Have you been wondering why your aquarium looks dirty even though you have cleaned it a week ago. Overfeeding! Yes, over-feeding your fish can be one of the main causes of aquarium contamination and poor fish health. One day of overfeeding out of excitement or ignorance of the proper feeding process can release more pollution into an aquarium than an entire month of normal fish waste accumulation.
Now the question comes; how can you find out that you are over-feeding your fish? It’s simple! Drop in the amount of food that you usually feed, then stand back and watch your fish eat from the front of your aquarium. If you see pieces of food going to the bottom of the aquarium tank, then you are certainly overfeeding.
Signs of overfeeding:
1. Water starts turning cloudy with a white appearance.
2. A slimy black or red alga begins to grow on aquarium surfaces within a week after it is cleaned.
3. After feeding your fish, uneaten food is left at the bottom of the tank.
4. You can see uneaten food accumulating in the aquarium filters.
5. Testing ammonia levels results in slight readings (a healthy aquarium will always test at zero for ammonia levels.)
Fish are cold blooded animals and so take less energy and therefore less food to survive. So, make sure that while feeding your fish, you feed them only as much as they can eat in 5 minutes.
Make sure not to crush the food, as crushed food will settle to the bottom faster and pollute the water. Even the smallest fish have teeth and will bite off what they require. If you have small and big fish in the same tank, do not worry about the timid ones getting their food share. As the larger, more aggressive fish get full, they’ll slow down on their feeding, and the smaller fish will clean up the leftovers.
