How often do you fast your fish?

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Curious to see what everyone else does. For me, I never really intentionally fast my fish. However, on the rare blue moon like today, life gets in the way. I was gone over 14 hours today and got home as the lights were going off. How often do you fast your fish?

[Guppysnail]

I also do not intentionally fast my fish. I feed well and do the water changes required to do so. I feed smaller portions twice a day some days others I feed smaller portions because I seeded my tanks with scuds, seed shrimp and neocaridina shrimp so they can pick and hunt for environmental enrichment. In about half my tanks I have fry and juveniles so they pick at that food. In those tanks I skip adult feed occasionally so they don’t overeat since they pick at the baby food. 

[Kurt Brutting]

I fast my betta once a week, but all my community fish Tetras, BN Pleco’s, Cory’s, Loaches, Shrimp, & Snails eat everyday. Unless like you said life gets in the way. 

[nabokovfan87]

Once a week when I'm doing things right. I don't feed heavily. I do feed, and have been trying to keep things to several times a day when I see fish being a butt and pecking others for food. But usually water change day or Sundays I'll just take a break.

I might feed heavy the night before with some repashy or drop in some frozen right after the pumps turn off, then do the WC. But it's all flexible. Intentionally taking a break, I try to do that once a week though, at least once every 2 weeks.

Guaranteed they got stuff to graze on during that break and it encourages that natural behavior.

[Odd Duck]

Only when my Sunday 12 hour shift runs way over and lights have been off a while before I get home.

[lefty o]

never.

[Hally M.]

I only really fast my bettas as they seem to be prone to constipation and bloating. I fast Once a week just to help their little bodies digest what’s in their systems. All my other fish haven’t had a problem with bloating. As long as I keep up on water changes and they aren’t ill than they eat on a daily basis. 

[Remi de Groot]

I probably forget about them once of twice every week. To busy with going to work as soon as i'm awake and coming home late at night. Does that count as 'fasting'?

Just quit my job because of the unhealthy balance between work and my private live. So hoping to get back to a more normal schedule and being able to spend more time with the fish and shrimps te next couple of months.

[Flumpweesel]

Once or twice a year I might miss a day because of travel but aside from that I feed daily.

[Colu]

 I feed  my fish twice a day I only fast once every couple of months when I have work commitments and I can't get back before the timer turns my lights off  my bristlenose pleco fry have access to food most of the day as I usually leave vegetable such as cucumber and lettuce in my tanks so they can gaze constantly and have plenty of wood so they can eat the biofilm 

[Jungle Fan]

My fish, snails, and shrimp are spoiled brats, they don't know what fasting is, and they'd let me know should it ever occur, fat and sassy as they are.

[SandSea]

They don’t get fed Once or twice a week bcuz of my work

Edited November 27, 2022 by SandSea

[Rita]

I fast twice a week… but I’m also a chronic over feeder. I’ve admitted I have a problem and I’m seeking help 🤣. So I think it helps all my fish digest and maybe scrounge for any scraps not eaten the day before.

[tnnlynch]

Pretty rare for them to go without feeding daily. Maybe once or twice a month.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Appreciate all the replies, everyone! It seems that like most everyone that commented, my fish are spoiled, and are fed twice per day everyday unless life/work gets in the way. Not sure why I expected anything different from us nerms 🤪

Edited November 27, 2022 by AllFishNoBrakes

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/26/2022 at 8:47 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

Appreciate all the replies, everyone! It seems that like most everyone that commented, my fish are spoiled, and are fed twice per day everyday unless life/work gets in the way. Not sure why I expected anything different from us nerms 🤪

Makes sense.  Maybe people who have had issues with bloat in their fish are more conservative about feeding?

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@nabokovfan87For sure. It makes sense in some situations. For me, life got in the way that day, and it made me curious as to what everyone else does so I had to ask. Curiosity killed the cat situation 

[JettsPapa]

I often skip one day per week, and sometimes two, and occasionally those two days are consecutive.

