Neon and Cardinal

[Nuttawet]

Can neon tetra and cardinal tetra eat too much and die?

 

[Colin_T]

No.

Animals, birds, fish and people can only eat so much food before feeling full. Once they are full, they stop eating.

If there is uneaten food in the aquarium, it can pollute the water and kill the fish.

Poor quality foods that have gone off can cause fish to develop internal bacterial infections and die.

 

[Ichthys]

No.

Animals, birds, fish and people can only eat so much food before feeling full. Once they are full, they stop eating.

If there is uneaten food in the aquarium, it can pollute the water and kill the fish.

Poor quality foods that have gone off can cause fish to develop internal bacterial infections and die.

I know it’s just pedantry, but birds and fish are animals.
The food inside them won’t kill them but it is possible for fish in a tank without an adequate filter to die from eating too much if the resultant ammonia or nitrite kills them. But it’s the food’s presence in the tank that kills them. It doesn’t really matter whether they’ve eaten it or not. It all produces ammonia.
This can happen if you increase the bioload suddenly by a significant amount. You need to increase the food gradually, so that the amount of ammonia being produced increases gradually, so that the growth of the bacterial colonies can keep up.

 

[Byron]

My answer to the question in post #1 would be absolutely yes, any fish can eat "too much," though it may or may not die as a result.

Fish are opportunistic feeders. In their habitats, the eat when they find/catch food, and they do not know when this may again present itself, so they will eat well if they can. In the aquarium, this inherent trait is very dangerous. The fish are not doing anything much to use this energy, and thus they do not need it. In the wild they have to hunt food, and escape predators. Neither is needed in a fish tank, we provide more than enough food. And most people feed their fish way too much. A hungry fish is a healthy fish. Feed minimally; the neon and cardinal tetras only need one or two small flakes or pellets when they feed, and it does not harm to only feed once a day and miss one, two or even three days each week.

 

[Nuttawet]

I've been giving too much food in one day to 2 gold fish and their stomach is huge and died. As well as my neon tetra and cardinal tetra i have like 20 of them now i only have 1 because the rest eat too much i think and their belly is huge like gold fish belly.

 

[Ram419]

What are your water paramaters? (Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, pH)

 

[Colin_T]

If fish develop a really fat belly overnight, they have an internal infection.

What did you feed the fish before they died?
Poor quality food can poison fish and they get internal bacterial infections if the food isn't clean.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Why don't you take some photos and post them here so we can have a look to see if we can help?

 

[GaryE]

Fish are no different than other animals like us. They can overeat. The death may not come overnight, but it will come. Fat collects inside the body cavity of a fish, and not under the skin as it does with us. That makes obesity more fatal for them as it pressures their internal organs.
Swelling is a different issue than fat. I think it's time to back off, feed much less and observe. If there is swelling with feeding, you are killing your fish, and that isn't your goal! Fast the fish and watch.
Feeding fish is actually a skill to be learned.

 

[emeraldking]

My answer to the question in post #1 would be absolutely yes, any fish can eat "too much," though it may or may not die as a result.

Totally agree...

 

[Nuttawet]

I fed them pellets and flakes......

 

[Colin_T]

Dry pellets can have air in them and they can swell up when wet. If a fish eats lots of them while they are dry, it could explode when the pellets swell up inside the fish. It's unlikely to happen but might if the fish is physically weak or ate a lot of dry pellets.

 

[Nuttawet]

Thank you