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How To Tell If Tropical Fish Are Hungry?

inarnia

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I'm relatively new to tropical fish (2 months into it) after switching from goldfish keeping (aka a never-ending fight against poop and ammonia). My goldfish constantly sifted through the substrate looking for something to eat and begged at the top of the tank whenever anybody approached. I am just wondering (and I hope this is not a silly question): is the same true with tropical fish (mollies and platys in my case), or if I see them searching for extra food, are they actually hungry? :)
 
No, its true for neither tropical or goldfish. They will scavenge for food as in the wild there is no one giving them food they spend their lives looking for food or breeding. They are intelligent and if they wiggle and beg for food and if you give it to them this will become a habit for them, just like it would do for a dog.
The ammount your feeding them now I'm sure is a lot more than they would get in the wild and I know a lot of first time fishkeepers (including myself when I started) will over feed in extreme ammounts. I definitely did and ended up with rotting food and lots of snails. Snails are a great indication to over-feeding.
How much you feed depends on your fish and the ammount you have. Its widely reported that the size of stomach of a fish is around the same size as theor eye.
 
I have 24 small fish in my tank and amongst other things their staple diet is one sinking pellet. Left to soften for a bit then added to the tank. Its only the size of an asprin.

I try to vary where i put it too, esp the bigger bits for the cories to hunt for.

I then check after 10 mins or so although i mostly end up watching them anyway and if any is left by then i take it out. This only happend the once when i used a pellet for the cories AND flake for the Harlequins :blush:
 
I've been giving mine (8 guppies, 4 platies, 3 neons, 2 clown loaches and a dwarf algea eater) a small pinch twice a day (morning and evening) is that too much? If I go anywhere near the tank the guppies are there asking to be fed and they always seem to be hungry. The neons tend to hang around mid tank eating the bits that float down.
I've got issues with ammonia at the moment and that added to this post has got me thinking I'm over feeding
 
How long does it take them to get through the food you give them.


As i understand it if there is no visible food left after a couple of mins your about right.
 
I've only had my fish 3 days now..and i've given them 1 small pinch a day..today the are having nothing.
for the first 2 days i had 3x platy's...yesterday i added 2 more platy's and 2 tiny panda cory's.
 
they're pretty good at eating all the flake. I got some catfish pellets for the clown loaches but they've not touched them so won't be giving anymore.
I'm using my gut feeling with the feeding and by the sound of what your saying cynic it's sounding okay. Thanks, not worried I'm over feeding now :)
 
They only need feeding once a day. I feed my tank floating food one day, sinking pellets the next, and alternate that way.

Most fish will soon learn to expect food when you go near the tank and 'act hungry' - they're expecting it to appear.
 
There's also the fact that fish, unlike mammals, have no mechanism to tell them they're full; if you give them too much food it'll either rot on the bottom, or they'll eat it and it'll go straight through them.
 
Mine are only fed once a day. I have the only group of Corys that wont eat Algae Pellets however, its ridiculous, i've taken to just throwing a quarter into the moss every few days for the shrimp, Corys get about 10 crushed mini tetra prima between them, every night (alternated with flake every few days) apart from saturdays when they get either baby brine shrimp or mini bloodworm. No food on Sundays.

Some good advice above, watch them when your feeding, its a good time to look for signs of illness too. :)
 
My rams know when it's feeding time, they all crowd to one corner and bob up and down as soon as they sense movement when I get in from work , sometimes they wait for the signal....gently rattle my finger nails on the tank and they all come running, even the cardinals know the noise now and dart over waiting for the great feeding god to deliver!
 

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