Fish fasting??

[TheDudeAbides]

Anyone’s opinions on fasting fish on occasion?
I know some people believe in skipping feedings once in a while to facilitate cleaning out the digestive systems of their fish. If so, how long do you skip for and how often? I feed twice per day. Usually flake food in the morning and then freeze dried brine shrimp or dried blood worm in the late afternoon.

 

[Andy Sager]

My opinion, fasting fish is a good way for them to try to eat their tankmates. I feed/ fed my fish 3 times per day, everyday and had no issues with their digestion. It was either flakes or High protein foods as a first feeding, second feeding was either flakes or high protein foods ( whichever wasn't fed in the first feeding) and the last meal of the day was a food that was high in chiton ( brine shrimp, daphnia, bloodworms, mysis shrimp, etc) to help them poop out the protein foods of the day. The only dried food I fed was flakes. I've counseled more people with fish having bloat or constipation issues and the common denominator of them all was dried or pelleted foods. I use frozen or live foods over freeze-dried. I've raised literally millions of fish using this exact method so I know it works.
In the wild, fish may not eat every day but hatchery raised fish, what is mostly what you have in the shops today, they get fed multiple times per day to get them to grow so fasting them may not be the best. If you have wild caught fish, living in the same conditions they lived in in the wild, they would be more used to a fasting period, not that it's a necessity.

 

[Aiken Drum]

I don't deliberately fast fish, but if I'm out for the day and don't get home till late the fish don't get fed that day. Skipping a day here or there isn't going to do them any harm but the benefits of having a "fasting day" once a week is debatable.

 

[Tang23]

My opinion, fasting fish is a good way for them to try to eat their tankmates. I feed/ fed my fish 3 times per day, everyday and had no issues with their digestion. It was either flakes or High protein foods as a first feeding, second feeding was either flakes or high protein foods ( whichever wasn't fed in the first feeding) and the last meal of the day was a food that was high in chiton ( brine shrimp, daphnia, bloodworms, mysis shrimp, etc) to help them poop out the protein foods of the day. The only dried food I fed was flakes. I've counseled more people with fish having bloat or constipation issues and the common denominator of them all was dried or pelleted foods. I use frozen or live foods over freeze-dried. I've raised literally millions of fish using this exact method so I know it works.
In the wild, fish may not eat every day but hatchery raised fish, what is mostly what you have in the shops today, they get fed multiple times per day to get them to grow so fasting them may not be the best. If you have wild caught fish, living in the same conditions they lived in in the wild, they would be more used to a fasting period, not that it's a necessity.

To jump in here, I feed my fish frozen mysis, brine shrimp and pellets. Can you suggest some hi protein food?

 

[Andy Sager]

To jump in here, I feed my fish frozen mysis, brine shrimp and pellets. Can you suggest some hi protein food?

Remind me what fish you have please.

 

[Tang23]

Thank you (again!) Andy...
2 clowns, 2 skooter blennys, 2 blue damsels, 1 diamond gobie, 1 coral banded shrimp, 1 bubble anenome (40 g. tank(

 

[Andy Sager]

Thank you (again!) Andy...
2 clowns, 2 skooter blennys, 2 blue damsels, 1 diamond gobie, 1 coral banded shrimp, 1 bubble anenome (40 g. tank(

I would look for a frozen food that contains Clam, Squid, Scallops, Krill, Shrimps/prawn, Fish, Eggs, Spirolina Algae, Nori or similar.
In one of the stores I worked in, I designed a diet for our fish that became very popular with our customers that included all these ingredients, many of them fresh from my fishing trips. I see now that there are a few different companies that have a similar style food. Ocean Nutrition, San Francisco Bay, Hikari and LRS brands all seem to have a similar diet available. There may even be other brands I'm not familiar with. I would look into them as all your fish would have something in there to feed on. You want to find foods that are of smaller pieces vs large chunks since the majority of your fish have smaller mouths. ( I made both ground and chunked foods to feed smaller fish or larger fish types {i.e. Groupers, sharks, Tusks, etc. } ) With fish, the quality of what goes into the fish, shows on the outside of the fish.