feeding
Feeding
Overfeeding is the root of a large share of aquarium problems — nitrate, algae, snail explosions and poor water quality all trace back to it. Underfeeding is far less common and far less damaging.
Short answer
Feed once a day, only what is eaten within a minute or two, and match the food to the species' diet and feeding zone.
Practical rules
- Once a day for adult community fish is plenty; a weekly fasting day does no harm and helps digestion.
- Anything still on the substrate after a few minutes was too much.
- Match the food to the feeding zone: floating for surface fish, sinking for bottom-dwellers, and feed nocturnal species after lights-out.
- Vary the diet. Frozen foods, vegetable matter and dry food together do better than any one alone.
- Fry and very small fish need more frequent, smaller feeds.
Diet type matters
A herbivore fed high-protein food develops digestive problems — this is the mechanism behind the condition commonly called Malawi bloat in Mbuna, and behind buoyancy problems in goldfish. A carnivore fed plant-based flake simply does not thrive. Diet category is stored on every organism record for exactly this reason.