Can Fish Eat So Much They Pop?

[Nerwign]

I just stocked my fishless-cycled 50 gallon (us) tank with:

4 leopard danios (1M 3F)
3 checker barbs (1M 2F)
1 round-tailed beta (M)
1 Butterfly Loach (aka Hong Kong Plecostomas)
4 Khuli Loaches

I can't believe how much I love the danios. They are some amazing fish right there.

My problem is that I got some live worms for them (blood worms maybe?) and started dropping them into the tank a few at a time. The danios (and the beta) hang out at the surface and eat *every single* worm that I drop. The checker barbs and the khuli loaches would like some worms but only about 2% make it to the bottom of the tank. The danios and beta start to look inflated from eating so much, but I don't see them stopping!

I want to give them worms until they're full, and then put some for the bottom-guys, but I'm worried that the danios/beta might overeat before they stop.
(I meant for the worms to be a treat, not a complete meal, but if that's the case the danios are the only ones that would ever get this treat)

What do you guys think? Is it possible for them to eat so much they damage themselves??

-Nerwign

 

[Kyrielle]

Yes. Just as it's possible for a person to eat so much their stomach crushes their other organs and can cause some serious damage. In the case with fish, the first organ to get damaged by a large stomach (or intestines) is the swimbladder. So, I would fast your danios and betta for a day or two. Then consider feeding fewer bloodworms and training your other fish to learn when it's their feeding time by some signal (like tapping on one side of the tank). It's even possible that you could train your danios and betta to know when it's feeding time by a completely different signal at a different time of the day.

 

[Nerwign]

That sounds like a good idea, we'll see if it works. The danios are *so* active that I don't think I could get them to ignore any food that hits the water.

They also like to come investigate anything new. And the worms are too tasty for them to ignore.

I tried using a syringe to shoot the worms towards the bottom of the tank, I guess I'll just have to keep doing that as much as I can.

-Nerwign

 

[Fishkrazy1]

don't over feed them just so your bottom guys get some... you say their guts are bloated which means they are full, but fish such as danios will continue to eat and eat especially if it's something tasty like worms if you really want your bottom feeders to get a bunch take some in your fingers, put your arm to the bottom of the tank and release them near your fish lol that should get em to eat oh and Nerwign's idea of the syringe works too I defrost frozen food and spread it among my tanks in a syringe lol good method