Fish eating HUGE amounts?

Question

I have two fish (a medium sized Blackmoor Veiltail, and a small Calico fantail) and I usually feed them a pinch of food twice a day. They used to take nearly three minutes to finish it.

But recently they’ve been eating the pinch of food in under 30 seconds.
My mum noticed the Calico nipping at the tail of the Blackmoor yesterday, so she fed them before she went to work. She didn’t tell me that she’d fed them, so I fed them when I got up. Even with the extra meal, they still ate all the food in under 30 seconds.
I also give them skinned peas about twice a week. The pea’s usually gone in a minute or two.

I timed feeding them last night, adding a bit more food until three minutes past. (As per the pet shops instructions)
I stopped at 2 minutes when they’d eaten the equivalent of two and a half pinches.

Why would my fish suddenly be eating a lot more/faster?
And if the three-minute guideline leads to them eating more than they should, how do I know how much to feed them?

Answer 1

Fish are always hungry. I have the sneaking suspicions that someone else in your household might be sneaking them some food and making them expect more. That, and they are growing. Goldfish are pretty quick growing fish and as they grow, they need more food.
Either way, you could feed your fish for 10 minutes straight and they would just keep on eating. Goldfish especially, because they are such big-tummied fish.

Goldfish are like people, and any other animal. There isn't a "perfect" amount of food to feed them - there's a range, and if you go too far they get fat. Not far enough, they starve.
Feeding them for 3 minutes is too much - at the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist ;) petstores will encourage you to feed extra food because you BUY more food, and this also leads to premature fish death, so you BUY another fish.

Feeding for 30 seconds is reasonable, but you could probably stretch that out to about 60 seconds with no ill effects. And just observe your fish and adjust your feeding accordingly, if required.

Answer 2

I have seen fish eat so much in one sitting that they Pop and Die. I used to tell customers, A hungry fish is a happy fish. Do not overfeed them. A fish constantly eats and eats and eats. A pinch of food is OK and will do no harm.

Answer 3

Run back to the pet shop and ask, as overfeeding the fish will kill them.

Also - have a word with your mum about feeding them without leaving you a note!

:-)