# How often do you feed your fish?



## fishface76 (Mar 8, 2008)

i have a 44 gal pentagon and about 22 fish in it. All about an inch or so with the exception of 2 mollys and 3 angels ranging from 2-4 inches. I hear anything from 2x a day to every other day. i have been feeding them 2x a day, but nitrite levels keep getting higher than I'd like and have to clean or change filter more than I should. I hear the Nitrite can be caused by over feeding.

Advice?


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## fishface76 (Mar 8, 2008)

Oh and yes I do about a 25% water change weekly as well lately. It brings it down, but spikes again in a few days.


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## FishHead (Nov 16, 2006)

i feed all my fish once a day


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## ratloach (Feb 14, 2008)

Are you cleaning your biological media? IF you are you're killing and washing away your beneficial bacterial that breaks down the nitrites.


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## VincentM (Aug 8, 2008)

Gimpy gets 8 pellets a day..


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## euRasian32 (May 19, 2005)

You should slowly decrease feeding to every other day.

You have a lot of fish, regardless of size. Heed ^ratloaches^ comment about bio-media. You may also want to look into upgrading your filtration.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Are you sure you mean nitrite and not nitrate? An established, properly filtered and stocked tank should always have 0 nitrite. If you have nitrite, your tank is either not "cycled" and you could add Stability to boost the bio-filter or the filter can't keep up with the load and you need more filter or less fish. Ratloach is right that you could be keeping the tank from cycling by aggressively cleaning or replacing the media (rinse in waste water from the tank). 

Nitrite is toxic to fish, so cutting back feeding even to once every 3 days until the nitrite stops spiking could be a helpful. 

I feed my fish usually once, but sometimes twice a day and sometimes I miss a day and they do just fine. Most fish, except really young fry can go a week or two without eating. 

I also agree with euRasian32, you load is higher than the "normal" fish load. So if your filter is estimated for your size tank, its really undersized. A second filter would give the first some help, give you insurance against the other filter's failure, and provide a place for you "filter biology" to survive when you clean your filter so you don't get a "mini-cycle" every time you clean it.


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## fishface76 (Mar 8, 2008)

ratloach said:


> Are you cleaning your biological media? IF you are you're killing and washing away your beneficial bacterial that breaks down the nitrites.


No, I have a bio wheel and leave that alone. I just rinse the filter once or twice and then replace it.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

depending on what my goals are,i feed my fish from 2-5 times a day.sometimes only once though.and normally on saturday they only get 1 or 2 feedings of spirulina flakes and wafers.no food on sunday as that is water change day.the spirulina help to flush out their system.
feeding 4 or 5 times a day is reserved for fry.higher temps,more feedings and more water changes makes them grow faster...


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## ThatFishKid (Aug 9, 2008)

i feed mine once before i go to bed, unless they are grumpy and need more. I've had weekend trips where i simply leave my fish as they are. small fish(1" or less) may need food more frequently, but they should be fine even if you feed them every 3 days. (I only feed mine daily to watch them and relax before bed)


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## akangelfood (Jun 26, 2008)

I vary between 1-2 times a day, depending on what's on the menu. For example, on one day I'll feed a *small* amount of flake twice: once in the morning, once at night. On "treat" days (for my community tank treat days happen about once or twice a week, for cichlid tanks I tend to do more frequent treat days because I have different goals for those tanks), I'll feed them blood worms and brine shrimp once, usually mid day or early evening. I feed the bottom dwellers sinking food once daily when I feed the others. I also do zucchini for my plecos a couple times a week. I also tend to change up the feeding schedule based on my goals for that tank. I tend to feed more frequently to the fish that I'm looking for rapid growth in, and tend to feed more high protein to tanks when I want to encourage breeding. 

I think it's more important to watch your fish to determine if you're overfeeding them than to follow a guideline set forth by someone else.


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## fishface76 (Mar 8, 2008)

Thank you everyone!


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## Sock Yee (Dec 29, 2007)

It all depends. On normal day when the weather is about 30degC, I'll feed them max 2 times a day. When it's rain and the weather is cold, I'll cut down the amount and feed only once a day.


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