In this age of controversy and discord, it's difficult to find any issue, whether in politics, child-rearing, or even fishkeeping, in which "conventional wisdom" goes unchallenged. It's refreshing to find that there's at least one area of our hobby that all of us, from expert to hobbyist to novice, can agree upon: it's important not to overfeed your fish.

But even that sage advice falls short, as sage advice sometimes does, when it comes to addressing the questions of real life experiences. What is overfeeding? What problems does it cause? And how do I know if I'm doing it?

Overfeeding is simply putting more food in the aquarium than the fish can use. Uneaten food is the biggest danger, but even surplus food that has been eaten can wind up back in the tank as excess fish waste. It's a common misconception that overfeeding fish causes some sort of gastro-intestinal damage that leads to their untimely demise. While it's certainly plausible that a fish, for example a particularly gluttonous goldfish, might overeat enough to develop a long-term health risk, the greatest risks of overfeeding are the result of the uneaten food left to rot in the aquarium. Uneaten food decomposes quickly, releasing an abundance of organic and inorganic compounds that wreak havoc on the aquarium's chemistry. There are several common symptoms of overfed fish tanks:

Cloudy water is almost always associated with something organic rotting in t ...

Continue to read all article at : http://www.bestfish.com/overfeed.html