How often do you feed your fish?

supersmile · #1 02-01-2008, 02:59 AM

So I have been feeding my fish one frozen cube of mysis shrimp once a day. I have been developing the purple slimy algae and have been told it is from protein in the water from excess feeding. I am wondering if I should be feeding only every 2nd day??? I have a 44 gallon tank.

Todd · #2 02-01-2008, 03:05 AM

You can always rinse your mysis before you feed. I use a tea strainer, put the mysis in there, into a glass of water for a few minutes and shake off excess water and then feed. Also lets me feed a little bit then wait a few minutes to make sure everyone comes out to get some food.

christyf5 · #3 02-01-2008, 04:16 AM

Rinsing your food first will definitely reduce nutrients that algae might feed on. Red cyano can also be due to low flow in some areas so you might want to think about that.

If your fish are nice and fat and you're not having to target feed anyone theres no reason why you can't cut back and feed every other day until the algae is gone then slowly ramp it back up. If you don't want to cut back, you can always increase water changes or increase skimming. Rinsing helps alot more than you'd think too

mr_alberta · #4 02-01-2008, 04:40 AM

I usually feed my fish every second day. Doesn't seem to hurt them as they are all nice and plump as far as I can see...

untamed · #5 02-01-2008, 05:14 AM

Pellets in the afternoon if I'm home....Major feeding of assorted frozen foods each evening....but I probably don't have the type of super-clean system that most people seem to want. The filtration system seems to have evolved to handle it.

bv_reefer · #6 02-01-2008, 05:30 AM

for me flow didn't help,when i first got cyano i had 1 koralia-3 in there and it was still spreading rapidly, so i added in a maxijet 900 and still nothing, at the end i just ended up siphoning out the majority of it and dosing that blue vet red slime control and never saw it since, for me it definitely came from over feeding, brine shrimp in particular.

Murminator · #7 02-01-2008, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr_alberta

I usually feed my fish every second day. Doesn't seem to hurt them as they are all nice and plump as far as I can see...

I'm with Harvey I'm all over the map every day every second sometimes I miss a weekend and by the looks of my fish thay are not starving

Delphinus · #8 02-01-2008, 04:22 PM

I'll pipe in here with that I think it probably depends on your fish whether you can get away with feeding every other day. I used to do this too. But I noticed with some of my fish they appear a bit stressed when they get too hungry (my tang and rabbitfish in particular). It manifests itself as aggression, which leads to fin nips and other artifacts of fighting (missing scales, bruising, that sort of thing).

Also some fish simply don't have the digestive systems to carry them over that long between feedings. Essentially they are pigging out, then starving, then pigging out, then starving. .. And their lifespans will likely be truncated as a result. Again, this just applies to some fish though, for others it may not be a big deal.

So basically in general I think feeding "less, more often", is better than feeding "more, less often." But ultimately, by observing your fish's behaviours you will notice if a particular schedule is "working" or "could be better."

Just my $0.02..