Overfeeding fish.....

[Michael Lawford]

Here is a query - I have heard that you can kill fish by overfeeding. I
never overfeed and my fish (who get fed different things about 3 times a
day) are always hungry when I feed them. Now here is the thing - in the
wild they can eat all day if they like - so why dont all marine fish die
from over eating? Especially the Regal Tangs - they are like vacuums and
eat everything you put in the tank!

Any comments?

~m

[Dogma Discharge]

"Michael Lawford" > wrote in message
...
> Here is a query - I have heard that you can kill fish by overfeeding. I
> never overfeed and my fish (who get fed different things about 3 times a
> day) are always hungry when I feed them. Now here is the thing - in the
> wild they can eat all day if they like - so why dont all marine fish die
> from over eating? Especially the Regal Tangs - they are like vacuums and
> eat everything you put in the tank!

In the wild alot of fish stake out small territories, they feed within these
confines, so food may not be as abundant as you may think!

IMO (and I stress *my opinion*) feeding 3 times a day is already too much.
Your fish will probably be just fine being fed once a day, and sparingly at
that. FWIW my freshwater fish are only fed every second day, no use having
Cichlids that look like barrels with fins! I think a good varied diet is
good for fish, as long as they are'nt fed the same food every day for months
on end they should be fine.
--
Kind Regards
C

[George]

"Dogma Discharge" > wrote in message
...
> "Michael Lawford" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Here is a query - I have heard that you can kill fish by overfeeding. I
>> never overfeed and my fish (who get fed different things about 3 times a
>> day) are always hungry when I feed them. Now here is the thing - in the
>> wild they can eat all day if they like - so why dont all marine fish die
>> from over eating? Especially the Regal Tangs - they are like vacuums
>> and
>> eat everything you put in the tank!
>
> In the wild alot of fish stake out small territories, they feed within
> these
> confines, so food may not be as abundant as you may think!
>
> IMO (and I stress *my opinion*) feeding 3 times a day is already too
> much.
> Your fish will probably be just fine being fed once a day, and sparingly
> at
> that. FWIW my freshwater fish are only fed every second day, no use
> having
> Cichlids that look like barrels with fins! I think a good varied diet is
> good for fish, as long as they are'nt fed the same food every day for
> months
> on end they should be fine.
> --
> Kind Regards
> C
>

The problem with overfeeding has more to do with water quality than it does
with the nutritional health of the fish. You definitely don't want to
foul the water.

George

[Wilbur Slice]

On Wed, 18 Jan 2006 14:04:07 +0200, "Michael Lawford"
> wrote:

>Here is a query - I have heard that you can kill fish by overfeeding. I
>never overfeed and my fish (who get fed different things about 3 times a
>day)

3 times a day?

???

Sheesh! I feed my fish once every 3 days.


>are always hungry when I feed them. Now here is the thing - in the
>wild they can eat all day if they like - so why dont all marine fish die
>from over eating? Especially the Regal Tangs - they are like vacuums and
>eat everything you put in the tank!
>
>Any comments?
>
>~m
>

[Pszemol]

"Michael Lawford" > wrote in message ...
> Here is a query - I have heard that you can kill fish by overfeeding. I
> never overfeed and my fish (who get fed different things about 3 times a
> day) are always hungry when I feed them. Now here is the thing - in the
> wild they can eat all day if they like - so why dont all marine fish die
> from over eating? Especially the Regal Tangs - they are like vacuums and
> eat everything you put in the tank!
>
> Any comments?

You are doing a mistake treating all fish as a one thing...
There are many different kind of fish with different diets
and totally different demand on food or eating frequency...

Lets say predatory, carnivorous fish like eels, morays,
groupers - these fish eat a large prey but not frequently.

Consider planktivorous fish - eating plankton particles from
the water column. This is majority of fish on the reef...
These fish eat all day very tiny particles of small density
food. Each planktonic animal consist mostly of water (80%?)
and fish needs to eat millions of them to support itself...

And there are grazers like tangs - they mow the rocks of
algae. Similar situation with them: they eat all day very
small quantities of food totaling to a big meal over 12 hours.

In captivity - there is totally different situation...
First - your fish tank does not have constant supply of
plankton. Usually does not have constant supply of
macro-algae for tangs (outside of hair algae outbreaks,
but not all tangs even like to eat derbresia algae).
If you feed your fish with highly concentrated foods
like frozen/flake "Formula 1" each food particle has
much more nutrients, per weight, than the food fish
eat in the nature... Protein, fat content is close to
80%, instead of 10-15% for natural plankton...
If you feed your fish with Formula 1 food frequently
you are risking overfeeding and overfouling water with
nutrients... Same stands for dried seaweed. It is highly
concentrated, with almost no water content food...
I would use these foods in VERY small quantities through
the day spread over 3-4 feedings per day...

Other situation is with frozen food like whole organisms.
I am talking about things like frozen plankton, frozen
krill etc. Not processed food, just caught in the ocean
and frozen in the natural form... This is totally different.
The water content in such food is high, close to the content
in the natural food fish eat. Using this kind of food you
risk less with overfeeding because planktivorous fish appetite
is adjusted to this kind of food exactly... You can use this
food frequently over the day simulating natural conditions.

