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Ok....I've been very confused over that past few days. To make the long story short, I've had a green water problem for about two months now. I'm sure its simply the fact that I have too many fish and not enough plants to hadle all the nutrients ( I have a 10g with three bronze cories, a small angel, a african butterfly, and two honey gouramis). Yes the tank is over stocked....the angel shouldn't be there, nor the butterfly, but I got them spur of the moment because I really loved them. (stupid spastic me....). They will be moved to a 50g in a few weeks after I get it set up...but thats not the point. After being away for a whole week at a lake, I've noticed that my tank is crystal clear. During that week, I fed my fish the same amount as I did before, but I fed them every other day. The light was off also, which I'm sure contributed to the leave of algea But I noticed that my fish seemed more active, and their colors look nicer (My angel's fins even grew longer.) Is this because I was feeding every other day, or a mix of no light, and less food?

Oh, and this is what I feed: Half an algea wafer,
a TINY pinch of flake,
some broken pieces of pellet for my Butterfly,
ocassionally some blood worms

I don't believe that this is too much, but I could be wrong. So...Is it safe to feed them every other day? I've read alot of things for hours....but they are ALL different. please, help this very confused girl....:#(

Hi,

To answer your question, yes you can absolutely feed them every other day. IMO, with the exception of young fry, you SHOULD feed them every other day. In an overstocked small tank like you have - and in any tank for that matter - not overfeeding is essential to keeping the water clear. As you said, the green water you had was most likely the result of excess nutrients in the water column brought about by overfeeding (the lights being off also probably helped. And while on the subject, I highly recommend adding a bunch of hornwort to your tank, it will suck all the excess nutrients up and kill off the algae bloom. it'll grow like crazy, but just throw out the old stuff and keep the new growth.)

Anyway, you may want to do an early and late feeding every other day, or even every two days. Fish aren't like mammals and do not really need to be fed every single day. You can leave them without food for a week or so and they'll be fine. Most fish peck at algae and other tidbits all around the tank, so even though they're not being fed by you, they're finding ways to eat. Avoiding overfeeding is very important

now let's get that 50g started!

---

Back in the saddle!

Whenever I'm away and have someone else feed the tanks I have them do it every other day. The office tanks frequently go 2-4 days without feedings over the weekend or if I'm away. My home tanks frequently get every other day feedings just because I end up too busy sometimes :%).

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I almost always do 1 feeding over 2 days

Fish don't absolutley NEED to be fed every day because in the wild they even go for weeks at a time with no food...I'm not recommending that though because it is good to feed your fish at least a few times a week. 1 feeding every other day should be fine. And make it a smaller feeding as to prevent more green water (like you already ahve done)

Good luck and hope you get your 50 gallon soon

Last edited by Tetra Fan at 08-Aug-2005 13:57

NowherMan6: haha, yeah my fileter heater, etc. should be coming from bigals tomorrow, and I'll start right away!
That makes me feel so much better. I like the idea of feeding every other day, and I'm happy to find that it is fine for fish.And I was planing on adding some hornwort to both tanks, so when I go to the LFS, I'll buy two^^
Thanks for all the help, you've really givven me some good info
/:'

Hi

One of my LFS has posters around the store recommending feeding every other day. I feed my fish most days but like to give them at least one day off a week.

Yes, you can feed you fish every other day & hungry fish are healthy fish. It's better to leave them a bit hungry than overfeed them.



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ive left three huge community tanks alone for three weeks with minimal auto feeders set to go off avery 3 days, i set them so low on purpose to avoid overfeeding,and water pollution while i was not there to rectify it.I worked in animal rescue for a while and had to come to the aid of many a tank, how long it takes a fish to starve to death depends on the size of a fish, in the case of an adult honey gouramie, probably about a month or more, people worry unduly.
regular feedings are really suggested to keep fish in healthy condition and avoid digestive problems, but should emergencies arise that are unavoidable most fish can be left for a couple of weeks with no ill effects,occasionally a predator will turn to a cagemate for sustenance but then you shouldnt really keep a tank community that is so risky. Equipment failure is far more of a worry.
most people who go on holiday lose their fish either by polluting the water by overfeeding with tablets that are "supposed" to feed fish gradully, or by a filter failure or blockage.

Some marine keepers that do not produce enough food for microcarnivores can have problems , but generally a break from feeding in a tropical freshwater tank isnt an issue.

A warning about auto feeders tho- with a lot of tanks you will have to leave a lid open- as there isnt really room for the device, this of course can lead to jumping fish and cat related incidents, and even when they do fit , some of the posher ones have humidity reducing devices that frankly rarely work, and when the food in the feeder clogs the fish may get it all at once or not at all.In addition you really have to experiment with foods that work well in the typically rotating cylinders that they nearly all have. my personal choice is tetra prima,which delivers reliably in my eheim feeder, although my fish will only grudgingly accept it.a lot of flake foods are useless in these things.

most certainly....actually i hav even a smaller tank than urs(a shrimp tank with cories and otto)..and i feed it everyday except the weekend in minute amount...the problem with small tanks is the stability of its water parameters...so..u should be always on guard for them...and do regular water changes (i do 2x a week).
gud luck