How often do you feed your fish?

How Often Do You Feed Your Fish?

  • Once a day

    Votes: 61 46.6%

  • Multiple times a day

    Votes: 44 33.6%

  • Every other day

    Votes: 12 9.2%

  • Once a week

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Other (please specify in comments)

    Votes: 14 10.7%
  • Total voters
    131

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I have two small fancy goldfish in my 55 gallon right now and am wondering how often they should be fed? I just recently fixed my problem that was caused by overfeeding and am now feeding twice a day with NLS Thera - A pellets soaked in freshly minced garlic (I know it's not necessary to soak the pellets in garlic). I am wondering if this is okay or should I be feeding them a bit less often? Thank you.
 
I feed all of mine once a day with a good frozen food and then usually they get some kind of a pellet or flake in the mornings. Sometimes mine only eat once a day. They will probably be okay with one feeding a day.
 
Good morning,

I feed my fish once a day, every day. I think your fish would also be fine with 1 feeding per day. Keep in mind, Goldfish are huge waste producers!

Ken
 

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Most of my tanks are fed once every other day. Exceptions are fry, they get fed once or twice a day, juvies, they get fed once every day and the bettas one gets fed 6days aweek, the other is still growing and gets fed everyday.
 
I was lucky to come across this just as I was about to post a very similar thread...
I have been feeding my fish once a day, for just over a month now (primarily to keep higher water quality). Prior to that I had been feeding twice a day. Reading around on the site, though I came across the recommendation of 2-3 feedings per day...???
https://www.fishlore.com/Food.htm
I was also wondering if anyone uses different feeding schedules for different spcies??
 
I usually feed my fish a small pinch of food twice a day. Feeding in small amounts is important to avoid overfeeding.
 
Most of my tanks are fed once every other day. Exceptions are fry, they get fed once or twice a day, juvies, they get fed once every day and the bettas one gets fed 6days aweek, the other is still growing and gets fed everyday.
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The above post is a perfect example of how different species require different feeding schedules. I feel all my fish every other day.

With your fish, which have large bioloads, I would feed every other day to help keep your water parameters healthy.
 
I also think you'd be ok to feed your fish once every other day.
 

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Good morning,

I feed my fish once a day, every day. I think your fish would also be fine with 1 feeding per day. Keep in mind, Goldfish are huge waste producers!

Ken
Click to expand...

Ken, you even feed your big blood parrots once per day? I always thought that big cichlids needed at least two feedings per day.
 
Goldfish will eat all day, every day. I feed all my fish once a day, most days. Sometimes I skip a day when I forget, sometimes they get 2 feedings....when I forget
 
Good morning,

Yes, I only feed my fish once a day every day including my Bloody Parrots. I try and make sure that everyone gets a bite or two. If someone doesn't get fed, they will be first in line the next morning.

I feed a variety of different foods every day. I order my foods from Ken's fish foods and then I mix them all together. My fish get treats twice a week of presoaked freeze dried Earthworms and presoaked freeze dried krill (large krill).

I also have a staple Blood Red Parrot pellet:

They come in different sizes. I use large for my large Bloody Parrots and small for my juveniles.

The treats I marinate in Garlic Guard, to help to boost the fishes immune system and Vita Chem for additional vitamins. Even my Pleco gets his zucchinI slice stuffed with an algae wafer marinated in the same twice a week. They all love it!

To help prevent over feeding, I keep in mind that for most fish for the home aquarium (not all) the stomach is only the size of one of the fishes eyes. I don't care for the guide line of feeding enough that they can consume in 3 to 5 minutes. My opinion is that would be way too much food in the tank.

Over feeding can lead to a multitude of issues that you dont' want.

Ken
 
Good morning,

Yes, I only feed my fish once a day every day including my Bloody Parrots. I try and make sure that everyone gets a bite or two. If someone doesn't get fed, they will be first in line the next morning.

I feed a variety of different foods every day. I order my foods from Ken's fish foods and then I mix them all together. My fish get treats twice a week of presoaked freeze dried Earthworms and presoaked freeze dried krill (large krill).

I also have a staple Blood Red Parrot pellet:

They come in different sizes. I use large for my large Bloody Parrots and small for my juveniles.

The treats I marinate in Garlic Guard, to help to boost the fishes immune system and Vita Chem for additional vitamins. Even my Pleco gets his zucchinI slice stuffed with an algae wafer marinated in the same twice a week. They all love it!

To help prevent over feeding, I keep in mind that for most fish for the home aquarium (not all) the stomach is only the size of one of the fishes eyes. I don't care for the guide line of feeding enough that they can consume in 3 to 5 minutes. My opinion is that would be way too much food in the tank.

Over feeding can lead to a multitude of issues that you dont' want.