Consider also one important thing... Fish digestive systems
are not developed as well as digestive systems of mammals...
What the fish poops is not very processed food. Fish can
use very little from the food it eats... If you do not have
very good reef food chain of animals taking care of fish poop
(worms in the sand, snails, crabs and other "cleaning crew")
you will have a lot of problems with water quality if you
feed your fish properly... Of course you can do what most
aquarists do: starve the fish for the prolonged periods...
Keeping typical grazer fish like tangs or planktivorous guys
like clowns and feeding them every three-four days is cruel.
This kind of regime you can use to predatory fish like eels only!

[Pszemol]

"George" > wrote in message news:Izrzf.498115$084.342798@attbi_s22...
> The problem with overfeeding has more to do with water quality than it does
> with the nutritional health of the fish. You definitely don't want to
> foul the water.

You do not want for your fish to starve as well.

[RicSeyler]

awerfawefa

Michael Lawford wrote:

>Here is a query - I have heard that you can kill fish by overfeeding. I
>never overfeed and my fish (who get fed different things about 3 times a
>day) are always hungry when I feed them. Now here is the thing - in the
>wild they can eat all day if they like - so why dont all marine fish die
>from over eating? Especially the Regal Tangs - they are like vacuums and
>eat everything you put in the tank!
>
>Any comments?
>
>~m
>
>
>
>

--
Ric Seyler
Online Racing: RicSeyler
GPL Handicap 6.35

http://www.pcola.gulf.net/~ricseyler
remove –SPAM- from email address
--------------------------------------
"Homer no function beer well without."
- H.J. Simpson

[George]

"Pszemol" > wrote in message
...
> "George" > wrote in message
> news:Izrzf.498115$084.342798@attbi_s22...
>> The problem with overfeeding has more to do with water quality than it
>> does with the nutritional health of the fish. You definitely don't
>> want to foul the water.
>
> You do not want for your fish to starve as well.

That is almost never a problem, unless of course, you never feed them at
all.

George

[RicSeyler]

test

Michael Lawford wrote:

>Here is a query - I have heard that you can kill fish by overfeeding. I
>never overfeed and my fish (who get fed different things about 3 times a
>day) are always hungry when I feed them. Now here is the thing - in the
>wild they can eat all day if they like - so why dont all marine fish die
>from over eating? Especially the Regal Tangs - they are like vacuums and
>eat everything you put in the tank!
>
>Any comments?
>
>~m
>
>
>
>

--
Ric Seyler
Online Racing: RicSeyler
GPL Handicap 6.35

http://www.pcola.gulf.net/~ricseyler
remove –SPAM- from email address
--------------------------------------
"Homer no function beer well without."
- H.J. Simpson

[TheRock]

"I have heard that you can kill fish by overfeeding"....no

You kill fish with Phosphate and an overabundance of nutrients in the
water...
Caused from feed them too much. It's like dining in the toilet after a
while.

This is just a general blanket statement and not always the case,
but if you're not sure...Feed them once a day and not too much.
As the tank matures they can munch on the algae, bugs and other crud that
you or I would never eat.

"Michael Lawford" > wrote in message
...
> Here is a query - I have heard that you can kill fish by overfeeding. I
> never overfeed and my fish (who get fed different things about 3 times a
> day) are always hungry when I feed them. Now here is the thing - in the
> wild they can eat all day if they like - so why dont all marine fish die
> from over eating? Especially the Regal Tangs - they are like vacuums and
> eat everything you put in the tank!
>
> Any comments?
>
> ~m
>

[Pszemol]

"George" > wrote in message news:QJyzf.741376$xm3.52990@attbi_s21...
> "Pszemol" > wrote in message
> ...
>> "George" > wrote in message
>> news:Izrzf.498115$084.342798@attbi_s22...
>>> The problem with overfeeding has more to do with water quality than it
>>> does with the nutritional health of the fish. You definitely don't
>>> want to foul the water.
>>
>> You do not want for your fish to starve as well.
>
> That is almost never a problem, unless of course,
> you never feed them at all.

Grazer fish like tangs should eat every day, couple times
per day. Similarly like domestic cattle. If you feed your
fish every 2-3 days you cause them to starve between feedings.
Some fish digestive system is very short, and food eaten
exits the system very quickly. After 2-3 hours they are hungry.
They are used to the situation in nature where they have
food in aboundance and they can snack on it during whole day.
Feeding in one large portion every 2-3 days is very wrong.

[rtk]

It's not frequency that causes problems; it's quantity. I feed
miniscule amounts several times per day, no single food more than 2 or 3
times a week. They lick the platters clean in seconds, not minutes.
Their diet consists of shrimp once a week, various flakes often, live
guppies twice a week, I forget the name of the refrigerated stuff,
different kinds of pellets, occasionally some scrapings from my own raw
oyster on the half shell. My fish don't have bony butts, but they're
not fat either.

rtk

[Pszemol]

"rtk" > wrote in message ...
> It's not frequency that causes problems; it's quantity. I feed
> miniscule amounts several times per day, no single food
> more than 2 or 3 times a week.

The key is to provide food as close to how it is provided in
nature as possible. In nature they have food in constant
supply, so we should feed them several times per day
(small quantities) and this is proper regime for all fish except
predatory carnivorous eating whole fish/shrimp like eels/gruppers.
You are doing good. Feeding rare, once per 2-3 days is not good.