till she is bigger?

-AoiGSR

 

[ferret]

Er. I feed all my tanks twice daily, and always have the 'darting' behavior. Maybe the frequency isn't the issue, but the ammount of food given.

 

[grimlock3000]

"should I put her in those plastic breeder boxes till she is bigger?"

No, the fish is much better off in the tank than in a tiny breeder. Those breeder boxes can cause a lot of stress on a fish. I have one Cherry Barb that is less than an inch, I have never seen it eat but it is doing very well. It must pick through the gravel at night to eat.

 

[captainGregor]

When I had zebra danios, they were eating all the food before anyone had a chance to get to it, so were platys. Now, that I took them to LFS, they told me - wow, your fish is chunky! truly, I look in their tank where they placed my danios and theirs looked like torpedos, whereas mine looked like fattys. I just fed them small amounts twice a day. Now I still feed fish twice a day but more targeted. I made second feeding ring and now there is more than one place for them to eat.
I wish I could feed them more often and less food, but being at work takes its tall

 

[Kerrinne]

I feed mine twice a day as well. They seem to act like I haven't fed them in days each time (especially my giant danios!). I usually get the amounts in my 10 gal tank just right. It's my single betta that I keep overfeeding. Trying to train myself to just a couple flakes/pieces of whatever each time I feed him.

 

[PlatyLady]

I feed my tanks a few times a day, a little bit each time. I'm away often, so there are plenty of days they don't get fed at all, but since they are well fed normally, I never worry about it. I've read several times that a 'fasting' day is good for them once a week.

As for the breeder trap, I've found it only stresses my fish out. I haven't used it in ages. (even for breeding)

 

[myriam]

I used to feed mine twice daily, once at breakfast and once at dinner. But then I started worrying about overfeeding. So now I give them just one generous feeding at dinner time, and I vary what I give them each time. They go mad for the food and I am certain 99% of it is eaten.

I wouldn't worry about underfeeding them--I've learned from others here that fish can go for several days without food (in fact, I didn't feed them while I was away for 3 days over Christmas). I'd rather do that than use one of those pyramid feeders that wreak havoc on your water.