Feeding heavy or light- pros and cons

I was wondering if we could discuss feeding heavy versus light. I feed my tanks heavy every day and do not fast my fish for a day every week either. I don't feed enough to leave tons of food floating around or anything, but I do feed in excess. I remedy this by having a good cleanup crew, and I always leave something extra in the tank overnight like an algae wafer or 3-5 shrimp pellets. All of the food is usually gone by the morning. I haven't ever had issues with bloating or constipation either... although I did think that a gravid fish was constipated before I knew how to sex my fish

how do you feed? pros/cons to both methods?

 

Well...we probably overfeed our fish a tad bit. But not much. We don't have bloated fish, but we also can't "count ribs", either. As with anything, i am sure there are plenty so paranoid of overfeeding they don't feed enough and vice versa.

All i care is the fish all seem pretty happy and healthy! And my tail-biter seems to have stopped biting himself since i stopped a fasting day.

 

I do not feed in excess, as I don’t want to leave uneaten pieces of food that will raise ammonia levels flying around. I also do not want to cause the fish to poop more for obvious reasons.

My tank substrate is hard to clean because it is either heavily planted or filled with rocks, so even if I wanted to, I couldn’t remove it all.

I started to skip one day of feeding a while ago and I kind of like it so I might keep doing it. I think it’s good for any living organism to get a break from digesting once in a while.

If you’ve been doing this for a while and it works, then it’s good for your situation.

 

I do not feed in excess, as I don’t want to leave uneaten pieces of food that will raise ammonia levels flying around. I also do not want to cause the fish to poop more for obvious reasons.

My tank substrate is hard to clean because it is either heavily planted or filled with rocks, so even if I wanted to, I couldn’t remove it all.

I started to skip one day of feeding a while ago and I kind of like it so I might keep doing it. I think it’s good for any living organism to get a break from digesting once in a while.

If you’ve been doing this for a while and it works, then it’s good for your situation.

Yup I believe both methods are okay. I used to fast one day per week and fed lightly but I've had better success feeding heavy. It also helps that I dose with heterotrophic bacteria and encourage copepods and stuff to live in my tanks. No ammonia spikes at all

 

It also helps that I dose with heterotrophic bacteria

Interesting, I’ve never heard of such bacteria. Is it like cycle or Microbe-lift ?

 

Interesting, I’ve never heard of such bacteria. Is it like cycle or Microbe-lift ?

I'm not too familiar with those products, I believe heterotrophic bacteria is just a word for other strains of bacteria aside from the ones that typically colonize our filter. I think they float around in the water column and live on surfaces and what not. That's how I understand it anyways, I never really looked into it much if I'm being honest. I use Seachem Stability, which is similar to their product Seachem Pristine except that it also contains some nitrifying bacterias. Pristine is a product designed to break down waste and is ALL heterotrophic bacteria iirc

 

If your nitrates are easily kept in the safe zone, at least under 40 ppm. then you are probably ok.
I feed my fish about what they can eat in 60 seconds twice a day. But I also hand feed a pair of blue acara bug bites or cichlid pellets. 2 in the mourning, 2 at night, and they miss some so they go to whoever catches them.
I feed frozen foods once a week instead of flakes, I feed large algae grazer wafers once or twice a week at night, I feed vegies once and a while.

 

If your nitrates are easily kept in the safe zone, at least under 40 ppm. then you are probably ok.
I feed my fish about what they can eat in 60 seconds twice a day. But I also hand feed a pair of blue acara bug bites or cichlid pellets. 2 in the mourning, 2 at night, and they miss some so they go to whoever catches them.
I feed frozen foods once a week instead of flakes, I feed large algae grazer wafers once or twice a week at night, I feed vegies once and a while.

My nitrates are always 0-10, usually closer to 0. I think I have denitrifying bacteria in my filter because I went out of my way to colonize them at one point. I also have some terrestrial plants growing out of the top too so that helps. I feed more or less the same as you but there's always a bit left over... The pencilfish in my tank usually prefer to pick food off of the intake filters rather than compete. I also probably do algae wafers at night a lot more often, usually 3-4 times per week and leave them in

 

I feel sure I over feed my tanks. I have a massive clean up crew so no food is in there long enough to start decomposing. I have at least 25 corys in my 55. I say at least because an accurate head count is impossible. There could be closer to 30 in there.

Now that I have bloodfin tetras in this tank I feed twice a day. They are so active I just feel they need to be fed more than once a day. Before I got them I just fed once a day. On top of the twice a day feeding every third day I drop cory food in so my little vacuum cleaners are assured of getting food designed specifically for them.

Elbert gets fresh zucchini at least 3 times a week and on the days he doesn't get zucchini he gets veggie rounds or algae wafers. I feel sure he helps the corys clean their plate too.

I could be way off base here but I think there is less aggression in a tank full of well fed fish.

 

I have noticed that the aggression is food related at least in my tank.. when the pencilfish and rasboras get nippy with each other it usually helps to feed them a little bit

 

I'm pretty new so I'm still in a trial-and error phase. I use one of my male barbs as a reference point in order not to overfeed, because if I overfeed he eats so much he starts looking like a gravid female. So I kind of try to avoid him reaching that look. I feed twice a day, no fasting (unless I'm visiting my parents etc.).

 

Every fish benefits of a variated diet.
So I'd say neither.

 

Every fish benefits of a variated diet.
So I'd say neither.

This is true too. Quality is probably more important than quantity. I do use a variety of different foods.. northfin krill gold, Hikari FD brine shrimp, 60% protein fry powder, earthworm flakes with spirulina, and Hikari algae wafers are the ones I use the most. I don't do frozen bloodworms anymore but probably should once in awhile

I've gotten away from lower quality flakes and pellets