Can you over feed your fish?

[Eckolancer]

I have a few tangs in my tank and all of them are fat not just a little fat I mean fat fat fat. See pic below. My question is it possible to over feed your fish? I leave algae out all the time for tangs and angels to eat. I have created a way to slow feed it to them so they don't destroy a sheet in 10 mins. It now takes them about 36 hours to eat it all.

 

[Eckolancer]

Here is another pic

 

[vlangel]

I like to see my fish have a bit of roundness to them but "wow" that is a fat hippo! I am not qualified to make a judgment though so hopefully someone who knows will jump in?

 

[Marshall O]

I will let someone more knowledgeable chime on if it is truly "fat" or not, however I am curious as to what you do to feed algae sheets? They only last 10 minutes in my tank currently...

 

[Eckolancer]

All my tangs are fat. Both yellows, bristletooth, clown, even my foxface. What's also crazy is my flame angel and sixline are fat but not this big. Do you think they need a diet?

 

[Eckolancer]

I will let someone more knowledgeable chime on if it is truly "fat" or not, however I am curious as to what you do to feed algae sheets? They only last 10 minutes in my tank currently...

Look at my second pic I have these ring binders that I got from work. We use them in out printers for making binders. They open down the middle I take a full sheet get it a little wet roll it up clip it into the ring binder. They pick at it all day.

 

[Marshall O]

Look at my second pic I have these ring binders that I got from work. We use them in out printers for making binders. They open down the middle I take a full sheet get it a little wet roll it up clip it into the ring binder. They pick at it all day.

Wonderful idea! I have the same plastic binders at my work. I may need to steal this idea

 

[Reefing Madness]

Your fish are not fat, that is how they would appear in the wild had they had the food to go through, yours are very healthy looking, and look the same as my well fed Tangs. I feed mine everyday, and the bigger they get the more they will eat.

 

[Eckolancer]

Wonderful idea! I have the same plastic binders at my work. I may need to steal this idea

Works great I posted it on my local forum and a lot of people have jumped on board using this. Also works great for the red algae that is just stringy.

 

[Eckolancer]

Your fish are not fat, that is how they would appear in the wild had they had the food to go through, yours are very healthy looking, and look the same as my well fed Tangs. I feed mine everyday, and the bigger they get the more they will eat.

That is great to know. You are right they do eat more the bigger they get. Also watching all my tangs go crazy over a new sheet/binder added helped train my clown tang to eat. He was not eating for the fist 4 days and would only pick at rocks. Would not touch any type of food I tried. This was 12 types of pellets/flakes and 15 types of frozen foods with or without garlic. Even live brine. Now he picks at the algae all day with the rest of the fish.

 

[Mike J.]

I agree with ReefingMadness. A fish when they're not hungry won't eat. I'd suggest that you vary their diet though.

 

[Eckolancer]

I used this clip for holding the binder. The original clip broke off but now the binder clips on just fine. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0027JF5I4

 

[Eckolancer]

I agree with ReefingMadness. A fish when they're not hungry won't eat. I'd suggest that you vary their diet though.

Oh I feed pellets 2 times a day 3 times a week they get a mix of frozen foods.

 

[shawnbosox]

Oh I feed pellets 2 times a day 3 times a week they get a mix of frozen foods.

Hey I'm on here now add me up

 

[MattL22]

Great idea the algae binder gonna stop at staples see if i can find one

 

[tyler1503]

I love to "over feed" my fish!
I believe the only way you can over feed is when you start seeing water quality issues. As long as everything is in line, step up the feedings!
Tangs look like that in the wild and most tangs in the hobby are not fed properly and are underfed. That's why they look like pieces of colourful paper swimming around and why they can get aggressive. They should be round(ish) fish. Ever see a healthy tang in a public aquarium? They look like Pringles tubes, not pancakes. That's the reason I believe tangs should not be available in the hobby. I believe it's more diet related than tank space as most seem to think. Anyway, I don't mean to get off topic.
Yours are an exception to my above statement and look happy and healthy

 

[gregcoyote]

Fat is better than skinny. In the case of fish... The only thing a fat fish has to be wary of is liver damage. Use good foods and that fat fish will live a long time. I specialize in surgeonfish and they are far easier to deal with when fat.

 

[gregcoyote]

Need more posts.

 

[tiggs]

I agree that they look very healthy. As others have said, as long as you're feeding them a variety of high quality foods, you're good to go. The typical way overfeeding hurts fish is when they don't it all and it creates poor water quality. As long as your nitrates aren't through the roof, you're all good.

 

[roberthu526]

I think my blue tang is rounder...
Anyway I don’t believe you can over feed marine fish. Most of my fish look like buckets and they still look hungry.