In an enthusiastic effort to provide necessary care to aquarium fish, people inadvertently over-feed them.
It just like a child overfed with that love and affection.
It affects both the fish and the child adversely.
It is a natural tendency among the fish to eat whatever is available to them.
If you offer them food, they will go on eating it whether they are hungry or not.
This is particularly true with a goldfish, which eats too much, in fact the entire food offered.
As a result, they develop health problems.
First of all, they will get fat.
Their movements will be reduced and even it will affect their breathing process.
It will also affect their breeding.
Finally, their life will be reduced considerably.
If you want your fish to be healthy and happy, it is important that you should be serious about their feeding.
First, you must do a small research on-line about the quantity of food that you can offer to your fish.
You can also consult the pet shop owner for getting proper advice.
Remember, every fish variety has different requirements of food.
Goldfish and Betta fish are famous for eating too much.
Sometimes, some species of fish will grab whatever is offered in the tank and other less active ones will remain hungry all the time.
So while feeding the fish, you should observe carefully their behavior.
I am not advising you to under-feed your fish.
However you should learn by experience about how much is enough for the fish and how consistently you should feed them.
Whatever your fish eat, most of it will be thrown out by them in a very short time creating a lot of waste.
That waste will be sinking and settling at the bottom of the tank.
It will start contaminating the aquarium water very quickly.
If you are lazy in cleaning the water, it may be of toxic and fatal.
Sometimes food may escape from the fish and the particles will go down at the bottom of the tank.
Those particles will also start decaying and the water will not remain clear.
All this waste will jam the filtration system of your aquarium also.
Filtration keeps the environment at the aquarium healthy.
If toxic chemicals increase suddenly, your fish will not be able to cope-up with that water and will get sick or die soon.
So it is important for you to judge what should be the correct quantity of food your fish want.
There is one important test available, which is called 3-minutes test.
You should feed your fish only that much quantity of food which they can eat within 3 minutes of offering.
If they leave some of that food, it's a clear cut sign of excessive feeding.
There is one exception to this test -some of the species of fish prefer to stay at the bottom of the tank all the time.
For them you should allow 15 minutes to eat their food.
When fish approach food, they do it very aggressively.
However that does not mean they are starving.
Most of the fish will beg for their food in the same way like a dog or a cat, but it should not deter you from observing the guidelines you have already fixed for them.