Ken
Click to expand...
I agree. if I feed any more than what my fish can eat in one minute, all the food just ends up at the bottom and I'll have to get it out again. 3-5 minutes will be way too much.
 
I don't time how long they eat for, but it's way more than a minute or two. There are all sorts of factors to consider. Size of the food, for instance. If I am feeding a 0.5 mm pellet instead of a 1 mm, it will take them longer to eat the same volume of food. Conversely, if I were to feed a 3 mm pellet (to a fish that can eat such a large pellet), the feeding would be over in a matter of seconds.

Every tank is different, and you have to figure out what works best for YOUR tank.

This whole business about a fish's stomach being the size of the eye is very misleading, IMO and E. That may be true for some fish, particularly small fish, but it is definitely not true of larger fish. I have seen MANY stomachs of MANY different species of fish and they are many times the size of an eye....empty. In addition, the stomach is designed to stretch to accommodate food, so the size of an empty stomach has nothing to do with the amount of food it requires or can hold. The larger the fish is the more it needs to eat, regardless of how big it's eye is.

A goldfish's stomach is much bigger than it's eye.
 
I currently feed my fish once a day, 6 days a week. I've seen many sites that say you should feed a few times a day, but how often do you feed your fish?
 
I feed mine three times a day. In very small doses. I don't skip a day. Don't have the heart to do it. lol

they are such beggars you would think I never feed them the way the beg at the front of the tank like a dog for table scraps.
 
Thanks for your reply,
I think I am going to feed 3 times a day, alternating between flakes and pellets. And algae wafers for the pleco before the lights go out. I will also feed frozen food a few times a week.
 

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I feed twice a day. Both times it's the same NLS thera a, just different sizes.

Randomly, usually once a week in the evening, I won't feed the NLS and will instead feed some defrosted blood worms. Everyone but the gourami love them, they just don't seem to gotten the idea that their food yet lol.
 
I'm new too. Feeding twice a day, one pinch of flakes ground up with my fingers, only enough for the 4 small fish (2 swordtails and 2 platies).

I heard that you only feed them as much food as it takes them to eat in one minute. Is this correct?
 
Hello , You will get more responces if you start your own thread.
I feed my fish as much as they can eat in a minute or two, once every other day.
 
Everything I read says twice a day but then they really stress not over feeding...

I can not get my golden Chinese algae eaters to eat! I have a heavily planted aquarium and its fairly new so it doesn't have much algae, I have been substituting with algae wafers and sinking pelltets for the false juliI Cory's.

I put them in at night and the rest of my little piggies manage to gorge on them! I have tried cucumbers, squash and yellow squash and the goldens won't eat any of it! One has also successfully disappeared :-/

Since I am new at this I also thought I would do an update!
Everyone else is doing wonderful, colors in the both species of rainbow fish are really coming out!
My two dwarf flame gouramis are getting along famously with the two male pearl guoramis! No issues with aggression at all!
 
I have approx. 32 fish in my community tank ranging from Tetra's to cory's, a pleco and Angel fish and snails.

I feed them flakes and NLS community fish formula ( about 1/4 teaspoon or less ) once EVERY OTHER day. I also feed the bottom feeders shrimp pellets/algae wafers/fresh veggies same thing - every other day.

Fish are pretty crafty. They may not appear to be eating but they are. They will not starve and most can go easily 2 weeks without any food.

I believe feeding less is better than too much ( cleaner tank and better health over all ) but its a personal preference for most as some feed every day, twice a day or more.
 
I'm with jwebbe. I only feed once every other day. And then it's not a large amount to make up for not feeding. It is a normal single portion like I'd used before I switched to EOD feeding schedule.

I've not found a drawback to feeding EOD. I think the drawbacks to feeding daily are many.
 

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I feed very very small amounts of NLS at the same time every day (as soon as the lights come on).
 
I believe fish are like dogs - if you provide food, it will eat!

I remember as a kid having a VERY FAT goldfish - we fed that thing EVERYTHING ( Breadcrumbs, flakes, etc ) we didn't know better but I think it just over ate himself to death.
 
Omgosh! I feel like a horrible person now.
I feed my 14 fish 2-3 times a day because that is what I read online!
am I killing my fish?!?
 
Omgosh! I feel like a horrible person now.
I feed my 14 fish 2-3 times a day because that is what I read online!
am I killing my fish?!?
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Some ailments can be caused by overfeeding. Then there are the things like planaria which thrive in tanks with too much food. In a tank with lots of uneaten food I would expect to see more issues with water parameters too. I also think it is good for the fish and the tank that the fish spend a good part of their time foraging for food rather than waiting for pellets from the sky.
I personally prefer to feed EOD. I noticed a distinct behavior change in my tank when I don't feed daily. The fish are more active and interesting to watch on the days I don't feed. On feeding days, they eat, then go veg out somewhere and are less active.
 
