Can you feed a fish too much??

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gsk177

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I know with dogs and cats you such, you can feed them too much by allowing them access to food at all times and the animal not getting enough exercise.

Does the same hold true for fish, generally speaking?

I mean, if you are sitting right there and dropping pellets in one by one and watching a single lone fish eat each and every one of them is there a point where you can actually overfeed?

Im not talking about feeding more than they can eat in 2 or 3 minutes and getting your tank nasty, Im talking about feeding them and NOT letting anything go uneaten...can a fish actually gorge itself and get fat or unhealthy as a result?
 
Good question. From what I have read, there have been studies that seem to indicate that a lower nutritional intake actually prolonges the life of fish(Like maybe slowing everything down??). Which may be why it is commonly recommended to have a fasting day once a week for fish.(Claims are that this is healthy for the fish)

On a side note, I have also read that feeding carniverous fish warm blooded meat(such as chopped up beef heart) is not good for fish because they are cold blooded creatures eating warm blooded fat. The reasoning being that cold blooded fat reserves need to be broken down at a lower body temperature that warm blooded creatures are meant to experience.

Therefore fat accrued from warm blooded creatures will not be able to be broken down easily for cold blooded creatures and cause health problems.
 
Without going into studies or opinions, Im absolutely sure its safe, human, what have you, to fast a fish for a day or two a week. The reason I have heard the most is that a normal fish in the wild will not have a constant supply of food and will often go a day or two without any.

I fast my fish every Sunday...not for a religious reason, rather its the day I do tank maintenance and the easiest to remember.

Im asking this because Ive got a little Oscar (2 1/2 inches) and he just seems like he can't ever get enough to eat. I can feed him a couple died dried shrimp and he devours them. Then I drop in another and he eats it too. Then a fourth and he finally takes maybe a minute or two to eat it. Then a 5th and again a little longer of a wait. I stop. Then maybe an hour or two later I can go through the same routine. AN hour later, the same...and so on and so on. After any hour or longer length of nonfeeding I can feed him and he will readily take more food. It should also be said that I vary his diet from feeding to feeding. Usually shrimp, pellets, bloodworms then back to shrimp....maybe an occasional mixed flake.

I know that feeding him like this will cause him to grow quicker, but I am really wondering if there is actually any harm I might be causing if I chose to ALWAYS feed him.

Currently he gets fed 3 times a day. And NEVER anymore than he can eat at one time. Whatever I feed him, he gets one at a time until he slows down.

It should also be said, before the inevitable question arises, that he is currently in a 55g tank and soon.....come March, will have his very own 120g tank!!!! His tankmates will include some cories and possibly a bristlenose pleco. I really have no desire to put anything else in there with him. (Thank you hunney for allowing me to purchase it!!!)
 
I have recently learned that feeding too much, not feeding peas, not soaking food, not fasting once a week, could lead to swim bladder disease. Not always but it could. Now my poor platy is dead :(
 
Doing a google search for swim bladder disease references a lot of tropical species but none specifically at cichlids. I wonder if they are somehow immune to this type of disease?
 
Cory Caution

First let me say that I am not speaking from experience but rather from what I have read. You may want to re-think corys as tank mates for your oscar. Corys have hard plates and spines designed as defenses from predators. Most cichlids and especially oscars subscribe to the "If it fits in my mouth I should eat it" rule. I have heard horror stories of larger cichlids trying to eat corys and getting them caught (on the spines) on the way down and killing both fish. Just a word of caution to maybe do some research. Corydorasworld.com is a great site for cory info.

Pelegro
 
Watcher74 said:
Therefore fat accrued from warm blooded creatures will not be able to be broken down easily for cold blooded creatures and cause health problems.
Click to expand...

It's an interesting way of looking at things. Now, it may be unwise to feed beef heart to fish for any numer of reasons, I don't know, but the argument above doesn't hold water, imho.

There are plenty of cold blooded animals that obtain a great deal of their calories (all, in some cases) from warm blooded animals. Just to name a few examples where a significant part of a cold blooded animal's diet is comprised of warm blooded animals: Many snakes eat rodents. Alligators, komodo dragons, and crocodiles eat ungulates. Great White sharks eat sea lions.
There are plenty more examples.

I don't buy the argument of problems w/ fat metabolism.
 
Point well taken. Never gave it much thought, but could prove to be a problem WHEN, not if, my little dude reaches a size big enough to consider these easy prey his next meal.

Ive got a little over a month before Ive got to start thinking about tankmates, so I think Ill research a bit more on some 'nonintrusive' bottom dwellers for my new 120.
 
I could see how a fish getting its sole source of caloric and nutritional intake from beefheart or any other highly fatty food could pose a problem. But the same holds true to a human who may eat ice cream 3 times a day as his/her sole source of calcium. Neither dietary scenario seems like a healthy way to go.

But my fish, and fish in the wild, aquire their nutritional intake from a wide array of products. Like I said, my fish eat a varried diet always.

We are getting off topic here though. My question is is it possible to overfeed a fish, or is it possible for a fish to become unhealthy due to overeating? If a fish has constant access to food, taking out any variables that might exist due to water polution of uneaten food, can it possibly eat too much and become unhealthy as a result?
 
Hey, this is just what I read.

I have not conducted any chemical or biological tests as of yet.

But I doubt you can compare a komodo dragon to a guppy.
 
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