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Feeding Times


ErinV
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I am intrested in knowing how others feed their fish.

What times do you feed?

How many times a day?

What do you feed? 

Until a year ago, I had only ever fed flake food and I did it when I woke up and before bed. I never forget when it is part of the routine. I have since added in moderation the following.

Freeze dried blood worms, freeze dried brine shrimp. Frozen blood worms and brine shrimp. Viber bites. Shrimp pellets. Oh, and I have aways done wafers for algae eaters.

I cut back to 1 feed a day on my 30g as I was battling some major algae. I was also trying to find the balance between 🐟 🪴 🐌 💡 and fertilizer (no cute emoji). I am slowly moving back to 2 feedings.

Part of why I am asking is now that I have the 90g and I am getting closer to the first fishes going in, I want a rough idea of how or where I should start with a feeding schedule. 

 

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  • I usually feed in the evenings, because that's when I'm home and have time (I leave for work at 6:00 am).  Occasionally on weekends I'll also feed the tubs outside in the mornings, since they're overflowing with guppy fry.
  • I generally feed 5-6 times per week.  I usually feed frozen food twice weekly, and often skip the next day.  When I was on vacation in May they didn't get fed for 3 days with no apparent ill effects.
  • I feed frozen bloodworms and shrimp, along with cubes designed for omnivores, at least once a week, and usually twice.  The rest of the times it's whatever dry commercial food I grab (and of course being in southeast Texas the guppies in the tubs outside have plenty of mosquito larvae).
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I usually feed twice a day only because I enjoy it. My fish really love the Hikari micro pellets so that's almost always their morning meal. In the evenings I rotate between live blackworms, frozen brine shrimp or bloodworms, krill flake, bug bites and Repashy Community. The pleco cleans up after the others and gets either an algae wafer, a chunk of Repashy or a piece of Zucchini most evenings. If I have a crazy day or am out of town for up to a week I don't worry about feeding and have never had a problem. Good luck finding a schedule that works for you and enjoy your new 90g!

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I feed everything I find that fits in their mouths pellet flake live etc.  I feed VERYSMALL amounts 3-4-5 times a day depending on what. There is always veggies available because of my stocking. My reasoning right or wrong is in the wild most fish (at least the ones I keep) forage and eat small amounts all day not just pig out once or twice so I’m hoping it it easier on their digestion and they actually absorb more nutrients than just pass them through stool.  
plus I’m old retired and it amuses me without making them fat 😁

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When I first set up the tank I was doing a small feeding every day, but now it’s a feeding every 2-4 days depending on how much I fed them the previous time & whether there’s been a water change done between the feedings. They usually don’t get fed at a certain time, just when I can get around to it, but in the last few weeks it’s usually been in the morning. 
 

I feed flake food and sinking pellets every feeding, with an algae wafer or some baby brine shrimp every 3 feedings. They also get live, frozen & freeze-dried bloodworms (only one type at a time) every 2 weeks or so. They’ll occasionally get some vegetables or fruit added in, but that only happens once every 2-3 months. 

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I am still working out my schedule, but trying to feed twice a day - once before I leave for work ~7 and once around my dinnertime ~6ish...trying to space out the frozen food (BBS and reef plankton), but I think my CPDs were spoiled at the fish store and don't eat as much of the dry food (they're getting better)...my embers like hikari micro pellets and Omega One veggie pellets, but, I have to grind them in a pepper mill (50/50 mix) because they are still a little big for my little embers and CPDs 🙄also trying to incorporate some bug bites flake, but may just succumb to buying the granules and putting them in the pepper grinder as well...its so easy in the morning to just do a couple of turns of the pepper mill and give them a small pinch

will have to update/re-think as I get more fish, but that's what I do for now 🙂

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I do 1x a day, usually when I get home from work, every other day. Even months I feed on even says. Odd months in odd days.  I have 6 different foods - flakes, pellets, frozen - and have them generally feed two kinds each time and rotate thru so over the course of 6 days (3 feedings) they have a chance at everything on the menu.

Works for me, water is crystal clear, no algae, and I can easily go at least 10-14 days between water changes... even on my African Cichlids.

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Hi in my dirted Walstad tank I feed my betta the Xtreme Betta Pellets twice a day with 2 pellets in the morning and 3 at night on Monday through Thursday, then Saturday. Sunday I fast him, then on Fridays I feed the usual in the morning then freeze dried brine shrimp at night. Like the post above I don't really have a usual time for feeding, more of just based on what part of the day it is.

My shrimp (and snails when they find it) get fed with shrimp food and sometimes krill flakes every Friday as well. I'll also just drop in some more food over the course of the week if I feel like it, right now I have some boiled summer squash in there! I haven't done a water change since soon after the tank was set up, and last I checked my nitrates were at 0 (with the plants still thriving). 

Edited by FlyingFishKeeper
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On 7/14/2021 at 8:36 AM, ErinV said:

I am intrested in knowing how others feed their fish.

What times do you feed?

How many times a day?

What do you feed? 

Until a year ago, I had only ever fed flake food and I did it when I woke up and before bed. I never forget when it is part of the routine. I have since added in moderation the following.

Freeze dried blood worms, freeze dried brine shrimp. Frozen blood worms and brine shrimp. Viber bites. Shrimp pellets. Oh, and I have aways done wafers for algae eaters.

I cut back to 1 feed a day on my 30g as I was battling some major algae. I was also trying to find the balance between 🐟 🪴 🐌 💡 and fertilizer (no cute emoji). I am slowly moving back to 2 feedings.

Part of why I am asking is now that I have the 90g and I am getting closer to the first fishes going in, I want a rough idea of how or where I should start with a feeding schedule. 

