If you plan to go on a vacation, there are some things you will need to do to take care of your home.
However, if you have an Angelfish, the first question that will pop up in your mind is, How long can angelfish go without food?
Well, an angelfish can go without food for about a week. But the best possible duration of survival of an angelfish without food is three days without any major health hazards.
So, when you plan for a vacation longer than three days, you would like to arrange a feeding mechanism for the angelfish. Also, when you feed the fish properly in the earlier times in the aquarium, chances of its survival without food will increase slightly.
What’s more, there are a few aquarium techniques that you can apply to boost the sustainability of the angelfish without any food.
Hence, if you are all set to go on a long tour, and don’t want to kill the angelfish during this time, read our full article covering all the above issues and their solutions.
Table of Contents
How Long Can Angelfish Go Without Food
Angelfish is an exceptionally tough fish and survives in harsh conditions. So, if you fed them properly in the aquarium earlier, their sustainability rate without food goes up considerably.
According to our investigation, experience, and experts’ opinion, an angelfish, if appropriately fed earlier, will survive for at least three to five days without any food in the aquarium.
However, it is best not to leave the fish without food for three days. It can affect their health dearly.
Now, you may be immediately interested to know how angelfish can live without food for a long time. Well, most fishes won’t get a diet in the wilderness daily.
So, naturally, they are accustomed to starving for at least a few days.
Angelfish is no exception to it. Since they lived in inclement conditions and have developed an intestinal mechanism to starve for from few hours to days when food becomes scarce, they have carried it in their pet life too.
So, they can go without food successfully for three days.
However, angelfish are not the only fish that goes without food for a long time. Some other species survive even longer than angelfish without food.
Starving Tolerance of the Popular Pet Fishes
Fish is considered one of the hardiest species found on the animal planet.
However, their sustainability without food depends on their breeds. Also, it depends on the aquarium condition and duration of their aquarium life.
When every other parameter is in optimal condition, the tolerance rate of the popular pet fishes without food is listed below:
| Fish Breed | Survival Period Without Food |
|---|---|
Angelfish |
Three days |
Guppies |
Seven to ten days |
Betta |
Around one week to two weeks |
Goldfish |
Eight to ten days |
Barbs |
Ten to twelve days |
Mollies |
Two weeks |
Tetras |
Eight to ten days |
Carnivorous fish such as Bettas survive for a more extended period without food compared to the herbivorous fishes. It happens since carnivorous fish often fail to prey their food and have developed a sufficient survival skill without food.
The herbivorous lives mostly on algae and nymphs, so, are more habituated of eating daily. So, they are more vulnerable to starvation.
How Frequently Should You Fed Angelfish?
The feeding frequency of the angelfish depends on its age.
Ideally speaking, the younger the fish, the more the feeding frequency and the older the fish, the lesser the feed frequency should be.
If you bring juvenile angelfish for aquariums, you should feed them three to four times per day. The juvenile angelfish should be served with more protein than carbohydrates. So, help them with small live foods such as worms, crickets, and so on.
However, one of my friends has owned angelfish for the last five years, and he has become a successful breeder. He suggested that juvenile or baby angelfish has developed a liking for baby brine shrimp.
As the juvenile grows up, the feeding frequency will slowly reduce. When the angelfish attains adulthood, serve it with a proper diet twice daily.
However, don’t feed the fish throughout the seven days of a week.
Sometimes, leaving them for starvation for a day can actually help them have a healthy intestine. Also, for most fishes, it is better to underfeed than overfeed.
| Fish Age | Feeding Frequency |
|---|---|
Juveniles |
Three to four times per day |
Adults |
Two times a day |
The proper diet chart for the angelfish consists of live foods, pallets, commercial fish feed,etc. We will discuss them angelfish food menu in the next section.
What Should An Angelfish Eat in the Aquarium?
Generally, in the wild, angelfish are omnivorous and happily live on anything they get with the least work. However, they prefer meaty foods when they are kept in the aquarium.
So, their diet should have more protein portions than vegetables or carbohydrates. Also, it would be best if you fed them a variety of commercial and natural food to intensify their proper growth.
The most traditional food for angelfish includes:
Live Foods:
Live foods are the best possible nutritional supply for adult angelfish. Also, it is a brilliant way to exercise them in the aquarium.
In the wild, feeder guppies are the natural prey of angelfish. So, we suggest you treat them occasionally with the live feeder guppies.
They will love to endeavor it. Nonetheless, you can supply brine shrimp, bloodworms, mealworms, crickets, small insects, and many more as the source of live food in the aquarium.
However, when choosing the live food for angelfish, always purchase them from a reputable source. It is crucial since live foods may contain harmful bacteria and parasites if not treated and reared properly.
Also, when you get the live foods, could you not keep them for too long?
Ideally, you should feed the live foods within two to three days.
Pellets and Flakes:
A protein-rich pellet is also an excellent alternative to live foods for angelfish.
Another good protein source is the cichlids’ flakes.
However, if you choose other types of pallets and flakes, you have to ensure that they are rich in proteins. It is vital as angelfish mostly love meaty foods and need a high amount of protein for survival.
