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the only type of fish that do not eat/graze on an almost constant basis are larger carnivores. The majority of the small fish we see available for home aquariums feed pretty much constantly in the wild.
One exception would be mouth-brooders when they are caring for their eggs.
Hobbyist follow stringent feeding regimes in order to maintain water quality, not really out of any real health needs of the fish.
Yes, there are times when a fish may benefit from an occasional fast, fancy goldfish being one type that does benefit from fasting, but frankly that is more due to the muck-up that is their digestive tract thanks to the genetic manipulation over the years to develop some of those lines.
Natural carp have no need to fast for digestive issues.
anyway, enough rambling.
I feed my salt tanks once a day with an occasional day long fast, in interest of water quality.
My freshwater tetra tank gets fed about 4-6 times a day, but the set-up is not conventional so it can easily manage the bio-load.
Just found this section, looks like I could be over feeding, when you say once a day, do I assume as much as they can eat in 2, 3, or 5 minutes, what about ground dwellers, they can starve pretty quickly, also do you use flake one day, pellets the next and so on.......sorry for all the questions
I feed 3 times a day, probably total each day for their consumption is-
1/8 tsp fluval flake
1/4 tsp omega one flake
1/4-1/2 tsp bloodworms
10-12 sinking shrimp pellets
I was feeding twice a day, but I've since cut back to only once a day. I was also overfeeding at each feeding, so I've cut that back as well. Over the past week, my tank has cleared up significantly. I may have to try this fasting thing and feed all days except Sunday.