 

I feed each tank a bit different but easy green is fed to the tanks with plants once a week,

Puffers

Hairy puffer tanks and the mekong puffer tank I use primarily frozen krill with vitachem 4 times per week, mystery snails, larger ramshorns ( they avoid the shell and ignore the smaller ones) and a school of "flake,pellet, and other food delivery systems" who cohabitat and clean up the krill bits for me. They do occasionally need to be added to but not very often. 

Fry live vinegar eels, brine shrimp, or snails am pm size dependant

 

Pike

Tanks of orinoco and regani

Vibrabites , flake pellet 3 times per week. Frozen 1 time per week, live baby brine 1 time per week

 

African Butterfly fish

5 times per week rotate between floating sticks, live peanut beetle larvae, freeze dried soldier fly larvae, floating pellets

Panda loach and limia perugia 

Spirulina flake, repashy super green 3 times per week. Live baby brine 1 per week.

 

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Love all the different answers and how everyone seems to do what works best for them and their fish. Goes to show how much we have to take things with somewhat of a grain of salt when it comes to tanks. Everyone kinda starts with the basics, water/fish/plants but we tweak things here and there due to our specific tanks.

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I like feeding twice a day, once at 8am and once at 5pm. Sundays are fasting days.

 

Featherfin Catfish: Soilent Green Repashy in the morning, sinking carnivore or catfish pellets at night.

Electric Blue Acara: Bug Bites in the morning, Sera Tropical Flakes, or Cichlid Pellets at night

Blue Wag Platies, Betta, Humpback Limia: Bug Bites in the morning, Sera Tropical Flakes at night

Mystery snails: Soilent Green Repashy, Algae Wafers or whetever else I have on hand, once a day.

Pea Puffer: Ramshorn, Bladder, Pond snails or blood worms, once a day (he'll hunt the snails for a number of hours).

Bichirs: Frozen tilapia pieces, catfish pellets or sinking carnivore pellets in the morning, frozen bloodworms and frozen brine shrimp at night.

Ctenopoma:  Frozen bloodworms and frozen brine shrimp at night. She's picky and doesn't always want the pellets I feed to the bichirs, so she usually only gets the night time feeding.

Blood Parrot: Anything I put into the tank she can cram into her little mouth. But mostly frozen tilapia pieces, catfish pellets or sinking carnivore pellets in the morning, frozen bloodworms and frozen brine shrimp at night.

Ramshorn snails: Anything I have on hand.

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Typically, I feed very lightly.  Once per day at 12 pm.  

Mostly have a bunch of different live-bearers \ various snails & use the following foods, in rotation:

Xtreme:  Krill Flakes, Nano, Algae Wafers

Hikari:  Fancy Guppy Granules, Freeze Dried Bloodworms, Algae Wafers

Fluval:  Bug Bites, Flakes

Repashy:  Community & Soilent Green

Zoo Med:  Mini Banquet Blocks

On a side note, since all aquariums are planted, they are very lightly fertilized once per day, around 10 am.  

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I'm in the final developing stages of a food schedule, amounts, and types. Here is my list so far.

1. What times do you feed?

  • AM and PM

2. How many times a day?

  • 1x *to 2x a day. On 2x days, small feedings at a time. I'm still debating the one day fasting part.

3. What do you feed? 

  • New Life Spectrum pellets, New Life Spectrum AlgeaMax, Bug Bites granules, Xtreme community pellets. Hikari frozen bloodworms. Recently trying cut up dried shrimp.  No flakes foods, I don't like the mess. 
  • The amount of food is weighted at about 1 gram.

*Footnote. I have amended the food times to 1x a day with no fasting.

Edited by Hoi Polloi
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I feed in the late mornings/ early afternoon. All my fish get one feeding. My two tanks downstairs (community tank and 10 gallon guppy tank) gets flakes made by my LFS almost every day. I will however mix in frozen blood worms to everyones diet once or twice a week. 

My two bettas get a variety of betta foods. Mostly because I'm constantly buying more betta foods to try (probably because there so widely available. They get NLS Betta Pellets, Hikari Betta Pellets, Northfin Betta Pellets (I stopped feeding that a few weeks ago, but have fed them in the past) Fluval Bug Bites, and then frozen foods. 

I'm going to be trying out BBS soon too. 

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I have a wonky schedule. I work nights so on those days when I get up around noon I feed everybody (tank wise). Their lights are obviously already on but the ambient lights around them have been off but for the light from a semi-distant sliding door- once the kitchen lights come up everybody knows what time it is. On my days off (I get 3 but only 2 of those days I am a "day walker") I feed them after their lights come up which is 0845 (I only turn on kitchen lights after their lights come on so again, everybody knows what time it is). My cats have to deal with my schedule too but in all honesty I think it's actually good for them to be guessing at times. I only feed the aquatics 1x a day and not very much actually. Which is probably why I stopped doing a fasting day though I'm sure it'd be fine if I did. I won't go into what I feed but I have a good variety of foods and they go into rotation. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

2 feedings a day.

I start with 12:00 when the lights turn on, then me second feeding around 20:00, 2 hours before the lights go off.

Mainly flakes but also got frozen brine shrimp and baby brine shrimp.
Has been a while when I did bbs since i'm struggling to get good quality eggs here in the netherlands.

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I feed once per day in the evening, with one fasting day per week. The fish will grow accustomed to whatever feeding schedule you use. They also watch you and learn what behaviors of yours indicate that food is coming.

Like most people, I tend to overfeed, so I measure the food each day. The fish act hungry all the time, so you have to learn that doesn't mean anything. I think in the wild they don't necessarily eat every day, but when they do find abundant food they gorge themselves because there may not be food tomorrow or the next day.

Water quality is easier to maintain if I am careful to avoid overfeeding. That is good for fish health.

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