Feeding your fish

I have a question for you veteran fish owners. How often should fish be fed??? I'm so confused! The information I've read, and the back
of the food packaging, recommends feeding 2 or 3 times a day. I had someone tell me yesterday that I should ONLY feed them 1 time- every OTHER day!! That freaked me out! Is that not too little??? I'm afraid if I drop down to only 1 feeding every other day...some of my fish will starve to death!! Do any of you know if that would be enough, or not? I am starting to think that feeding 3 times a day is too much, but I'm really afraid of starving my fish! I have been feeding them small amounts- 3 times a day, and they always seem
very hungry!! What should I do???
If you don't already know what fish I have, here's the list:
leopard danios
neons
red minor tetras
white clouds
rosy barbs (big ones)
heteromorpha rasboras
platys- and a few other tropical community fish.
Plus, 2 otocinclus- which I feed algae disks. Two every night, to be exact.
Help please....

i've been researching so many times about that, everybody has their own opinion, but i always feed my fish once a day, you can always feed them twice, but you will have the chances of more waste on your tank and having to clean it more often, i've been doing it like that since i got fish and never had a problem, unless they are fry's i'll do it twice.. good luck!!

I am horrible at forgetting to feed my fish, so sometimes they go every other day, to every three days (then again, I also overfeed just a little when I feed by hand). So for two of my tanks I have basic (walmart genaric) auto feeders and they drop twice a day. I was told years ago that the general rule of thumb is to feed what your fish can eat in 5 min... I would also be interested in what the more experienced fish hobbiests say

How long has your tank been set up and how long have you had the fish? A lot of variables can go into feeding schedules. I normally feed my Endler's every other day because they graze algae and I've got lots of rotifers, too, from the tank having been set up for years. They've always shown good weight and I've always done the same with most of my small, freshwater community fish. My betta gets fed twice a day however as he's not a grazer and is in a bowl with microfauna or flora even if he did graze. My saltys I use to have got fed once a day. And, when I go on vacation(which is usually 3-4 days) the betta goes to a friends house for feeding and the others are on their own. Never had any ill effects from that either. In fact, the one time I did get someone to come feed the fish I can back to an algae bloom and high ammonia and nitrate levels from over feeding! Keep in mind that a lot of fish don't necessarily find a full belly every day in the wild. As long as they're gaining weight(for juveniles) or maintaining(adults) and are alert, active, and healthy you're doing okay. Overfeeding can be every bit as dangerous as underfeeding. Also, I'd focus just as much on variety as quantity. You can feed the "perfect amount" of flake and have malnourished fish. No one is really exactly sure of a fish's nutritional requirements but a good variety of foods will make sure their needs are met.

Thanks guys- It's so hard to know what to do, when so many people have different opinions on the subject! It helps me to know what others are doing though, and whether or not it's working for them.
I think I can cut back to 1 feeding, but it still worries me that some of them may
not get enough that way. However; feeding as much as I have been...has been causing my ammoia level to rise a little, and enter the STRESS zone, and I've had to do water changes to make it better. I worry as much about the ammonia level being
too high, as I do about the fish starving!! lol

Hey Jeepluv-
I've only had my tank for a couple of months now. So, really new still.
I do try and feed a variety. Well...a little variety. I use a flake from Tetra, some freeze dried Blood worms, also by Tetra, and a small pellet food that floats-made by OMEGA ONE. It's supposed to be made with fresh seafood. It doesn't JUST float though. It does sink, so the fish I have that do not eat at the top also get to eat
some of them. They're a little harder for the small fish to eat though. My male Rosy barb is really big, and he swallows them whole. Others have to work harder to eat them.

I feed my fish once a day, except for the ones that I'm conditioning for spawning, they eat 2-3 times a day, and the fry get food 3-4 times a day. I only feed enough to where it is consumed almost immediately, except for the bottom feeders, with them I only put in a small amount to graze on.

how soon do you make your water changes?

I feed my fish once a day,but I give them alot though.

i usually feed mines for 2-3 mins and making sure they all eat the same amount of food and try my best not to let the food go to the bottom..

I feed between 1 and 4 times a day, depending on who I am feeding. Just watch your overall quantity, and do regular water changes.