Vegetables:
Although angelfish is primarily a meat lover, they are omnivorous.
So, they will live on anything they get. It means sometimes supplying them with vegetables is a good idea.
Some suitable vegetables for angelfish include lettuce, peas, spinach, zucchini, and other leafy vegetables.
However, since they don’t like vegetables much, don’t expect them to eat the supplied vegetables.
In fact, they will eat only a small portion and leave away the larger ones.
Frozen Food:
If you don’t have regular access to live foods, we suggest you feed the angelfish with frozen foods. You can use worms, brine shrimps, crickets, and other items as small fish.
The only concern is that frozen food contains less protein and nutrients compared to live foods. But the benefit is that they, like live foods, don’t contain parasites and harmful bacteria. Also, they have a really prolonged storage life.
We suggest bringing the angelfish at room temperature and soak it in aquarium water before serving them to the angelfish.
What Happens If Angelfish Food Ends?
Sometimes you may find that both frozen food and live foods have ended up in your storage.
So, what happens then?
Will you allow the angelfish to starve?
And sometimes, it may ardently take a few days to get the commercial pellets, flakes, frozen fish, or live foods from a reputable pet store.
If it happens, instead of starving the angelfish, we suggest you supply them with some homemade food items. Some easily gettable food items for angelfish may include:
Vegetables:
There are plentiful vegetables readily available that you can feed to angelfish. For leafy vegetables, you can choose spinach, lettuce, micro-greens, kale, and many more. And for regular vegetables, you can select from cabbage, cucumber, zucchini, and so on.
You should boil the vegetables slightly so that the angelfish can devour them.
Fruits:
You can also choose seasonal fruits as a food item for angelfish if their regular feeding menu has an end at home.
These fruits may include apples, strawberries, bananas, and many more. Just chop the fruit into a smaller size so the fish can engulf it without any problem.
Boiled Fish or Chicken:
Almost at every home, fish or chicken is readily available. You can take a smaller portion and cut it into sizeable pieces before boiling them.
Once boiled, you can use it to feed the angelfish.
How To Supply Angelfish Food Regularly During Vacations?
When you plan for a vacation, feeding the angelfish may concern you.
But you need not worry about it.
We have explored the easiest and most practical solutions to feed your angelfish timely, even if you are on a long vacation.
Take a Neighbor Help:
The mote dependable and easiest way to keep your favorite angelfish properly feed even during a long vacation is to ask your neighbor or friend.
When you leave, you can request them to feed your fish regularly. At least once in a day will work fine even.
We suggest you write a feeding schedule properly in a notepad and arrange the food correctly. It will help your friend or neighbor to feed the fish at ease.
You can use a pill organizer to arrange the fish. Just pour the right amount of food on each compartment and note it down in a pad. Then you can handover the pill organizer to the person who has agreed to feed your fish.
However, once you return, don’t forget to greet the person with a lovely gift as part of your gratefulness. You can gift him a chocolate box.
Automatic Fish Feeder:
If you don’t want to take help from a neighbor or friend, an automatic fish feeder is the best solution we can offer you. The automatic fish feeder will dispense the required food in the tank.
The fact that you can schedule the feeding time helps you maintain the feeding time properly for the angelfish.
However, sometimes the automatic fish feeder may stop working, and then your fish will start starving. That’s why we suggest you get a high-quality automatic fish feeder for angelfish.
Don’t worry.
An automatic fish feeder is available at a low price.
Slow-Release Food:
Slow-release fish food is a large block of angelfish food. Once you place it in the aquarium, the block will slowly release food in the tank, and angelfish can eat them easily.
What’s more, the slow-release food blocks are the cheapest alternative for feeding fishes when you are away from home.
Depending on your necessity, you can choose from two types of slow-release food blocks.
- Weekend feeder blocks: It has an adequate block size that will continuously supply food in the angelfish tank for three days. When you place it in the tank, it will slowly break down and deliver adequate nourishment to the fishes.
- Vacation feeder blocks: This type of feeder block can supply food for the fishes for up to two weeks. So, if you plan for a prolonged vacation, using the ‘vacation feeder block’ is your best solution.
Frequently Asked Questions:
1. Can I feed human food to angelfish?
Answer: Angelfish is omnivorous. They will eat almost anything that they get in the tank. So, you can feed them with edible vegetables and fruits. Also, you can provide them rice and pasta if you found that the regular fish feed has ended in your home.
2. Can I feed my angelfish every other day?
Answer: Yes, it is okay to feed angelfish and all other pet fishes every other day. You can provide the fish once or twice every other week. Even you can feed the fish two to three times per week, and it is outstanding for fish health.
The Bottom Line
According to the discussion above, the answer to the question of how long one can angelfish go without food is three days. However, they can actually survive for a whole week without any food, but their weight may be lost drastically.
So, if you plan a tour, ask your neighbors to feed the fish. Alternatively, you can opt for an automatic fish feeder or fish feeder blocks with a slow-release feature to well-fed the angelfish during vacations. All these methods are inexpensive and easy to use also.
Please leave a comment if you have any ideas that could make our experiments better.
