# How often do you feed your fish?



## Matt Warner (24 Mar 2012)

Hi all. I just wondered how often you all feed your fish. Obviously in a planted tank we want to keep organic waste to a minimum but what is the right frequency. Once a day or every other day.


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## George Farmer (24 Mar 2012)

Depends on the fish.

In general I like to feed smaller and more juvenile fish more frequently, but less quantity.  Larger fish in bigger quantities but less often.  Never less than twice per day for either.  

My tanks are always 'overfiltered' and have large frequent water changes with a decent maintenance regime, so 'overfeeding' should never be an issue.

For years it has been hammered home not to overfeed your fish, but now the opposite is happening. Many folk are almost starving their fish to their detriment.


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## hinch (24 Mar 2012)

2-3 times a day as george said smaller quantities for the smaller fish especially babies

the bigger fish get a handfull or so


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## morefirejules08 (24 Mar 2012)

mine get flake first thing in the morning at the same time as i feed the plants, later in the day i put in one of those tab things that stick to the glass and in the evening they get frozen live food


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## Morgan Freeman (24 Mar 2012)

4 times a day. Overfeeding not a problem it's all plant food.


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## Gill (24 Mar 2012)

I feed my fish a 2.5ml (hikari micro pellets and micro sinking wafers) spoon of food every other day. Brineshrimp and Daphnia In between those days, and now some Microworms.


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## Antipofish (24 Mar 2012)

Twice a day here.  Flake in the morning and granules in the evening (which i crumble too so there are smaller bits for the smaller fish.  I also use those Sera spirulina tabs about twice a week and put a couple of algae wafers in 3 times a week for my Otto.


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## Iain Sutherland (25 Mar 2012)

hikari micro pellets and flake twice a day for 4 days, live rotifers beginning of week (catnip for fish, especially choclate gouramis!!), glassworm once a week, one day of starvation.  Once a week shirakuma wafers for the shrimpies, except the amanos normally swim off with them


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## Bufo Bill (25 Mar 2012)

Easer, where do you get your rotifers? Do you culture them yourself? 
Many thanks from Bill.


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk


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## Nat N (25 Mar 2012)

I am feeding mine once a day reasonably generously. They have a selection of dry foods (Hikari, TA Aquaculture, etc.). They get frozen food once a week, pea meal once every week to two weeks, some veggies (like cucumber) sometimes and a day of being on a “diet” each week. They get live foods as well every now and then. I love bettas and every time I have a youngster, he gets fed a bit more often but smaller amounts. I am curious about rotifers as well... Don’t mind culturing them, just never tried this before.


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## Iain Sutherland (26 Mar 2012)

Nat N said:
			
		

> I am curious about rotifers as well... Don’t mind culturing them, just never tried this before.



Can only speak for my tank, but Tetra, CPD, harlequins all go nuts but especially the chocolate gourami.   Even once stuffed they love to chase the survivors around and 'pop' them  

I only tried them as i get them for my marine and thought why not...


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## dw1305 (26 Mar 2012)

Hi all,
Small scrape of micro-worms & grindal worms every morning, then either some live _Daphnia_/Mosquito larvae, or a mix or earthworm/spirulina flake and some astax red crumb pellets in the evening and a fast day once a week.  Larger fish don't get micro-worms, but get red worms (_Lumbricus rubellus_) instead. One day a week I feed these after lights out and add a prawn to the vegetables, if the tank has _Hypancistrus_ or _Peckoltia_ spp. as well.

If I have a lot of live "pond" food (in the summer usually), I add the right amount to keep the cultures healthy, rather than the right amount for the fish, so sometimes they would be extremely "over-fed". I'm a lot more sparing with dried food, partially because the fish are quite "spoiled", and will only eat it when they are really hungry.

I leave some vegetables in at all times for the _Otocinclus_ and or Shrimps, and occasionally they get a Hikari Algal wafer or similar.

You can culture fresh-water rotifers fairly easily, but it is quite time consuming as you need to keep re-culturing, <http://www.aquaculturestore.com/info/rotifer.html> or you can use the same set-up you use for _Daphnia_. 

If you want to have a "trial run" to see your fishes response to live rotifers, filter sponges are a great source. Just squeeze the sponge out into a beaker, and then give it a good swirl and you should be able to pipette (pipettes from here: <http://www.ta-aquaculture.co.uk/Miscellaneous.htm>) the rotifers out of the central vortex without getting too much mulm etc.

If people are interested in culturing live food, I'd strongly recommend it for healthy fish, and I'd also recommend Mike Hellweg's book "_Culturing Live Food_", £25 very well spent <http://www.amazon.co.uk/Culturing-Live-Foods-Michael-Hellweg/dp/0793806550>. 

cheers Darrel


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