How Often Do You Feed Your Fish?

[akudewan]

I was wondering how often do people feed their fish. I feed them once every day. And the food is consumed within 1 minute.

This is my first poll, so I hope I don't make any mistakes. Do post a message saying how long it takes for the food to get over, that would give a nice idea on the quantity you're feeding.

Thanks

-Aku

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I feed my fish 3 times a day on average overall, i always generally have a lot of fry though and they always need regular feeding.

 

[Trance2006]

Feed my fish tiny portions 4-5 times a day. Something they can consume in 15 seconds or less.

 

[SPLiSH]

I feed my bettas twice daily, though sometimes I throw in an extra pellet if they've been making bubble nests or if they do the happy-fishy-wiggly dance.

Usually a fishes' stomach is the size, roughly, of it's eye. Except in species like black moors, blind cave fish etc.

 

[Teelie]

Every two to three days though sometimes more with my Clowns.

 

[The-Wolf]

I feed every day but have a rest day (ie 6 days feeding, 1 day not)

 

[onemisterchristian]

I'm on the same feeding regime as the wolf. However, if I'm growing out fish, then they get fed like 4 times a day. Smaller portions of course.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Somewhere between twice a day and once a day (i.e. sometimes I'll feed only greens in the evening, which the livebearers eat but not the cories). One fasting day a week. More frequently when I have fry, evidently. But it really depends on what fish you have. If I had big beasties, I would probably feed less frequently- but guppies are omnivore, non-stop nibbly sort of fish; they have really small stomachs, so eat in a more snacking way.

As to how long it takes- it depends on the species (cories are slower to find food and slower to eat than guppies) and it depends on the food (peas take longer to eat than flakes). For flakes I allow 2-3 a day per platy or guppy- this takes less than a minute for them to eat. Cories, on the other hand, may take nearly 5 minutes to even find their food- and then tablets dissolve slowly. I feed one Tabimin tablet for 4 cories, but sometimes they get bloodworm or other (jellied) live food instead.

 

[juliehainsworth]

My adult fish I feed at least twice a day sometimes more often depends on how hungry they look all food seems to go within a min! My fry I feed a minimum of three times a day sometimes they got more on a wkend depends on how full they are after feeding

 

[SamUK]

twice a day, three times a day for my platty fry.

 

[langy]

Used to feed twice a day, but have reduced to once as i seemed to get a lot of bits floting in the water.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Somewhere between twice a day and once a day (i.e. sometimes I'll feed only greens in the evening, which the livebearers eat but not the cories). One fasting day a week. More frequently when I have fry, evidently. But it really depends on what fish you have. If I had big beasties, I would probably feed less frequently- but guppies are omnivore, non-stop nibbly sort of fish; they have really small stomachs, so eat in a more snacking way.

As to how long it takes- it depends on the species (cories are slower to find food and slower to eat than guppies) and it depends on the food (peas take longer to eat than flakes). For flakes I allow 2-3 a day per platy or guppy- this takes less than a minute for them to eat. Cories, on the other hand, may take nearly 5 minutes to even find their food- and then tablets dissolve slowly. I feed one Tabimin tablet for 4 cories, but sometimes they get bloodworm or other (jellied) live food instead.

I agree, small fish like guppys have quite short stomaches and do not really store fat in their bodys, they are also very energetic little fish always on the move- this is why it is more beneficial to give them small regular meals, as too much in one go can cause constipation but too little not often enough and they go hungry.
I think you also need to take age/maturity into account as well- for example common plecs can go for a long time without food(weeks, even), but during their first year of life when they are growing at a fast rate(1-2inches a month), denying them of food even just for couple of days can stunt their growth(often hardly noticable, but i have often noticed that common plecs that get a small vegetarian diet for their entire lives often don't grow very long).
The other factor you need to take into consideration is what you feed your fish- foods like bloodworms and krill have a lot of energy/protein in them and even the smallest fish can take a while to burn all that energy, things like peas and cucumber though quite literally just go straight through the system and don't offer much in the way of energy(but are still an important part of the diet though). This why even with other animals, animals like lions only have to make a kill once or so a week while herbivores like zebras have to eat almost 24/7- this also applies to fish as well in many senses. If you feed your fish a lot of high protein foods, giving them a day or so break from feeding can be very beneficial as so to help preven constipation .

Used to feed twice a day, but have reduced to once as i seemed to get a lot of bits floting in the water.

It sounds like you need to reduce the size of the portions of food you are feeding your fish rather than the amount of times per day .

 

[timmystood]

Mine get 3 days feeding and then 1 day fasting...

 

[Bloo]

Approx every other day for adult fish. No real pattern.

 

[keane]

Approx every other day for adult fish. No real pattern.

ditto

steve