Cooked vegetables (peas, cauliflower, pumpkin, carrots, etc.), boiled or steamed, are great food alternatives to fish food flakes once in a while for your omnivorous and herbivorous aquarium fish. You can even feed some fish (goldfish and koi in particular) cooked rice or oatmeal.
How long can a fish go without eating?
Healthy adult fish can go for a week or two without feeding. However, young fish don’t have the fat stores of adult fish and they cannot go without eating very long. That doesn’t mean you should routinely skip feedings, but your fish can safely be left without food over a long holiday weekend.
Why is my fish hiding and not eating?
To protect themselves, fish will instinctively hide when they are uncertain, frightened, stressed or uncomfortable. Having a safe place to retreat provides comfort and security, and greatly improves a fish’s chance of surviving in the wild.
Strange Swimming: When fish are stressed, they often develop odd swimming patterns. If your fish is swimming frantically without going anywhere, crashing at the bottom of his tank, rubbing himself on gravel or rocks, or locking his fins at his side, he may be experiencing significant stress.
Why do fish stop feeding?
Fish will eat more in the summer. However, in heatwaves (32+ degrees C air temperatures) reduce the amount of food. Very high temperatures are stressful to fish, and pool oxygen levels will be lower. Only feed what can be taken by the fish in a couple of minutes.
What do I do if my fish is hiding?
Hiding Fish: Hiding is completely natural behavior for most fish, especially when they are first introduced to their new aquarium. Just make sure you keep your fish comfortable and healthy, and he should start coming out of hiding more readily.
What to do when fish start dying?
If you already have fish dying in a newly set-up tank that hasn’t been cycled, here are some steps to take:
Don’t add any more fish to the tank;
Feed fish less than you normally would to reduce chances of leftover food turning into more ammonia;
Test ammonia/nitrite levels often using aquarium test kits;
How do you save a dying fish?
How to Save a Sick Fish
Step 1: Check Your Water Quality. Poor water quality is the #1 cause of illness and disease in fish.
Step 2: Fix Your Water Quality.
Step 3: Check Your Fishes’ Food.
Step 4: Call Your Veterinarian About Your Sick Fish.
Loss of appetite. Weakness or listlessness. Loss of balance or buoyancy control, floating upside down, or ‘sitting’ on the tank floor (most fish are normally only slightly negatively-buoyant and it takes little effort to maintain position in the water column) Erratic/spiral swimming or shimmying.
Do fish know when they are dying?
So they likely do not experience an abstract awareness of their eminent demise. While they may not be abstractly aware of their demise, all vertebrates have a nervous system and experience pain and stress. Even animals that do not have self-recognition have been known to go to great lengths to attempt to survive.
Can salt water save dying fish?
Give your fish a salt bath.
Though goldfish are freshwater fish, a salt bath can be great for your fish’s overall health and help him recover from a lack of oxygen.
Why is my fish not moving but still alive?
If fish are experiencing acute stress (i.e., gasping up at the surface, lying on the bottom and not moving, or darting around the aquarium), you can be pretty sure that the water has been poisoned in some way. Maybe cleaning sprays got into the aquarium, or something released toxins into the water.
Can you revive a dead fish by putting it in the freezer?
Sadly, a dead fish cannot be revived. However, all is not lost if you have lifeless fillets aging somewhere in your freezer since last summer. These fish are losing their table-quality as each day passes.
Why is my fish laying at the bottom of the tank?
It’s perfectly normal for fish to rest and sleep while lying at the bottom of the tank. Healthy fish will do this between sessions of active and energetic sessions of swimming. You should keep the lights on your aquarium on a diurnal schedule (8-10 hours of light per day) to encourage your pet fish to rest.
Stress can make your fish stay in one corner of the tank. The stress may be from incompatible tank mates, poor feeding, lightning, and tank conditions. Another reason could be that the tank is overstocked.
How do you treat a sick fish?
Add antibiotics to the water and use antibiotic-medicated food. Maintain good water quality. Quarantine any fish with signs of the disease. Treat affected areas with topical disinfectants.
Do fish sink or float when dead?
Most fish are slightly denser than water, so sink immediately after death. However, like a drowned human, they become more buoyant over time as bacterial decomposition produces gases inside the body. Usually, enough gas builds up in body cavities to make the corpse float, like an inflated balloon.
Why do dead fish go belly up?
Oxygen remains in the bladder after a fish dies. Additional gases are released during decomposition. “The fish is like a closed container,” says Boriek. “As the fish decomposes, gases fill the body cavity.” The belly becomes a guts-filled balloon and the fish floats to the surface.
How long can a dead fish stay in tank?
It depends on what the cause of death was. If the water quality was perfect and all other fish, including members of its own species, appear OK and look free of disease you could restock within a week. Leaving it for a full seven days is best, as if others die within that time you’ll know there’s an underlying problem.