One of the secrets of good fishkeeping is to feed sparingly. Fishes will stop eating when they have enough, and any uneaten food will begin to decompose in the tank and eventually cause pollution problems.

Judging the Correct Amount of Food

You shouldn’t give fishes any more food than they will eat in two to three minutes. Although it is very tempting to give more, especially if they look like begging for food behind the glass, you mustn’t give in. Keeping your fishes hungry is a good idea too. They will devour every scrap of food and thus prevent aquarium pollution due to excessive ammonia.

Ensuring thorough Feeding

Some fishes will miss out a meal because they can’t reach food at a particular level in the water. So make sure all your fishes are fed. Various devices can help you, including a worm feeder for keeping worms at the top of the water, and weighted perforated baskets that are used for sinking freeze-dried food to the tank floor.

Feeding Different Species

If you have a community tank, feeding small of amounts of different foods for each species would be impractical. The best thing to do is to feed tablets at one feed, flake at another, live food at another, and so on.

Diets for carnivores must contain vegetable matter such as spirulina.

Frequency of Feeding

Like humans, fishes need two or three small servings a day rather than one large meal per day. While you can give them just pellets or flakes at least for their survival, to get the most of your fishes, you need vary each meal. You wouldn’t want bored or stressed fishes especially if you are considering in breeding them. If possible, give some live food as a regular part of your feeding programme.

Coping with Feeding Problems

Sometimes, your fishes will refuse to eat an item they haven’t encountered before. You will have to educate them into accepting the new food. The best way to do this is to keep them hungry for a day or two, and then try them with the new food gradually. You should watch your fishes closely to check that they are actually eating the food, and not just tasting and spitting it out again.

Vacation Feeding

As long as fishes have been well-fed in the period immediately prior to the holiday, they will be able to withstand a two-week fast without any ill-effects. Special vacation foods, also known as “food blocks” are designed to be placed inside the aquarium to forgo feeding while the owner absent. The block release small amounts of food as they dissolve, usually every 12 hours. The food block can be a good choice for smaller tropical fish, but can pollute the water.