9/11/20

Getting Started: Feeding Your Fish

Overfeeding fish is a significant problem with old and new tanks alike. Most fish cannot effectively self-regulate how much they eat. They can literally eat themselves to death in certain circumstances. In addition to this problem, uneaten food in a fish tank decays, producing nitrogenous waste. This strains a tank’s biological filter, and can even poison your fish if the food is not removed. This makes it very important to not over feed your fish.

Fish have different dietary habits and needs depending on the species of fish you have. Many fish are omnivores, meaning they will eat plant or meat based food. They often will eat almost anything you put in the tank. For the fish that are not omnivores, however, it can be quite harmful to feed them food their bodies are not designed to digest. If you feed an herbivore meat or a carnivore plants, at best they will be unable to effectively digest it and will gain little to no nutrition from the food, and at worst it may poison your fish. For this reason, an important responsibility of a fish owner is to learn the dietary needs of the fish you choose to keep. In addition to feeding your fish the correct food, fish do better if they are provided some variety in what they eat. Always feeding the same flake or pellet food to fish is like eating nothing but rice yourself. A variety in your diet benefits you, and the same is true for your fish. You can, depending on the fish you own, feed flakes and/or pellets most of the time, but once or twice a week throw in some fresh or frozen vegetables, or some water-softened peas if your fish is an herbivore or omnivore, or some krill, blood worms (freeze dried, frozen or fresh) or brine shrimp if your fish is a carnivore or omnivore. This variety will not only give your fish some enjoyment, but can also supplement your fish’s diet with needed nutrients if some trace element or another is absent from their normal food.

In a tank with mixed fish, if some are bottom dwellers and some are top feeders, you need to feed the fish in a manner where all the fish have access to the food. Adding a bunch of food at once so that the top feeders don’t get it all is NOT the way to do this. One thing you could try would be to feed some floating food first, and while the top feeders are munching on that, drop in the sinking food for the bottom feeders. You could also try sinking the flakes (if that is what you use) so they float around in all levels of the tank.

One of the biggest reasons most people overfeed their fish is that they always look hungry. The fish are always bouncing off the glass, waiting for food, nibbling at the water surface every time you approach. They wouldn’t be acting like that if they weren’t starving, right? In reality, even though many fish are constantly begging or browsing for food, they are not in fact starving. Even when overfed, fish will often act like they haven’t eaten in days. In general, fish should be fed once or twice a day only as much as they can eat in under 2 minutes. Even less will do for fish like mollies or goldfish that eat algae and plants in the tank. If you don’t think this is enough, next time you feed your fish start a timer and watch as they eat. Watch how much is actually eaten and how much is sucked up by the filter or sinks to the gravel. See how long it actually takes for the food to be all gone. Remember that whatever you put into the tank either decays and produces nitrogenous wastes, or the fish eat it and in the process of digestion turn it into nitrogenous waste. The more you feed, the more ammonia is produced and the more strained your biological filter will be.

Many people worry about their fish when they go out of town, worrying about how they will feed them. The best thing to do when going away for less than a week is to not worry about feeding them at all. Fish can usually last for at least a week without food, so not feeding them at all is better than worrying about who will feed them, whether they will feed them too much. Deciding not to feed the fish has the added advantage of reducing the production of nitrogenous waste, since if the fish are eating less, they are producing less waste. Since you won’t be around to monitor the water quality or do partial water changes if necessary, this can be invaluable. Conversely, the worst thing you can do would be to feed the fish a bunch right before you leave, or put one of those dissolving “vacation feeders” in your tank. The last thing you want to do when leaving for a period of time is to add something to your tank that could alter your water chemistry. Remember, you won’t be able to do water changes if the ammonia spikes, or the pH crashes.

Automatic feeders are an option if you are still worried about your fish starving or you will be out of town for more than a week. These are set on a timer to release each day a compartment of food that you pre-load with however much flake, pellet, etc. food that you want. I would strongly suggest putting a little less food in these compartments than you normally feed your fish when you are home to avoid possible ammonia spikes. Finally, if you have a friend who can stop by to feed your fish, the best thing to do to make sure they do not overfeed your fish is to use those weekly pill organizers to provide the proper daily amount of food. Just have the pill cases filled with whatever amount and type of food you normally feed your fish, and have your friend just empty the correct day into the tank. Again, I would suggest putting a little less than normal in these compartments. Also, it would be a good idea to make sure your pill organizer has NOT been used in the past for actual pills, as residue left over may poison your fish. If you have used them before for pills, make sure all medicine residues are completely gone before you use it for fish food. When you finally return from vacation, the first thing you do should be to test your water parameters and do a partial water change to clean your neglected tank up if it needs it.

No comments: