Fish Food - Too Much? Too Little?

I'm about 6 months into the fish tank hobby. I was told to feed it twice a day. Had some trouble with water perimeters so started feeding them once a day. It's heavily stocked tank. Most response from my earlier posts were mostly to return the fishes because I'm way to over stocked but I'm very diligent about water changes and the water perimeter have been fine. Now someone tells me I have to feed my fish morning and night. Is that true? I also started using sera-o-nip tablets and one tab seems to be way too much for all the fish. I can see at least half being wasted and having to deal with much more ammonia that my tank isn't used to. I worried that if I started feeding my fish in the morning again I might end up crashing my tank and killing all my fish. So is twice a day really necessary? How much should I be feeding my tank anyway? There isn't a clear guide line to feeding, just general recommendations. Can anyone give me some solid advice?

20 gallon tall tank
40 gallon filtration.
6 fancy guppies,
10 neon tetras
4 julii.

 

I'm about 6 months into the fish tank hobby. I was told to feed it twice a day. Had some trouble with water perimeters so started feeding them once a day. It's heavily stocked tank. Most response from my earlier posts were mostly to return the fishes because I'm way to over stocked but I'm very diligent about water changes and the water perimeter have been fine. Now someone tells me I have to feed my fish morning and night. Is that true? I also started using sera-o-nip tablets and one tab seems to be way too much for all the fish. I can see at least half being wasted and having to deal with much more ammonia that my tank isn't used to. I worried that if I started feeding my fish in the morning again I might end up crashing my tank and killing all my fish. So is twice a day really necessary? How much should I be feeding my tank anyway? There isn't a clear guide line to feeding, just general recommendations. Can anyone give me some solid advice?

20 gallon tall tank
40 gallon filtration.
6 fancy guppies,
10 neon tetras
4 julii.

Not really the best at this but I’ve read this

- You don’t have to feed your fish twice a day you can feed them once

-Make sure they can eat that food under 3-5 minutes so it does not become waste and ammonia

 

A couple of employees at my LFS recommend once every 2 or 3 days. I followed that advice initially and have increased to once a day, sometimes twice as I've been able to confirm that ammonia and nitrite are remaining at 0. I suspect that they'd be fine going more than 3 days. I'm also guessing that they'd prefer to be hungry than suffering the effects of ammonia and/or nitrites.

 

A couple of employees at my LFS recommend once every 2 or 3 days. I followed that advice initially and have increased to once a day, sometimes twice as I've been able to confirm that ammonia and nitrite are remaining at 0. I suspect that they'd be fine going more than 3 days. I'm also guessing that they'd prefer to be hungry than suffering the effects of ammonia and/or nitrites.

I like where you are going with this! If they aren’t eating then fast them for 2-3 days like you said. Just like new fish they will eat when they are hungry and healthy fish will never let themselves starve.

 

I just used a Sera O-Nip tab for the first time. I stuck about 1/3 of a tablet onto the glass inside the tank and set a timer for 3 mins, then took out what was left at the 3 min mark. My 12 glowfish tetras, 2 guppies, and 6 kuhlI loaches ate about 1/2 of what I put in.

 

I'm about 6 months into the fish tank hobby. I was told to feed it twice a day. Had some trouble with water perimeters so started feeding them once a day. It's heavily stocked tank. Most response from my earlier posts were mostly to return the fishes because I'm way to over stocked but I'm very diligent about water changes and the water perimeter have been fine. Now someone tells me I have to feed my fish morning and night. Is that true? I also started using sera-o-nip tablets and one tab seems to be way too much for all the fish. I can see at least half being wasted and having to deal with much more ammonia that my tank isn't used to. I worried that if I started feeding my fish in the morning again I might end up crashing my tank and killing all my fish. So is twice a day really necessary? How much should I be feeding my tank anyway? There isn't a clear guide line to feeding, just general recommendations. Can anyone give me some solid advice?

20 gallon tall tank
40 gallon filtration.
6 fancy guppies,
10 neon tetras
4 julii.

I’d suggest using EvanG s way of leting the fish go at it for 3 minutes and take it out so you don’t have extra ammonia!

 

If you haven't already, you can potentially improve the biofiltration capacity of your existing filter. Methods vary by model, but if you're interested, you may as well maximize the equipment you're using. For example, on the Penguin 200B HOB filter that I'm using, I added a pre-filter sponge on the intake, removed the cartridge filter in the box, and added Seachem Matrix in its place. The pre-filter does a fine job of catching debris and the Matrix should provide a lot more room for BB to grow as I increase the bio-load.

 

You really shouldn't be getting any ammonia or nitrite spikes, even if the tank is heavily overstocked. In my opinion, you need more filtration to deal with the bioload. You'll have to change the water just as often, but ammonia will be converted in to nitrates faster and you won't get spikes.

 

The simple fix is cut down on feeding and downgrade the stock or upgrade the filtration and do more water changes.

And feeding fish once or twice a day is a rumor in the wild fish only eat every 1-3 days depending on the breed.

 

You really shouldn't be getting any ammonia or nitrite spikes, even if the tank is heavily overstocked. In my opinion, you need more filtration to deal with the bioload. You'll have to change the water just as often, but ammonia will be converted in to nitrates faster and you won't get spikes.

My water perimeters are fine. I do 25~30% water changes every week and the filter I'm using is for a 40 gallon tank so I think I have plenty of filtration.

 

My water perimeters are fine. I do 25~30% water changes every week and the filter I'm using is for a 40 gallon tank so I think I have plenty of filtration.

You said you get ammonia spikes? You should not have any ammonia or nitrite, even if you begin feeding twice as much.

 

You said you get ammonia spikes? You should not have any ammonia or nitrite, even if you begin feeding twice as much.

not anymore. I worry about it spiking by feeding more than I am now.

 

Increase slowly. If you would like to go to two meals per day instead of one, make the total amount per day only slightly more than you were doing previously and keep checking your water.

 

I have neons and I feed once a day. one pellet per neon which is still a lot, some of it lands at the bottom. They do fine on that and are growing well. They take about 5 mins to eat. I don't think you need to over think it too much, but I do understand the temptation to feed more often. Healthy fish always act like they're starving - so be tough.

 

Tank stock is more than just bioload, it's footprint as well. Preferably this is a 20 long and not just a regular 20, or 20 high. The cory is wonderful active bottom feeders so they really need that footprint to do their foraging and activities. The other fish are highly active schoolers so they enjoy the room as well. Also the consideration of brand of filter, some are better than others. Tetra filters are not really good and don't typically last very long power wise. I also make my own media bags so that my BB has more media to grab onto, and I don't have to worry about changing the cartridge out every month or so just because of the carbon. Just rinse it out in water change water and I am good to go. I feed my dudes once a day, just because I can and I enjoy it. Many species can go a week without food but I don't suggest it lol. I know this was a bit of a ramble and some of this you may know already, just wanted to get some tidbits of information out there.