Over-Feeders Anonymous

[Autumnsky]

Feel free to chime in...

I am an over feeder, and why O why do I keep doing it?

Because they always look hungry and they seem like they are starving!

 

[JoeFreshnSalt]

I'm an over feeder and have been so for a year now. I cut back but then worry that my plecos are not getting their fair share. Then when I walk by the tank all the others get excited like I'm bringing them a treat and I feel guilty, especially if they see me give my cat a treat. So I give in and feed a little more. Then my nitrates rise and I worry that I'm putting their health in jeopardy. That is my over feeder cycle. Please don't tell my therapist I was supposed to have this under control a few months ago!

 

[TMaier]

I love to watch everyone enjoying a good meal. And the snails eat most of the leftovers. But vacuuming up the remains is a constant chore.

And then again, I love to watch everyone enjoying their meal.

And variety....
Blood worms
Brine Shrimp
Mysis Shrimp
Grindal worms
Flake
Bottom feeder pellets
Snailo

I like to image life is pretty good in that tank.

 

[NickNaylor]

I am an inadvertent overfeeder. I'm still trying to figure out both how much I need to feed (I know the guidelines, just trying to translate that into an actual amount of food) and how to get food to the plecos. My mollies seem to love the algae wafers. The plecos are so timid during the day that I worry they aren't getting much.

I do hate the look of the tank with uneaten food floating around, though.

 

[Andy Sager]

Overfeeding is fine IF and only IF you have the filtering system and water change schedule to handle it. It's also one of the reasons why tanks go bad quickly.

The fish will only starve to death if you don't feed them at all. If you see the fish getting skinny, you feed a little more or feed a more appropriate food for them. Putting more food in does not guarantee the right fish is getting more food. The other fish may still just get more food.

It's a learning curve to what is the "right" amount of food but more frequent small feedings will serve the fish ( and tank) better than single huge feedings. Think of it this way: Imagine you having your entire days worth of food at 1 meal. You can only eat so much then you have to walk away from the table and if you don't, you will not be able to walk away. If you leave the food unattended, you get ants. The tank doesn't have ants the insects, but it does have its equivalent.

 

[Delapool]

I'm pretty sure I over-feed. Trying to constantly cut-back and have one night of no feeding.

 

[Cold Canadian]

My cardenal tetrad always look so skinny and almost a concave stomach. But when I feed them the are super picky. They only eat 1/3 of what they put in their mouths. The other 2/3 gets spat back out and sinks to the bottom...

 

[Anna94]

I feed my fish once every other day

 

[nirbhao]

I had to set a super strict schedule for feeding because I also really enjoy watching the critters eat. Selfishly, it's also very fun when they get excited to see me.

I do flakes every day except Thursday, which is a fasting day for the big tank. Friday is brine shrimp and a water change. Saturday, rotifers. Sunday, flakes only. Monday, shrimp pellets. Tuesday, blood worms. Wednesday, peas.

Sheet seaweed for the snails isn't in the schedule because I do that by eye. It's almost always gone the morning after I offer.

 

[Autumnsky]

Agree with Andy about always wondering if the guys at the bottom get what they are supposed to. I have heard of some using a acrylic hollow tube to place and drop foods for the bottom feeders to their specific spot like wafers or blood worms.

Cold Canadian - check to see that the food isn't a little too big for their mouths.

Anyway I just probably overfed again tonoght making sure all the fish were able to get something.

Yes TMaier, I often feel like I feed the exact same thing to the fish but then realize like yours, the variety in a list is like the length of my arm! So many varieties and types of foods and trying to make sure they get soething that is really specific for them.

Then all the rest probably get too much.

Andy I like the 2x per day.

I preach it myself is to feed half what you normally would and do am and pm feeding with only the one half of the total food equalling 1/4 for am and 1/4 for pm.

Since the baby / young fish I end up feeding more for them too.

 

[Andy Sager]

My cardenal tetrad always look so skinny and almost a concave stomach. But when I feed them the are super picky. They only eat 1/3 of what they put in their mouths. The other 2/3 gets spat back out and sinks to the bottom...

I suggest you either change foods or crush your current food a little better and see if its a size thing or a taste thing. If its a taste thing, you really should change foods. Decapsulated brine shrimp might be a good addition as well.

 

[GuppyGuy333]

How many of you do fast days?
I know fish in the wild don't eat as often or as much as fish in captivity but are there any pros/cons to fast days?

Also do any old school fish keepers do the mutliple smaller feedings a day versus the one big feeding?

 

[Andy Sager]

How many of you do fast days?
I know fish in the wild don't eat as often or as much as fish in captivity but are there any pros/cons to fast days?

Also do any old school fish keepers do the mutliple smaller feedings a day versus the one big feeding?

I don't fast them on purpose but sometimes, something comes up and I am not available to feed.
The pro to fast days is for the fish clear out their dige day or days without feeding without suffering damage stive tracks however, I'm of the old school and if the food they are being fed is good quality, this is not a necessary step. They will do it themselves.
The CON to doing this is that most of the fish we keep today are not wild fish but man made ones and are used to being fed anywhere from 3 to 6 times per day so when they don't get food that one day, they are as likely to turn on each other as they are not. You also can't compare what the wild fish eat to what we feed them. Wild fish get much healthier diets and can go a day or days without doing damage to themselves. The same can't be said of our tank fish.
I am one of the old schoolers and I feed the hatchery 3 times per day and my fish show that when my customers compare them to what they get from their regular wholesalers.

 

[GuppyGuy333]

Alrighty thank you so much!

 

[Autumnsky]

Mine I wil possibly feed more than I should and then skip an evening feeding or the next morning and do an early feeding that next day since I know they would be hungry.

By extending the time between the feeding it kinda lets the filter /BB catch up if there was too much waste, either uneaten food waste or poop from overeating.

Was just away for a number of days and had family feeding according to directions but was told that certain fish, especially the Endlers, Platy and Angels always looked, rather acted, like they were starving. And got fed more than they should since they were so accomplished at begging! Sneaky critters.

 

[Delapool]

Lol - probably go to a training school on how to train your owner. Mine always get overfed while away.

 

[Swampman]

I feed my fish once a day. My bottom feeders are fed 6 days a week. Why? Because I want them to clean the bottom. I feed a variety of food. Nothing live. Freeze dried brine shrimp, blood worms and daphnia. A selection of flakes and pellets. All my tanks are planted. Including my 3.5 gal betta tank. Fish beg more than my dogs. But overfeeding causes too many problems.

 

[TMaier]

Fish begging is soooo believable! They look so frantic like they are going to DIE if they don't get MORE.

 

[nirbhao]

My husband thought a fasting day was mean. Look at how hungry they are!

 

[Potluck]

My issue is my thinking lol, I'm like what if I didn't get fed for a day ha ha, but I do fast once a week on the community mon-thurs small feedings 3x a day cobalt Spirilina flake, Friday small flake feeding in morning and afternoon (some of my fish don't eat blood worms) then blood worms before lights out, sat blanched zucchini or seedless cucumber (organic blanched in prime) Sunday 50% water change