# Feeding & hunger

_When a fish needs food, and what looking after it earns._

## Food is free

Choose Feed and click the water to drop some food. Basic food is free and never runs out, so feeding never costs you a coin.

A newly hatched fish needs its first meal. After that, a fish gets hungry again 4 hours after each feeding, or a third of its growth time after it if that is longer.

Select a fish and choose Feed on its card or in its menu to drop food just for that fish: it swims to it, and no other fish takes it.

## Three foods

Flake is free and always will be; the other two are an upgrade you choose, never a gate. If you pick one you cannot afford, the fish is fed flake instead of being left hungry. Their price is a fraction of the fish’s own, so they stay affordable wherever you are in the game.

- Flake · free, an everyday meal.
- Pellet · keeps a fish fed twice as long, and moves its whole care clock out with it.
- Brine shrimp · three times as long, puts health back, and always counts as a perfect meal for quality.

## What feeding earns

Feeding a hungry fish earns 5 XP. Feeding it again straight away doesn't repeat the reward: it has to get hungry again first.

## While you're away

An [auto-feeder](https://fishies.lol/wiki/mechanics/filters-and-feeders) feeds each fish from its hopper the moment it gets hungry, for as long as the hopper lasts: flake, or pellets or brine shrimp you paid for. Feeder meals earn nothing: no XP, no coins and nothing toward quality. Feeding by hand is always the better way to play, and it still works with a feeder installed.

## Too long without food

Hunger matters. A fish is lost if it goes unfed for 1 day or twice its species' growth time, whichever is longer, counted from its last meal or from hatching. Its card warns you when it's starving.

A lost fish can be collected with the [Net](https://fishies.lol/wiki/mechanics/net), but it pays nothing. Your tutorial fish and [legendary fish](https://fishies.lol/wiki/mechanics/legendary) can never be lost this way.

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In the game: https://fishies.lol/wiki/mechanics/feeding · Fishies 0.8.3

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