[PineSong]

My coworker asked for some of the fish that I raise and he set up a nice 20g in his office for them. I gave him a few male platies and several male guppies and some guppy grass.

The tank is one of those box store starter kits with a black lid and the tank sits right in a wall of window so gets a lot of light.

My coworker works a 4 day week so his fish go 3 days per week without being fed every single week unless I happen to be in his part of the building on Friday, in which case I feed them on Friday and they only fast over the weekend.

The tank has been set up for about a year, has completely filled with guppy grass more than once, has hardly any algae and the fish are fit as fiddles--his male guppies look much better than mine even though I bred his, too. The white rocks are still white. 

He also has a small army of large and healthy ramshorn snails. So, 4 days per week of food is enough for the fish, the snails, and the guppy grass!

 

 

Edited November 29, 2022 by PineSong

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@PineSong Nice. I guess it all depends on what we’re trying to pull off! I’ve thought about setting up a nano shrimp tank on my desk, but I’m only in the office twice per week and simply don’t have the time to take care of another tank that’s not in my home. Restaurant life is brutal, lol. 

[PineSong]

On 11/28/2022 at 10:48 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

@PineSong Nice. I guess it all depends on what we’re trying to pull off! I’ve thought about setting up a nano shrimp tank on my desk, but I’m only in the office twice per week and simply don’t have the time to take care of another tank that’s not in my home. Restaurant life is brutal, lol. 

Yes, I considered setting up a tank at work myself but decided against it even though I usually work 5 days in the office. Too hard to manage water changes and I would be nervous about possible power outages etc. and my not knowing they were happening. 

[Rita]

On 11/28/2022 at 8:17 PM, PineSong said:

Yes, I considered setting up a tank at work myself but decided against it even though I usually work 5 days in the office. Too hard to manage water changes and I would be nervous about possible power outages etc. and my not knowing they were happening. 

So the building where my office is was built earlier this year. It has built in energy savers for all the office spaces. When the motion detectors are idle for a while it cuts power to the entire office… makes fish keeping at work tough 😂 

[JettsPapa]

On 11/28/2022 at 9:35 PM, PineSong said:

My coworker asked for some of the fish that I raise and he set up a nice 20g in his office for them. I gave him a few male platies and several male guppies and some guppy grass.

The tank is one of those box store starter kits with a black lid and the tank sits right in a wall of window so gets a lot of light.

My coworker works a 4 day week so his fish go 3 days per week without being fed every single week unless I happen to be in his part of the building on Friday, in which case I feed them on Friday and they only fast over the weekend.

The tank has been set up for about a year, has completely filled with guppy grass more than once, has hardly any algae and the fish are fit as fiddles--his male guppies look much better than mine even though I bred his, too. The white rocks are still white. 

He also has a small army of large and healthy ramshorn snails. So, 4 days per week of food is enough for the fish, the snails, and the guppy grass!

 

 

I have a moderately planted (bordering on heavily planted) 5.5 gallon tank on my desk at work.  It has a light on a timer, but no filtration or air movement.  It is currently stocked with seven juvenile endlers, ranging from about half grown to pretty much full size, and God only knows how many shrimp.

I decided to take vacation time last Wednesday, so since Thursday was Thanksgiving, and we get the following Friday off for a holiday, the tank didn't get fed for five days.  When I got to work yesterday morning the fish were fine.  They acted hungry, but they always act hungry.

[Andy's Fish Den]

My fish go without eating at least once a week, depending upon work and family commitments. Also, whenever we go on vacation out of town, they will go without food for a week or so until I get home. 

[MattyM]

Never really - my platies would figure out a way to murder and eat me in my sleep. I do feed lots of frozen food, esp daphnia which I hear helps clean their systems out. 

When I'm traveling tho - I just have the sitter feed 1x a day if we're gone more than a few days, and I usually pre-measure everything out.