Whats next?

[gc]

Well the fish food trial is already being done and I have the time and space to conduct my own test. So what should i test? I was thinking along the lines of finding an ideal feeding frequency, but I'm open to any ideas.

[cosmotiger1]

firstly.... Are your tanks all on the same filter system, are they all exactly the same size, are they all in the same part of the house??

but obviously with the frequncy of feeding, the more you feed the quicker they will grow, so i cant see the point in that one because then it really comes down to whether your filter can take care of that much food going in to your tank

[gc]

Yes, yes and yes.

The same amount of feed will be given, just split up more.
eg: 5g x 1 feeding. This should cause the fish to fast.
         vs.
      1g x 5 feedings. The fish will have a more constant supply of nutrients.

A very common question is "how often should i feed my fish?". This test may shed some light.

I'm open to any ideas.

[here fishie fishie]

is it going to bring all the boys in the yard???

For something like mbuna, they should be fed little bits often, they are a grazer. Feeding depends on the fish and wether its herbivore....
Worth testing I supose, why not.

Can I be a synic?  :wink:  What the hell going to anyway.
The only true way to tell a healthy fish is by checking its inner functions. Feeding product (a) was great fast growth...but something in the food that helps fast growth, lets say causes the liver more stress, so fish dies at say 3 years instead of 5 years.

You wanna test that theory out for me & get back to me. :wink:

Frenchy :D

[gc]

[quote:e71ed1bc49]is it going to bring all the boys in the yard???[/quote:e71ed1bc49]I will have to choose a true omnivore to try to even things out. The same with the feed.
[quote:e71ed1bc49]Feeding product (a) was great fast growth...but something in the food that helps fast growth, lets say causes the liver more stress, so fish dies at say 3 years instead of 5 years.[/quote:e71ed1bc49]This is true if you are comparing different feeds, wich this test is not.

I'm not sure if this question, "how often should i feed my fish?", realy needs to be answered. Most of us survive on 3 square meals per day, the native Australian people survived on 1 meal per day for thousands of years. But any nutritionist will tell you that the healthiest diets consist of eating every 2-3hours.

[unicorn57]

great idea to do these tests i think the outcome will be facinating,  the only other thing i have to add is.... you have way to much time on your hands.....lol.

[Savage_roo]

I don't think it realy matters how many times you feed them as long as you them all the same
My self i feed mine twice a day
good Luck

[gc]

My theory, based on my knowlage of human nutrition, is that most of the nutritional content in foods get broken down within 3-4 hours of ingestion. I plan on feeding one group every 2hrs (8 times per day), one group once per day (mid-day) and a third group maybe 2 - 4 times per day...  I'm leaning towards 3 - help me decide. I only want to divide the tank by 3 so i can have a larger sample size

Here's a poll I found.
How often do you feed your fish?
Once a day    167 Votes  
Twice a day    334 Votes  
Three times a day    92 Votes  
Every other day    23 Votes  
Live fish once or twice a week and others 2-3 time    4 Votes  
Every 2-4 days    13 Votes  

It dosen't even have an option for 3x +.

[trofius]

how about trying different food types, pick th emost popular and go from there.

[gc]

someone - this thread is about me trying to find the "perfect test"

My current reverse thought process=
To work out a feeds value you must first test its quality.
To test a feeds quality you must first test how much feed fish need.
To test how much feed fish need you must first test how often fish need feed.

Thats three different tests i can do. If I start from the bottom I can work my way up. How does that sound?

This test is only one idea. I can put a couple of feeds head to head to test quality, and let the "How often should I feed my fish" question go unanswered, but what if it had a clear winner? Would it change the way some people feed their fish? I could even test the effects on fish with different tank setups eg: hidy holes vs none, water currents vs none, plants vs none, lighting hours, substrate color vs substrate color, ect...

I don't understand how you are going to test how often you should feed your fish?

Problem with this is it is a theory, you could feed them 5 times a day smaller amounts and get great growth rates, that doesn't mean it's healthy for the fish internally though.

Same is true in reverse, feeding them once a day and getting slower growth rates might be better for them in the long run.

I'm not trying to knock what you're trying to achieve, I just think that no matter what results you get, it is impossible to back them up scientifically, and even if you could do it, it in fact would only relate to that one species.

All other species would still be considered theory, which is exactly what we have now with most people feeding twice a day.

Just for those who don't understand the difference between fact and theory, Fact is proven scientifically, theory is one man's opinion on how things work, or many opinions, none of who can actually prove this, if they could prove it, it would become a fact.

So I just think from my point of view you are not going to get a proven fact out of any of your tests, How ever with the other tests you are, Food(weight) x Feed(frequency) = Growth rates, with the water and light parameters staying static. Over the test subjects as it is on a sump.

And at the end of the day, If you manage to prove that feeding twice a day is better than once, it would require you to test this for the life of the fish, and then dissect the fish and review there internal organs for a final outcome. This would take many years on one species and one type of food.

Not conclusive by any means.

Sorry to be a skeptic.

[gc]

[quote:252f870ff5]feeding them once a day and getting slower growth rates might be better for them in the long run[/quote:252f870ff5]Hmm... Just imagine yourself if you ate your daily Calories (aprox. 2000) in just one sitting each and every day. Your body can only take up about 1000 Calories from your blood stream in the time it takes the food to digest. So about half of the calories would be stored as fat in adipose tissue, making you "overweight", and only half would be used for cell repair. We know as a fact that to be "overweight" has many health risks in humans and animals.

Now for the confusing part... If all groups get the same amount of feed just split up defferent, the lightest group of fish will be the most "overweight".

(I forgot to mention i will be weighing the fish and their feed down to 0.01g)

[gc]

[quote:931e43336c]Food(weight) x Feed(frequency) = Growth rates[/quote:931e43336c]
Correct, but too much and you will also be growing fat


[quote:931e43336c]To test a feeds quality you must first test how much feed fish need[/quote:931e43336c][quote:931e43336c]Food(weight) x Feed(frequency) = Growth rates[/quote:931e43336c] Sound similar? This is how I would test how much feed fish need with the  Food(Calories) being the variable.

[gc]

I could ask the question "how do i get my fish to grow the fastest with out becoming fat?".

How are you going to test body fat?