Underfeeding and Overfeeding …Maintaining the Balance!

As most fish keepers know, feeding time is one of the best times; we all love to feed our fish because it’s one of the only ways in which they interact with us! It’s great to see them notice our approach and come rushing to the side of the tank to be fed…but it’s not so great if they begin to suffer because we’ve been too generous with the snacks!

Aquarium fish will generally do very well if fed once a day…twice if you’re mean with your portions! Aquarium fish also thrive on a little positive neglect…that means letting them go hungry for a day or even two days a week. This is good for them because they certainly don’t find food with such ease in the wild and they will still thrive if they don’t dine on daily basis and also because it helps with water quality when there isn’t too much food left floating around or rotting at the bottom.

A good rule of thumb when working out how much food to offer your fish is to see what they can dispose of per minute. If they finish all you offer in under a minute then you are giving the right amount of food. If it’s taking more than a minute then you’re definitely offering too much food. It is certainly more preferable to your fish to be slightly underfed than overfed. Overfeeding results in all kinds of issues…include the following!

• High Ammonia and nitrates in the water; can cause disease and death
• Fin rot; this is a nasty condition where poor water conditions cause the fins of the fish to deteriorate and it can be fatal if left untreated
• Fatty liver due to an imbalanced diet; usually fatal
• Mold and fungal infections; can be fatal
• Flatworm
• Clogged up filters

None of these conditions will help your fish to thrive and some will kill them so ensure that you are feeding your fish the correct amount of food and make sure it is of good quality. If you notice uneaten food lying around in your tank, fish it out and re-examine both the amounts you are offering in addition to how often.

Another common issue with fish is too many people taking care of them! Children and visitors should be educated as to what will happen if the fish are overfed and if your children would like to be involved in feeding, ensure that they are well supervised.

In terms of the types of food which your fish should be offered, it’s a good idea to vary the diet as much as possible. Dried food should be changed around two or three times weekly…so if you can, have a variety in stock and switch things around every few days. Supplement a diet of dry food with some frozen fish food at least once a week such as shrimp or bloodworms; this will ensure that your fish will take as much nutrition as possible from a good variety of foods.

You have just read another great aquarium blog post by iQuatics. If you would like us to blog about a specific subject or have your own aquarium blog content you would like published on our website, please get in touch. Together we can help grow the iQuatics aquarium blog into a vast resource full of combined industry knowledge.