2 Questions - Food And Water Change

[ruffmeister]

2 questions that have been bugging me

1) when doing a water change should you just take the water out or should you disturb the gravel and get the cr*p out as well. because you get the extra cr*p out but then you can cause the fish stress. so what is best for them.

2) feeding fish should you give them a set amount or keep feeding until they stop feeding because my fish have a set amount of food but they always seem to be hungry and go mad looking for food everytime i go past the tank. i feed in the moring and night time too. should i change this also.


what ya thoughts?

 

[dwarfgourami]

1. I aim at some sort of middle road here, trying not suck off the guck off the top of the gravel and distrubing some of it to some extent each week, but not deep-cleaning the whole lot.

2. If you go on feeding them until they stop begging, they'll burst. A rough and ready rule is to feed as much as they will eat in two minutes. But it does depend both on the type of fish and the type of food. Livebearers eat faster than corys and a livebearer will need longer to tackle a piece of pea than the corresponding amount of tropical flakes. My guppy scoffed her breakfast in 10 seconds flat this morning. How often you feed is less important than how much.

 

[ruffmeister]

if i leg them eat for 2 minutes solid then i'll run out of food within a week what other opinions are there

 

[dwarfgourami]

if i leg them eat for 2 minutes solid then i'll run out of food within a week what other opinions are there

Same as my guppy- so we evidently can't go by that rule. I've calculated that about 3 tropical flakes is a reasonable daily ration for a guppy/platy, I usually spread that out over 2 feeds. Or half a pea/platy when I'm feeding peas. Or 1/4 of a tabimin tablet each for my corys.

 

[big mick]

I dont mess with my gravel atall really, I do 3 water changes a week (25%), Im not suggesting everyone does that much of a water change I just have alot of time on my hands.

Dont over feed your fish though........its the worst thing you can do, just feed them a little bit twice a day, a fish can live about 3 weeks without food before it starves so dont worry about them if they "look hungry"....they will always look hungry.