How much food to give your fish.

An all too common, sad but true fact of overfeeding your fish, is that it can kill them.

Nearly all fish foods have on the label: “Feeding Instructions: Feed as much as fish can eat in two minutes, two or three times a day”. This, however, is way too much food. All food should be eaten in under a minute and giving your fish vegetables such as peas, cucumber etc. to assist with digesting, especially flake food, is good for them. Overfed fish can get constipated easily.

Naturally fish pick at foods all day and too much food twice a day can stop food being digested and the waste stays in the gut. Fish don’t burp or toot like humans do, air you sometimes see coming from your fishes mouth is from the swim bladder, the air sack they have to help them float and sink.

Gas produced by excess food in the gut cannot be burped out and it stays there and starts to go bad with nasty gasses building up inside the fish. This gas starts to affect the way the fish swims as it cannot control this gas like it can the air in its swim bladder and this can lead to a condition called “bloat” where the fish looks very fat and they can die.

How can you tell if your fish is constipated?

There are some tell tale signs that a problem is starting. When a fish poops it should break away from the body quickly. If you see your fish with a long trail of poop or poop with air bubbles in, then feed your fish a little less fish food, and give them some peas slightly cooked with the shells removed, they do not need loads depending on the size of your fish.

Love your fish, feed them less