fish eating a lot?

[tire]

i have one betta, one female swordtail, two platys.

the small fish eat a ton, and have gotten fatter. i would stop feeding them as much, except when they go for the flakes they are so hungry and ravenous, i would feel bad that i'm depriving them. is this normal? i did a search but it didn't answer my question.

 

[snakeskinner]

fish will eat as much as you give them. Pour the whole can in and they won't stop till it's all gone. This is bad though, don't feed them so much. a small pinch of food, once each day, is plenty. Otherwise you overfeed them and cause problems. I regularly skip a day of feeding just to keep from overloading. Are you testing your water parameters? You need to keep up on your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels to keep your fish healthy. Overfeeding makes these chemicals buildup from extra food that falls to the bottom and rots as well as the fish poop building up. Kyle

 

[tire]

i didn't know that, thanks! they can't just die from eating too much, can they?

i will test the water again today.

 

[Captain Hook]

Feeding large amounts is bad for fish. In the wild they usually eat 4 or 5 small meals a day. The more you can reproduce this the healthier and faster growing your fish will be. I try to feed 2 small meals a day and once in a while go a day without food.

 

[Hound]

Just to answer the question, yes some types of fish can eat themselves to death.

 

[aquariumfishguy]

When we say that it will cause them to be sick and die its because your bacterial colony or chemisty cannot keep up with this bioload. If you dump in lots of food, you will soon see lots of Nitrates (in a cycled tank). Keep nitrates under 25-30 ppm and you will be doing good.