OVERFEEDING YOUR FISH !!!

Overfeeding your fish can be a simple thing to do and often goes overlooked as the ‘throw and walk away’ syndrome is often applied. A little time spent ensuring that you are feeding the correct amount of food will often relate to less problems occurring in your aquarium.

Overfeeding your fish is simply feeding your fish more food than they can eat. This results in food being left to rot in your aquarium and even if your excess food is eaten, will result in excess fish waste. Uneaten food decomposes very quickly in an aquarium releasing food compounds into the water that can cause adverse symptoms to your aquarium.

Cloudy water – is one of the most common causes from overfeeding as leftover food begins to decompose. The solution is to give a small water change giving the substrate a quick gravel vac and fasting your fish for a few days. If the water clears then you will need to re-evaluate your feeding regime. It is perfectly possible to feed your fish the same quantity but smaller feeding over the course of the day/night would be the solution. Better many smaller feedings than one huge one.

Algae Growth – is another sure indicator of overfeeding. Decaying food matter will often provide an abundance of dissolved organics,nitrates and phosphates into the water and provide a perfect platform for these types of algae to thrive. A little algae is perfectly normal but if the situation requires excessive amounts of cleaning then there is a high probability of excess food being present. Blue-green or red algae (slime) are the common indicators. I’d also like to note that red algae is technically bacteria rather than true algae)

Fungus or mold – Occasionally you will see,hidden behind a rock etc, a small cottony ball sprouting.This fungus will continue to grow, over a few days, until the food source has expired but may continue if overfeeding continues.

Worms (Planaria) – These are little worms (about 1mm) that can be seen on the walls of your tank,rocks,ornaments etc that are often in the thousands. The worms themselves are harmless to your fish but make your aquarium look quite horrible. They feed often on flake foods or the very fine foods that may be expelled out the gills of larger fish.

Low dissolved oxygen – Decaying food requires oxygen as part of the process of breaking down the excess food which also means less oxygen for the fish to cope with. Additionally the process will produce nitrates and leftover hydrogen, just as fish waste does.

HOW TO AVOID THE PROBLEM

Time your feedings – Fish by nature are opportunistic feeders. In the wild they eat as much as possible as they don’t know when there next meal is coming.Try and observe your fish during meals to get an idea of their requirements. Any food left on the bottom of the tank after 5 minutes is unlikely to be eaten.
Feed often, but sparingly - For most of us, overfeeding has little to do with feeding too often, but much to do with feeding too much at a time. Many smaller meals are a lot better than one huge meal.
Feed the fish, not the tank – A common problem is people doing exactly this. If you have 6 small fish in a 6*2 then clearly you are feeding 6 small fish. They will still find all the food through their foraging.
Feed an appropriate food - Sometimes food goes uneaten not because the fish aren’t hungry, but because they can’t handle the food as presented. There is also general suitability in terms of for example, flake food would be no good for a large predatory fish, pellets may be too large for smaller fish, some foods may float and others sink (are the fish surface or bottom feeders) and some foods are just too un-natural for example a large South American that has lived off live food and now are expected to live off pellets
Scavengers – While these should not be relied on to maintain optimum tank conditions, bristlenose, some loaches and pleco’s can be very useful in the cleanup of excess food and algae in the tank. Being bottom feeders they can be quite effective at hoovering up excess.
Try new foods carefully - Fish are creatures of habit. They recognize the foods given to them on a regular basis. If you are changing food then its recommended you do it gradually over a few days so they know or learn that its edible. If a fish fails to convert then not feeding them for a few days may help induce them to their new diet.
Remove uneaten food immediately - When you notice uneaten food, this point is perhaps the most important. Filter’s should not be relied upon for removal of food as it decomposes just as easily in say a cannister than it does in your tank. Use a fine net or siphon and try to remove as much as is practical

Well thats it. If the following points are adhered to the benefits include a cleaner tank with healthier fish. Its really just a matter of learning the correct procedure and sticking to it

Chuckmeister.