tropical fish

[stanbesida]

My wife has 1 Siamese fighter fish, 2 female fighters, a red finned shark and some platy's in her tank, she has a total of 9 fish but they are all small ones. She has a lot of books which claim she should feed the fish 3 times a day yet the bloke in the aquarium shop reckons they only need feeding every 2-3 days. Who are we supposed to believe? My wife is a bit dubious about overfeeding them and contaminating the tank so any help will be appreciated. Thanks

[B00]

Well for a start i'd seperate the fish!

If you don't seperate the male and female beta fish the male one will more than likely become very aggresive towards the females. There's also a good chance he'll turn aggressive towards your shark, seeing it as a rival.

I'd also be wary about keeping Beta's with platys, as though several sites state they can be kept together, I found that these usually end up as fish food for betas too.

As for feeding, I tend to feed mine a small pinch every couple of days.

[wildwood]

A little bit as often as you can is better than more food less frequently. These fish are still as they are found in the wild where they are continuously on the hunt for food. As long as they eat everything within 5 minutes you are ok.
They can go a long time without food and for a long weekend you don't need to get someone in to feed, they will be perfectly ok.
The bloke in the aquarium shop should not have told you that! They feed that often because their tanks are often overstocked and this cuts down on the amount of waste produced by the fish. This is merely a survival diet and the fish do not do well on that in the long run.

As long as your tank is 30gallons or larger the fish should be all right together.