Fasting your fish

[gturmindright]

I was just wondering what the consensus is on fasting your fish once per week. Is that the norm? Also, do you fast your adults AND your fry or just your adults?

[mikevxr]

Personally I would never fast my fry. My aim is to feed them several times a day a good quality food to get growth on them likewise the receive more frequent water changes than my adults.

[gturmindright]

So what about your adults? Once per week?

[mikevxr]

With adults I don't really fast them as such . All my adults are feed twice a day as a minimum (late morning and late afternoon) however if I'm doing a water change then they are fed as normal in the morning but after their water change combined with a filter clean I switch their tank lights off and don't feed that tank again that day.

[gturmindright]

Interesting. You worried about the stress from a water change or the reduced bacteria in your filter?

[mikevxr]

I find with Tropheus they can become a bit stressed when cleaning tank and doing water change - so switching lights off seems to calm them down plus I don't think it's wise to feed them after a good tank clean as they are still a bit stressed and hiding so food would just get sucked into freshly cleaned filters - it seems to work for me.