I do 20% water changes on ALL tanks weekly with a 50% heavy cleaning once a month.

It sounds like you are fine with your feeding as long as you keep up with the water parameters and make water changes accordingly.

Good point..

I'd be wayyyy more worried about the ammonia level. It would take a long time for a healthy fish to starve to death. You'd see weight loss and be able to adjust feedings long before that happened. And you'd probably see behavior changes even before weight loss. With the ammonia rising after a few months you've probably got lots of uneaten food gathered in the gravel. I'd do a good gravel vacuuming with a 10-15% water change. Only vacuum half the tank so as not to disturb too much of the bacteria at a time. Follow that with another 5-7 days later vacuuming the other half this time. Besides overfeeding the biggest thing I think a huge number of us do when new to the hobby is over cleaning. We all want that sparkly, shiny, not a speck of algae tank. I always told my customers when I worked at a couple LFS's and did tank maintainence that a tank isn't truly established for at least 6 months. It'll cycle in a few weeks but it really takes a long while to get it completely stable.

I feed my bettas twice a day and my other tanks i feed Monday, Wednesday, and Friday twice a day as mush as they will eat in about 3 minutes. This is just one of those things in which you find what works best for you as long as you fish look healthy. I use crisps, flakes. Frozen bloodworms in the evening on Wednesdays and it seems to be working out fine for me. I also do shrimp pellets once in a while for the and I do a 25% water change weekly.

Well,
I had been doing water changes weekly, and it's been a little more often than that, for that past week and a half, due to my treating the tank for ICK. I have to do a
25% water change after 3 days of treatment, which I've done 3 times so far, and
am due to do it again tomorrow evening. So...the water has been changed quite well, I suppose. It's just that when I feed the flake food, there's always a decent amount of it that ends up falling to the bottom. Not a TON, but more than I'd like.
My lrg. Male Rosy barb seems to search the bottom pretty often throughout the
day (don't know if that's normal) so he may get some of what falls, but I worry
about there being too much waste, simply because of how fast the flake food scatters and falls. Don't know...so I just am trying to keep a check on the tank's
levels, and am doing the water changes as needed.

25% water changes weekly... thats the key VAMPY!

Jeepluv-
You made a very good point, that I hadn't really considered yet!! OVER CLEANING! lol I may be guilty of that as of recent, since I've been dealing with the ICK, because I have been vaccuming the gravel every time I do the water changes!
It never occured to me to only vaccum half of the tank. I thought the more I could
vaccum, the better. Oh Lord!!! I think this fish hobby is going to be the death of me!! lol SO much to learn!!

its ok, thats why we are here for, to help you get better everyday at the hobby.

jeepluv makes a good point. That's why I only do a heavy clean once a month. You might also consider getting some bottom feeders, like some corydoras, in the tank to help take care of what's falling to the bottom (only after the ich is completely eradicated!).

In planted tanks, you won't vacuum the substrate, but the plants will use the nutrient provided by any food that doesn't get eaten (to a degree!!).

Biggest thing is to find something that works for you!

Thanks Istrober~
It's nice to have somewhere to go for help!
Thank goodness I found this site!

Anytime!

Yeah, we're definately here to help. Most of what I know was learned the hard way after stumbling through for awhile and losing lots of fish. I finally figured it out(I'm a "learner" and study anything I do voraciously) and fell in love with it. Hang in there! It'll be so worth it when this rough patch is past. And you'll be quite a bit more informed and comfortable than a lot other new fishkeepers having gone through this. Can't wait for some pics!

My feeding is all over the board, some times its 3 times a day some days I skip feeding.

Around here everyone gets fed twice a day, then there are others that get 3 - 4 just depends who, what and whether there's youngsters. Small water changes regularly and a power clean once a month on most of the tanks again there is variance in who gets what with the variety of species/breeding groups or pairs. Have a couple pairs if you get their tank to "clean" and they literally become just pretty fish and no where near interested in spawning.

Have a few long time residents that are sure to let me know if they're hungry I wear water and they strategically plan to make sure LOL but after the years "Missy"(hypescelera temparalis) has been here she gets away with it even leave the lid up on the tank for her course she's teaching the youngsters the fine art. Oh and Jaws (dark marble standard fin angel) he's pro splashing people when he thinks he's missing a meal