I agree with Amphitrite. Staff in stores and certainly fish food manufacturers keep telling us to feed several times a day...nonsense. Except for fry which need regular nourishment, fish can manage very well with one feeding a day, and if you go away for a week, they will be fine if they are healthy and the tank is stable and clean. I read once that there is sufficient nourishment in one small flake to carry a healthy fish like a tetra through the day.
Fish are wild creatures that spend the majority of their day hunting for food. They don't "know" when they may find some, so when they do, they eat as much as they can. They do the same in an aquarium. They "look" hungry and will keep gobbling up the food because they are programmed to do this. Always feed sparingly.
There is also the issue of burning off all this nourishment. In nature they are probably constantly alert for predators and swimming or jumping out of their way, plus they are swimming looking for the next meal and maybe chasing it down. In our aquarium they swim a bit and basically just "sit" there. It doesn't take much nourishment to support that lifestyle.
...And I should know, I am a perfect human example of this, all the time I spend sitting at this PC answering enquiries.
Byron.
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