Am I Feeding Enough?

[Igniseus]

Hi,

I've just been thanking, "have I been feeding my fish enough?", after looking in my food tub and seeing that I've only used about 10g over about 6-8 months. I have 5 Zebra Danio's and 3 Neon Tetra's. The fish are healthy and have had no issues except ones that came from having a new tank early on. I feed once a day, a small pinch. They usually take 20-40 seconds to eat it all; guides say 2 mins of food normally but for these fish they say less, 2 min worth of food would be enormous.

Thanks

 

[Corleone]

Fish really don't need that much food. They can live on fairly little, and well fed they can go a week or more without food with no ill effects. You probably could increase it - don't dump it all at once, but when the food is almost gone, add a second pinch. Provided they are eating it all and it's not sitting in the tank decaying, it's ok. If they start losing interest, stop feeding.

 

[Colin_T]

Well said Corleone

I would just like to add that dry foods should be used up within a month or two. Once they have been exposed to air they start to degrade and lose their nutritional value. Buy a smaller container more often for better freshness.
You can also add other foods to the fish's diet. Raw prawn can be fed a couple of times a week, as can mozzie larvae, flies, mosquitoes and most small bugs, as long as they haven't been sprayed with anything.
Variety is the spice of life

 

[manc37]

i aggree with corleone

 

[vinylman]

Depending on the size of your tank, I'd double the number of Neons; they (like most fish) do much better in a group. As for feeding, fish are opportunistic feeders - they'll eat as much as you put in for them, but they really don't need a great deal. Remember, even if you're feeding them a little, they're getting food EVERY day. They could go for days on end in the wild without finding food, they're just very good at looking hungry. It's much easier to feed a fish to death than to starve one. You can even give them a feeding break for a day every week.

 

[blodhi74]

i aggree with corleone