Am I underfeeding my guppy?

Question

I have one female guppy in my one gallon tank. I know the tank is small, but I am not going to put anymore fish in, and she seems happy. My tank is about 2 weeks through the cycling process, and I have been doing about a 10% water change daily. I have been feeding my guppy one small flake each day. Is this the right amount. I am trying really hard not to overfeed her because of the small tank. She eats it right away, within seconds, and I resist the urge to give her more. I've read that you are supposed to feed fish just what they can consume in 5 minutes, but that seems like I would be feeding her too much. What do you think?

I have an undergravel filter.

Answer 1

At least for the time being,you are doing very well by your pet. The method that you are using to cycle your tank will take a long time(maybe 8 or 9 weeks). This is because the ammonia that would "do in" your Guppy is just what the bacteria that you are growing require. It's a very narrow line to maintain. Leaving enough ammonia for the bacteria and removing enough to avoid poisoning your fish,is the first half of the cycle,then you repeat growing another colony of bacteria to consume the Nitrites that the ammonia eating bacteria produce. Nitrites are just as toxic as the ammonia.
My point is, that you need to keep adding the tiny amount of food(to feed the bacteria) and of course to feed the fish,but if you add too much too soon then the entire system will"crash" and there will be a big ammonia or Nitrite spike that could end everything.
It's very difficult to maintain even a single fish in a 1 gallon tank,but the method you are using is the right one.
One other point, it's almost impossible to starve a fish, and It would take months to happen. The advice to feed multiple feedings and to feed "as much as the fish will consume in 5 minutes" comes from people who sell fish food,not people that keep fish. I feed once daily (in the morning) and in my fish room I have many teen aged fish.
Successful fish keeping begins with learning not to over feed. Good luck and good job.

Answer 2

That sounds like too little. Feed her about 4 flakes. When the fish food packages say to feed them what they can eat in 5 minutes they mean with other fish competing with them for food.

Also, do you have a filter for your tank? If you have a filter, it will pick up bits of food she doesn't eat.