Underfeeding?

[Stevie]

Hi All,

Is it possible to underfeed, do you think?

I'm usually pretty good for not over feeding my fish, I do not feed them every day. I'm just thinking though that I may be a wee bit to "Spartan" with my feeding regime at the moment.

I only have 5 c. 1 inch Tiger Barbs at the mo. I'm feeding them 2-3 crushed flakes of Tetra-Pro 5 times a week. It is prob enough, but I just wanted to ask around....

 

[Monoxide]

I feed mine each day once.. But what I think fish can go a while without food. And its not like your starving em.

 

[unwritten law]

Mine have gone a good week with out food no problem so as long as they get something each day, they should be fine.

 

[bmoraski]

i personally feed every day in the morning when i get home from work.BUT i have cut back amount A LOT! i feed flake.
it lets me see every one is accounted for and i check for casualties.
ive read about and have gone every other day ( when i was way over feeding my tank was a mess !)
you really have to watch your fish and do what best works for YOUR tank.
everyone has such a wide variety of setups. when i went away on vacation for a week i used the weekly feeders you add that are in foil circles. and every one was fine !
i thought, ya when i get home whole tank would be dead but not one casuailty!
anyway i hope i helped
later

 

[RexyTexel]

Just do small pinches. Tiger Barbs are known to have huge appetites. You have to remember that in the wild a fish never knows when it's next meal will be so when it's presented with food it's snatch and grab like crazy! So if allowed, they'd eat themselves to death. I have bettas and catfish which I feed 3-4 small pellets 5 times a week. I also give bloodworms and the catfish get 1 algae wafer and a few shrimp pellets. It took me a few tries to get a good method down but my fish seem to be plump and happy.

 

[twiant]

The way I figured out how much food to give my fish is i wouldout put in a tea spoon then if they ate it all I woulgive them a bit more and so on until there is a little floating at the top after 10 minutes then I would scoop it out and find the rite amount from there.

 

[unwritten law]

I thought the rule was just feed them as much as they can eat for about 2 minutes... with my tigers that goes fast.... I do this twice a day in my bigger tank

 

[homebunnyj]

The way I figured out how much food to give my fish is i wouldout put in a tea spoon then if they ate it all I woulgive them a bit more and so on until there is a little floating at the top after 10 minutes then I would scoop it out and find the rite amount from there.

Sounds like a lot for the number of fish you have. And they should be done eating in a couple of minutes, I think. Is it difficult to keep your nitrates under 20?

 

[Stevie]

Cheers for the feed back.

Yeah, I figured I was prob doing ok.... just wanted to check.

 

[MissFishy]

I feed every 2-3 days. Awhile ago we had a fishkeeper on the forum that was leaving town for a whole month and didn't know what to do with her fishtank full of fish. We had her fatten them up, then leave them (without those horrid feeder blocks that foul the water!). She came back after a month and ALL fish were still alive and thriving! Daily feedings are really necessary, unless they're fry (in which case they need food every few hours). Adult fish should be fine with feedings every 2-3 days.