How much should I feed my fish?

Question

I have a 10 gallon tank. Five small fish (platys, zebras, little fish like that). Tropical.

How much and how often should I feed? I was doing a pinch but the water is nasty so I think that's too much.

I don't have algae. The glass is very clean. It's just the rocks. When I do the water exchange with the tube thing, so much nasty stuff comes up from the rocks.

I change the filter once every 3 months and suck up 25% of the water with the tube thing (gravel cleaner) about once a month or so. Maybe I should do it more?

Answer 1

It can be pretty confusing hearing all this conflicting advice eh? Well, sometimes the advice gets a little to technical. It doesn't matter if you feed them in morning, afternoon, or evening, and it doesn't matter if you feed them once, twice, or three times per day. The key is to use common sense regarding your routine.

Fish need less then most people think to survive and keep healthy when it comes to food, and it doesn't help that food packaging is always recommending too much food (and thus can sell more).

My suggestion is to feed your fish enough flakes to allow them to eat for about 2 minutes per day. 5 minutes of gorging on flakes is just way more then necessary. Now, how many times per day is up to you, but figure on 2 minutes total (twice for 1 minute, four times for 30 seconds, etc.) - everybody has their own routine and there's no real right or wrong here.

Be careful about the recommendations regarding algae eaters and such. They don't help clean a tank - they do help clear some of the algae, but they contribute a lot of waste to the tank and will only make your 'nasty' water worse.

I strongly advise vacuuming your gravel weekly to keep it from building up, and doing a partial water change (20-30%) while you do this. Your fish should hopefully be worth half an hour per week of work, and the regular maintenance will save you from headaches down the road - a well maintained tank never needs to be completely overhauled and stays healthy for much, much longer. There is no need to age water when you change water, this is a hangover from another era - modern day dechlorinators work instantly and allow you to add new water right away.

I would also recommend cleaning out your filter every month - waste in the filter is still waste in the aquarium. Squeeze and rinse out as much physical waste as you can, but be sure to do it in dechlorinated water so you don't kill the bacteria.

Answer 2

Most fish should be fed twice a day. Only feed as much as they will consume within a few minutes. Try a gravel cleaner to get rid of the left over stuff. How often do you clean the tank? How often do you do partial water changes? Since you have a 10 gallon I assume it has a filter and such. I would do a 25% water change first and see if that improves the quality of the water. And also get a gravel cleaner and use it when the bottom looks icky. Also a algea eater or a corydora would help with cleaning up the leftover food on the bottom of the tank.

Answer 3

You need to see how much they are eating, give them a small pinch, if they eat it all within a minute you ok, if there is food still left, then your feeding too much. Your fish should be fed twice a day, morning and before bed time is good. About the water changes, you should do a water change along with vacuming the gravel weekly, take 25% of your water out through vacuming, this should keep your tank in better shape. It's not good to have all that rotting food and fish poop sitting at the bottom, this will cause ammonia to be present in your tank. This could be deadly to your fish. Snails might help, but there is nothing better than doing weekly water changes. Good luck,hope this help you!

Answer 4

A good general rule of thumb is to feed the fish once a day, and feed them as much as they can eat within about 5 minutes. Put in a pinch, or an estimate of how much you think they should be fed. If they haven't eaten all the food within 5 minutes, you put too much in. If food is left in the water without being eaten, it starts to rot and causes murky water.

Also yes you might need to change the water more often. A 10 gallon tank is pretty small and it will get dirty quickly. You could upgrade to a 20 gallon tank if you want to clean it less; they're only about $20 at the pet store.

Answer 5

just a pinch once a day...snails??? you need an algae eater. Also is you tank in contact with any sunlight??? This causes algae to grow. And when was the last time you changed the filter???do you even have a filter? If it's really nasty you need to fill a bucket with the old water and put your fishies in there, then empty the tank to clean it start fresh fill it back up, but don't put the fish back in until the water warms up since your fish are tropical. Your best bet to keep it a little cleaner is top buy an algae eater, feed them less and make sure the tank is not in the sun!

Answer 6

Well, you dont have an overly amount of fish, so i would suggest a small pinch in the morning, and a small pinch when u get home from work, or school or whatever (just around like 6 maybe even, right before u eat ur dinner) also, i would say u have to do water changes much more frequently. just do the math =) 100% of the water gets 50% more dirty lets say in one month. when u change ur water, 25% of it, that means that 25% is still dirty because 50% dirt -25% is 25%, and that builds up over time =\ i dont raelly understand what i justdid, but the dirtynesss still builds up, so u should do 25% changes WEEKLY...not monthly.

Answer 7

I agree with Ghapy, it's the total amount per day that's important when determining a proper amount of food. How many times just divides up the proper portion for the day.

It doesn't sound like you are over feeding, just under cleaning. I would suggest you do a weekly water change of about 25% and clean the gravel as you go of course. The filter will be far less dirty at the end of a month as well if you follow a weekly cleaning program.

MM

Answer 8

I once filled a five gallon, small-mouthed jar with pond water which contained tiny animal life. I added a regular sized gold fish, sealed the bottle, and placed it in daily sunlight. The fish was doing fine after a year with no food at all.

Check with your aquarium store for feeding instructions but less is better. You may need a larger filter and you could clean it more often to help keep the water clean.

Answer 9

If the water is nasty you have problems. Do you have a good fliler, and if so make sure you change the filter. Test the chemicals and make sure they are okay. After that about one flake per fish twice a day is about right.

Answer 10

A pinch of food, once a day.


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