Fish Obesity

[Sorrell]

I got 3 new tiger barbs via FedEx today to go in my species tank, and when I added them they are about the same size, but a lot thinner then my pre-existing tigers. I can admit that I feed these guys a lot, but they always finished what I give them within seconds and beg all day. So what are your opinions on the saying, "A hungry fish is a happy fish?"

 

[Angry_Platy]

I used to think that a well-fed fish was a happy fish.

I had a problem a little while back where I had fish dying left right and centre for no apparent reason (tank had cycled, pH was fine, no ammo or nitrites, trace nitrates)....until I was in the shatroom one day desperately trying to find out why.....it turned out I had been overfeeding (thankyou ONCE AGAIN to Tolak who informed me of this).

WHAT THEY WERE GETTING: bloodworms or brine shrimp in the morning and flake food in the afternoon and a bottom dweller tablet in the evening. This was every day!!

WHAT THEY GET NOW : flakes in the evening. One day a week they go without food at all. Once every 2 weeks (the day before their fast day) they get bloodworms).....since then I have had NO deaths whatsoever (and funny enough the fish stopped bullying each other.....they now have a common interest.....HUNGER )

As for the fish that died there was dropsy, shredded fins (wouldn't clear up with meds)....non-dropsy bloat, idleness, bullying to the point of death....and some deaths which had no symptoms....eat in the morning, dead by afternoon...

Turned out I was overfeeding them which led to too much protein hence the dropsy (and a lot of the other things I saw as well)....Luckily I sortde it out before I lost all my fishies....Now....they don't beg for food anymore than they did when I was overfeeding.

RIP to the little fishies that did not survive my cruelty

 

[DrOizo]

You were on the SHATROOM, sounds like a great place. Lol I try so hard to get my parents to feed my fish less but they are always so Hungry. One of my Tetras died yesteday from bullying. Would less feeding help?
Cheers

 

[adcs]

Is this ANOTHER thing I'm doing wrong?

I feed my fish in the morning and when I get home from work. They don't get loads of food but I feed them on a pinch of flake food, a few catfish pellets and cichlid diet which is floating pellets.

I have to admit, they are a bit fat. The problem I have, is that the poor Plec doesn't seem to get enough food 'cos my Barbs gobble it all up before any of it hits the bottom.

 

[adcs]

I'd also like to add:

I'm sure it was in Practical Fish Keeping I read that you're supposed to feed fish more than once a day...

I suppose it wouldn't hurt if it was smaller amounts...?

 

[c1tyfc]

I have read many different opinions on how to feed your fish, probably all of them correct, I guess it depends on many things like size of tank, quantity of fish. type of fish etc.

I have 10 Tiger barbs in my tank and they eat everything that goes in the water (they even have a go at my fingers )

The way I got around this was to feed flake in the quieter end of my tank where the Barbs would gather and wolf all of down as fast as they could. And then, while they were busy, feed Catfish pellets and sunken flake at the other end behind some plants for the other inhabitants.

I do this 4 or 5 times a day with small quantities of food and everyone is happy. Fish use food energy different from us as they dont use it to generate body heat like we do, so dont need as much food as us.

I have read varying items saying you should give enough that they will fully consume in 2 minutes upto 10 minutes. Anybody who has owned Barbs and other greedy fish will know that if you put enough in the water to last 10 minutes, you would be feeding a large tub of flake a day, obviously far too much. Fish can last days even weeks without food, so I would say edge on the side of under feeding until you are happy with what you are giving them. Its mostly trial and error.

I will also give them Tubifex, Daphnia or Treat pellets once a week alternating the treat week by week, and the following day will not feed them at all. It gives them a bit of variation, without over feeding.