1 Day of No Chow?

Dosn't apply to all cases but generally with adult fish not feeding for one day wont have any ill affects.

I dont feed on sundays and my fish seem to be pretty healthy. Having a fasting day also helps cut down on your nitrates! :thm:

going for several days without food seems to cause no problems at all for adult fish, and honestly I haven't seen where it causes issue with Guppy fry either. MY Oscar tank (see Specs below) goes frequently for four or five days without food, and my fish are very healthy and seem quite happy. I am not sure how much if any it helps, but do know for sure it doesn't hurt to skip feeding regularly. with big carnivourous fish, especially some of the predatory catfish they do need time to process food. Usually these fish are fed heavily once a week or so. They tend to glut themselves, and then go take a vacation for several days.

dave

All of my fish other than young fry do without food at least one day per week. Full adult fish in my tanks are normally fed every other day. Some of the true predators less than that - my near-adult Palembang's puffer is fed 2x per week, and will likely drop back to every 5-7 days when full adult.

Many more captive fish die from overfeeding than underfeeding, unless the foods offered are wrong for that particular fish.

I'm not sure how accurate this is, but I read in one of my aquarium books that covers fish keeping pretty thoroughly that you should do your best to mimmick what their feeding habits are in the wild. It suggested that the smaller fish eat two or three times a day in very small incriments per feeding because in the wild, that is how they got food. They got it here and there wherever they could, but almost never got a huge feeding in one sitting. It described the fish better than just saying small fish, but I don't remember exactly what it said. It also said that bigger fish require less food and a big meal when they do eat because their digestive system is built for it that way. It did recommend skipping a couple days inbetween feeding bigger fish and to basically do the opposite when feeding bigger fish than when feeding smaller ones.

valleyvampiress said:

It also said that bigger fish require less food

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I mest up on this part. I meant to say they require less consistent feeding times. Small fish need very small amounts 2-3 times a day, and bigger fish need bigger meals but less frequently.

i feed my freshwater fish once every 2 or 3 days and they are all happy and healthy... my reef i usually feed every other day unless i forget or am too lazy. but on occasion my fresh fish have gone more than a week without food and never got mad at me, hehe.

All great posts and great advice. One other benefit of skipping a day of feeding (or several) will get your fish out and about. Scavanging for uneaten food, taking a bite out of algea growth, and what not.

I am currently fasting my apistogramma cichlids in preparation for a large water change and heavy feeding of live food (to mimic natural wet/dry season). They responded by taking care of the ugly blue green algea that was covering the java moss near the top of the tank.