Skip feeding once a week?
- Thread starter ChazECJr
- Start date
From what I've been told, skipping a feeding once a week allows for cleaning of the GI tract and for complete defication of fecal material before new food is ingested. If no food goes in, no feces comes out.
Fecal build up (constipation) in the colon or rectum can lead to systemic toxcity and death as the fecal material decays. This is true for all animals as far as I know.
Most show quality goldfish, the big large ones, are fasted for at least a week to two weeks before being placed in the show tank. This fast is to prevent the fish from dirtying their show tank and thus reducing their appeal to the judges. It also allows for easier transport since ammonia build up is not as severe as in an animal that's just been fed and is now deficating in its transport water that it'll be in for who knows how long.
I have been practicing this technique with my fish at home as well as in the store. The ones in the store really have no choice because I'm off two days a week, but I have not seen this to be detramental to their health. Nor have my fish at home ever suffered from a day of not being fed. If it's not harmful, it may as well be doing some good.
I've also always been told that most healthy, well fed fish can survive at least seven days without food. Thus going on a week long vacation and not feeding the fish is nothing to feel guilty over. Some large carnivors like oscars may be able to go for a month without eating. It is all dependant upon initial body weight and metabolism. Baby fry cannot go without food because they burn engery so fast with growing and swimming. A full grown oscar or grouper may go several weeks without eating, provided thety're not swimming around the tank like crasy doing aerobics. Koi and other cold water hibernators go for months without food.
Water temperature also plays a key role, since a fish's metabolism is based upon its environmental temperature. The warmer the water, the faster the fish's metabolism, the more you'll need to feed it. The cooler your water, the slower the metabolism, the less you feed. Tropicals kept at 82oF would need fed more often than tropicals kept at 74oF.
Hope that helps.
~~Colesea
Fecal build up (constipation) in the colon or rectum can lead to systemic toxcity and death as the fecal material decays. This is true for all animals as far as I know.
Most show quality goldfish, the big large ones, are fasted for at least a week to two weeks before being placed in the show tank. This fast is to prevent the fish from dirtying their show tank and thus reducing their appeal to the judges. It also allows for easier transport since ammonia build up is not as severe as in an animal that's just been fed and is now deficating in its transport water that it'll be in for who knows how long.
I have been practicing this technique with my fish at home as well as in the store. The ones in the store really have no choice because I'm off two days a week, but I have not seen this to be detramental to their health. Nor have my fish at home ever suffered from a day of not being fed. If it's not harmful, it may as well be doing some good.
I've also always been told that most healthy, well fed fish can survive at least seven days without food. Thus going on a week long vacation and not feeding the fish is nothing to feel guilty over. Some large carnivors like oscars may be able to go for a month without eating. It is all dependant upon initial body weight and metabolism. Baby fry cannot go without food because they burn engery so fast with growing and swimming. A full grown oscar or grouper may go several weeks without eating, provided thety're not swimming around the tank like crasy doing aerobics. Koi and other cold water hibernators go for months without food.
Water temperature also plays a key role, since a fish's metabolism is based upon its environmental temperature. The warmer the water, the faster the fish's metabolism, the more you'll need to feed it. The cooler your water, the slower the metabolism, the less you feed. Tropicals kept at 82oF would need fed more often than tropicals kept at 74oF.
Hope that helps.
~~Colesea
