I've heard in relation to a lot of fish that it is good to skip a day as it allows the fishes digestive system to clean out.

I have also heard conflicting advice about when to feed.

I have a dwarf hawkfish in a salt water tank that i feed a tiny amount three times a day.

I have a freshwater community tank though that i feed once a day.

I think it's really up to you and the fish you're keeping and how it fits into your lifestyle as well. With so much conflicting advice you have to assume that what works for one person might not necessarily be the only option.

Well, after a lot of rambling... I hope you've gained something :) Just trying to give back to a forum that's given me a lot of help.

The best advise is don't pay attention to the directions on the fish food containers as far as amount and frequency of feeding. I would guess that frequent light feedings are better then one large one. Just makes sence. I also skip a day or 2 weekly. 2 rules no more food than can be consumed in 3 minutes and less is better than more. With all that said, I do try to be consistant with times and ammounts, lately I have been doing a light feeding once a day this seems to be satisfactory. Fish are healthy. Fish are not aggressive. The water is clear. No food goes uneaten.

The fish would like to be fed many times each day, we limit the amount to avoid fouling the water. More food = faster growth.

Frequent feedings in a day are good. A consistent schedule is better still. I usually skip a day about once a week, but I've always felt guilty about it 'cause I forgot ;)

Now that my tank is in a back room and I don't think about it as much, I try to follow the rule to feed them before I eat. That way my hunger pangs speak for the fish since they can't whine.

Good I was just looking for some different opinions. I try to feed my fish once or twice daily and skip Sunday for the goldfish.

I have a 35 gal with 2 large black moores and 2 dojo loaches. I feed them 4 times/week so I guess that's about every other day. The goldfish also can snack on anacharis if they are super hungry.

Fish can go a long time without being fed and in all actuality, it is supposed to be better for the fish to fast them once in awhile. I used to work in a place that had a fish tank and when we'd have 3 day weekends, the fish would be just fine not being fed for 3 days. I've read in a number of books that they can go as long as 2 weeks without food, so don't panic if you forget to feed your fish, they'll be okay. They also do not need a lot of food, they have very small stomachs.

It's been many years since I had an aquarium, so I shouldn't most likely respond, but despite reading numerous times over the years, that just a feeding a day is plenty, so as not to foul the tank, I enjoyed buying young and at that time quite inexpensive angel fish and others, and very young ones at that. I knew at that time, that frequent light feedings work best for growing young fish, and I could take a quarter sized angel fish at purchase and have one five inches in diameter in six months, and they were healthy as well. I must say filters were just getting much more efficient in those days ,and they've most likely progressed by leaps and bounds since then even , so I'd not even be as concerned about "fouling" water as I was then. I'd guess in nature that most fish don't always have an abundant supply of food at hand and most likely might have some unintentional fasts imposed on them by a scarcity of food on occasion, so I guess the fasting idea might make sense from some standpoint, but without an explanation of the exact reason for that, I'd prefer to feed on a regular schedule. It seems to me I've visited the odd permanent aquarium in various office settings and elsewhere over the years, and though I couldn't identify each fish individually from other memebers of the same species, it sometimes seemed like some fish always looked healthy , but being immature ones they'd not grown by a fraction of an inch in the course of a year, so I'd suspect, the caretakers were just feeding minimally and stunting the growth of their young fish.