some clarification on feeding
 

oookily..

so i feed my gouramis and tetras 2x a day, flakes, and sometimes freezedried bloodworms.

my questions are these..
1) how do i really know if im over feeding? if i go nice and slow both types of fish will eat all day, and what they dont eat the corys do.

2) why is it recommended to only feed other foods like bloodworms and what not 2 or 3 times a week? the fishies certainly love the stuff. would it hurt to supplement the daily feeding with bloodworms or is the 2 or 3 times a week deal for a good reason?

thanks ^_^

The basis behind feeding them once or twice a week is for many reasons.
The first is they are high in fat and could lead to obesity.
Second, they can cnotain small levels of toxins just because of their nature and to much can be harmful to the fish.
The main reason is your fish should be fed on a variety of food and not even flakes should be fed every day in a perfect situaiton. The more variety the better the fishes health. Vary their diets, give them some frozen, live, veggies, fruits, flakes, pellets and anything else you can to make sure they get a lot of different foods.

Re: some clarification on feeding
 

I generally only feed once a day except one tank which I can't keep the temp below 80 during the summer, even with A/C. First sign that you're over feeding is that the fish start looking chubby (which varies from species to species). Then, you'll start to see their scales pop out. You should also have intervals where you don't feed at all. Healthy fish can go 10 days without food, so skipping a day every so often isn't bad for them. Fish unfortunately are opportunistic feeders like dogs. Dogs at least throw up when they've overfed. Fish will get adverse affects and can lead to their death.

Re: some clarification on feeding
 

holy helpful batman. you guys rule, thanks for the info! and thanks for that link too, lupin. great read!