I used to feed twice a day. My ammonia got out of control and overfeeding could be the cause so I cut back to once a day. My ammonia is still high so I'm thinking of cutting back to once every other day.
Thoughts?
 
I used to feed twice a day. My ammonia got out of control and overfeeding could be the cause so I cut back to once a day. My ammonia is still high so I'm thinking of cutting back to once every other day.
Thoughts?
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Do you have ammonia in your tap water? I'd say there wouldn't be any harm in cutting back to EOD feeding schedule. I had WCMM before a disease outbreak and they did fine on that feeding schedule.
 
Yes Amaly I do have ammonia in my tap water so I know that is also part of the problem. But I treat with Prime and check parameters after 24 hours and still I have ammonia. I'm guessing that my tank just doesn't have enough BB to handle my tap water yet.
Someone suggested Ceramic Rings once but I'm not sure how to use them. I have a Whisper Microfilter and a Whisper 20 - 40 both running.
 
Yes Amaly I do have ammonia in my tap water so I know that is also part of the problem. But I treat with Prime and check parameters after 24 hours and still I have ammonia. I'm guessing that my tank just doesn't have enough BB to handle my tap water yet.
Someone suggested Ceramic Rings once but I'm not sure how to use them. I have a Whisper Microfilter and a Whisper 20 - 40 both running.
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Well, cutting back to feeding only EOD certainly wouldn't hurt in your situation. More food = more poop = more ammonia. I think I have a Whisper 10. It came with my 5 gallon shrimp tank, but I use a sponge in there. I can't use it because it is too tall for my other 5 gallon that currently houses only 2 nerites. If it is similar to what I have, it is just a big open cavity for water to flow through once the original media is removed. To put in ceramic rings or other bio media, you would likely want to put the items into a mesh bag and insert into the empty cartridge. I'm not familiar with ceramic rings. I decided to use bulk foam from the LFS cut into chunks and 1 packet of purigen. It is made by SeaChem and works perfectly with Prime. It is also reusable provided proper care, which means giving up any products that are amine based (StressCoat Plus is one IIRC). If you go that route, always have at least one spare because the regeneration process (bleach, water & Prime is all) takes a few days.

Anyway, I put the foam nearest the area of water intake and the purigen nearest the output. I'd think you could do the same with ceramic rings instead of purigen, and still use the foam. The extra foam will add extra surface area for the biomedia to populate which in turn will assist you with poor water from the tap.

Another thought, are you sure it is ammonia? I'd suggest calling the water provider. If they have a website, look for the "Customer Confidence Report", or something similar. I called one of the people listed on that contact page for my utility and got lots of information that was helpful. I just told her I was new to keeping aquariums in this area and had a few questions. My first was, "Do you add chloramines to the water?" That should be yours too. I've read reports of the API test kit reading chloramines as ammonia. If you have chloramine in your tap, then I would strongly recommend switching to purigen. Otherwise, if it's just plain old ammonia, then find out if you have season spikes in ammonia or nitrogen, ph, etc.

Good luck. I hope you can get the ammonia under control. WCMM are such awesome little fish.
 
Thanks! Very helpful suggestions! And yes....I love these little guys...they don't seem stressed which is why I'm not too worried. But I would like to get that 0 ammonia reading eventually! LOL!
 
Good morning,

I feed all of my fish once a day, every day, sparingly. I try to feed enough so that everyone gets a bite or two. If someone misses out, chances are good they will be first in line for breakfast the next morning.

Five days of the week my fish are fed staples of pellets, sticks, wafers, Romaine Lettuce and raw sliced Zucchini.

Two days a week I feed special treats:

https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/threads/breakfast-treat-day.90859/

Ken
 

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Welcome to Fishlore, I would suggest 2x a day in smaller amounts per feeding to reduce the risk of constipation and bloating.
 
Agreed aHumanBeing. I actually feed 3 very small meals a day myself.
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I've been doing 3 lately as well but I'll eventually go back to 2 a day. The little boogers just freaking love smooshed peas with Garlic Guard
 
It really depends on the current tank conditions and purpose. If you are cycling and are having ammonia or nitrite issues, feeding can be reduced to once every two days. If you are grooming a fish for show or breeding, feedings can be more frequent, though the diet is varied to not just staple pellets or flakes. If your are just regular feeding, I recommend twice a day as suggested in smaller portions, though every other day, vary the feed and switch it up by feeding other food such as veggies, brine shrimp, spirinula, daphnia, krill, plankton and all the other nummies good for your fish.
 
I feed every morning about same time each day. I also wait for all them to be awake so nobody misses their meal. My tetras are the lazy ones always waiting for one of them to get out of bed.
 
I feed once a day after work, but I'm thinking of doing two smaller meals a day, once after work and again before bed. Just so everyone does get a chance to munch.
 

Random Great Topic!

Size - eye versus stomach

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