How much and often should I feed fish?

[Pieface2000]

I just started my 55g. aquarium,last Friday I purchased 7 fish, 2 tiger barbs, and rest tetras. How often should I feed? The guy at the store said once a day,feed enough so they eat for a little over a minute. Is that enough?
Thanks

[rich311k]

That will be plenty of food.

What kind of tetras? Was the tank cycled ? Tiger barbs need to be in larger groups, they can get quite nippy if the number of fish are low.

[yhbae]

Fishes can have a healthy life with surprisingly little amount of food. People often create more problem by feeding them too much.

I used to feed them once per day, and intentionally skipped one day per week of feeding.

While back, I had to go for a vacation (sounds like I was forced :) ) and I did not feed them for 2 weeks. None had died and they all grew fine afterwards.

[shawnhu]

I definately think that you have a bigger problem that feeding at the moment, cycling your tank!

If you want your fish to make it, you'll need to get yourself a test kit for ammonia and nitrite, as a bare minimum. I would recommend the API Master Test kit for Freshwater. It'll run from $15 to $30 in some places.

I would also look into products that remove/de-toxify ammonia to give your fish a fighting chance. Ammo-Chips comes to mind.

You're in a much dire dituation that you may think, read up more about "new tank syndrome". Hopefully, you can still have time to save your fish.

[Pieface2000]

2 black skirt tetra, 1 tiger barbs, 3 other fish .I didn't cycle tank. I have a test kit, amonia and ph. One tiger barb just passed away.

[yhbae]

Ouch.

If possible, go back to your store and ask if you can get some filter media from their existing tanks! Get them, and put them into your filter... This will save yourself probably all the fishes in your tank and about 1 month worth of effort as well...

Also, you should read how cycling works... This is essential.