Feed How Much?

[ravekiss]

As everyone should know by now, I am having a problem with a severely cloudy tank, no matter what I try. I'm trying to figure out if indeed I am overfeeding, since nothing else seems to be wrong, except its a little oversticked, for which I am doing extra maintenance. I'd like some opinions.
NOTE: Its the 20g with occupants stated in Signature.

 

[Zenn]

I dont work in Nickle, dimes or anything like that, so i aint sure on their sizes, but once aday feeding for me, and that consists of a daily feeding of a pinch of flake, enough the cover 1/8 of the tankon impact, then some algae pellets which all the fish eat, a pleco tablet, and three Ciclid food sticks, on extra occasion i feed other foods on top, however on special occasiosn such as birthdays and that i go full out, reducing the amount of flake i give the fish, but adding in some dry freezed bloodworm, some dry freezed Tubifex worm and some live bloodworm sometimes...

 

[rdd1952]

I feed my 29 gallon twice a day - a small amount of flakes in the morning and frozen (brine shrimp, tubiflex or daphnia) in the evening. The bettas get 4 to 6 Hikari Betta Bio Gold pellets a day, 2 or 3 morning and evening depending on how many shake out of the pack into my hand. They eat those immediately so there isnt any waste to decompose. They also get frozen 2 or 3 times a week in place of their evening pellets.

 

[FrAnK3333]

I only feed once a day 6 times a week.

 

[lilfishie]

i usually feed mine every other day

 

[LoachLover]

Once a day quarter sized

 

[dwarf-puffers]

once day quarter sizee to figure out feed you fish and count to 30 if all the food is gone then next time add more do this until there is food still in the trank (note the fish should never ignore the food they should be bolting up 4 the food like theres no to morow ) hope this helps

 

[freddyk]

I feed them as often as I feel like it. Sometimes this is many times per day. The more often I feed them, the less per meal.

Ravekiss, unfortunatley you will need to experiement with this one yourself - there is no right or wrong, every situation is different. Feeding less more often will certainly cut down on uneaten food.

What type of filtration are you running on the tank?

 

[boozybears]

I only feed once every two days: either one pinch of flake, two quick shakes of bloodworms or one brine shrimp cube. On the alternate day I toss in an algae wafer.

 

[Yenko]

My 32 gallon tank gets food once every 2 days, and my 10 gallon tank gets food about 3-4 times a day. The reason? I'm trying to grow guppies in the 10 gallon tank, and the fastest way to make them grow is to feed them nutrient rich food fairly often. The tank is heavily planted so an excess of nutrients is not a concern; nitrate levels are in the 1-5 ppm range, with no water changes whatsoever. The tank water is 6 months old, and the fish love it. In my opinion, planted aquariums work best if they are nearly closed systems. I run my planted aquarium the same way you would run a reef aquarium, with the nitrogen production of the fish carefully balanced to create a viable ecosystem inside a glass box thousands of miles away from where any of the organisms inside call home.

Cool fact: My province (Nova Scotia) has water chemistry very similar to that of an area in Germany where most of the early work in fishkeeping was done. The area was home to the first sucessful tank-raised Tetras, because it's water chemistry is similar to that of the amazon basin. In short, warm up water from one of the few non-polluted lakes (We're downwind of New York... ugh) around here and any fish from South America or a blackwater stream in Asia would be happy to live there.

 

[Jen]

I feed once a day (1 kind of food most of the time). I don't feed any more than they can eat in a minute or two (sometimes I add more if thye eat it really fast). They pick at the algae on my plants quite a bit, so if I feed them more then they tend not to do that.

I try to mix things up:
Dry food - 1 pinch (I reach in the container, and pinch... whatever I grab on to is what they get) - flakes, freeze dried plankton
1 cube freeze dried tubifex worms.
1 cube frozen blood worms
2 or 3 algae discs
10 or 12 peas
2 slices cucumber.

 

[steelhealr]

HI...I did the book thing...twice a day....then changed to once a day..now every other day with a 'weakness' feeding sometimes. I think twice a day is too much. Even HUMANS will eat when they are bored even when they don't need the calories. The more you feed, the more they eat, the more they poop, the more the nitrate. I don't say starve them....but I have begun to 'side' with most people here and cut it back a bit. As for amounts, I don't go byloose change either. I put just enough down and watch for several minutes...and see if all gets eaten and everybody gets enough. Then do my bottom feeders. A pellet or algae tablet gets dropped in at night for the late night folks every other day. Fresh peas, squash or spinach leaf once a week. Bottom line...there IS NO ONE RIGHT WAY TO FEED. Most importantly I think is to vary their diet. Good luck. SH

 

[Angry_Platy]

Don't know which is the smallest size coin....thats what I would feed....once a day....

I used to give them so much food it looked like there was snow in the tank...but now I feed them so that barely anything falls and they are begging for more after!!!

 

[hellohefalump]

my routine

Goldfish tank: they get fed twice a day, every now and then they get some blood worm and Merlin gets algae wafers every so often. They also eat the plants (they have big bite marks in them) but the plants are massive and thriving so I'm not worried. The water is always fine even though the meals are massive... sometimes I give them a few peas.

big trop tank: morning: a small pinch of flakes, tiny pinch of catfish pellets, Philip get's snails and sometimes bloodworm if the snails are all hiding, in which case all the other fish get bloodworm too.
evening: a small pinch of flakes, tiny pinch of catfish pellets, bloodworm, two algae wafers every other day.

every now and then they get some courgette or cucumber or peas. I sometimes give other frozen food instead of the bloodworm. Occassionally they get some cockle.

little trop tank: big pinch of flakes twice a day.

I'm not at home about two nights a week, then they don't get fed.

 

[Paul_MTS]

Once a day lots of froozen foods...

15 lance fish, 5 blocks of froozen, lump of bloodworm, 3 king prawns, hand ful of river shrimp, live meal worm and a feel super worms.

the other tanks are about the same but less quatity.